STATEMENT OF INTENT
For my exam, I have chosen the theme of concealment. When looking through the questions, this theme stood out to me from the rest and many ideas came to mind. I am excited to proceed with this theme as I believe it has much scope in the ways in which one can interpret the theme. The definition of concealment is; the action of hiding something or prevent it from being known. I aim to create outcomes based on the definition and produce concepts of my own, a key objective of mine is to show how we hide our true selves, emotions and feelings from society. This can be reflected through many ways, a few ideas of mine are through identity and makeup. I further aim to showcase my creativity and my ability to create high quality of outcomes with unique concepts, to ensure I can achieve the best grades possible.
Firstly, I will research the photographers given in the exam paper to see what styles have been achieved through the concept of concealment. From this point, I will then start to understand the different styles and start doing research of my own to conduct a mood board. I hope to have an idea of what approach I would like to take at this point in time and start to develop my own concepts.
There was a range of themes to choose from but as previously stated, concealment was the most distinctive to me. Although I did not originally decide this theme, I am now content on proceeding with this theme. Beforehand, I had three other themes besides concealment that I liked and was unsure to pick from; manipulating reality, moments in time and crowds. How I landed on the theme of concealment was a process of elimination and I had to deeply think about which theme I could go further with. I originally was leaning towards manipulating reality but most of the development for this theme is through Photoshop. Although I have greatly improved my Photoshop skills, mainly through my landscape project, I am wary of coming out with similar outcomes as before. I wanted to do something unique to my other outcomes that were heavily reliant on the use of Photoshop to refine and develop them. I then had to choose from moments in time, crowds and concealment. Moments in time and crowds are similar concepts as they both require capturing candid movement, that is not planned or set up like standard photo shoots. This would have been difficult for me because it would have required me to do a lot of extra work outside of school and it would have also been hard for me to progress with the theme generally. This is how I decided to choose the theme of concealment, I believe the other themes are limiting and I cannot go on to advance them.
To show progress I will display the development of my ideas. I will start by analysing photographers to show that I have been exposed to different concepts, I will then use them as the basis of my work. Furthermore, I will start to mold the concepts of the photographers I have analysed, alongside my own ideas. This will definitely help show progression as I have a vast range of ideas running through my mind already, this will surely help thrust my work in the right direction, as I aspire to portray individualism.
Due to the fact I have multiple ideas in mind already, I have already begun to think about what techniques I can possibly use. The most predominant technique I wish to use is the idea of ripping and rearranging my photograph by hand to achieve a distorted, concealing look. This can probably also be achieved through Photoshop but I wish to do it by hand as it will show the scope in my creativity and range in the use of techniques. Another technique that I have thought is to physically cover the model or place tape on the camera lens to conceal a section of the model’s faces. This is a very well known technique I was aware of before the exam and I wish to further proceed with the idea if suitable to my ideas. Burning certain parts like the eyes, lips etc of the printed version of the photograph is also an interesting concept that I may go ahead with if possible. However, it does not stand out particularly as the other techniques as I believe this technique only fits a certain aesthetic.
I have exactly 14 weeks to complete this entire project. To help me stay on track I am following a week by week schedule. In the first week, I aim to create a mood board and coggle spider diagram to help map out my ideas. In the following weeks after I intend to conduct copious amounts of artist research and use this for inspiration for when I plan to create my first shoot plan. I will then apply my research when taking photographs and using my photo shoot plans to guide me. After the next half-term holidays I will have 5 weeks to either manually or digitally manipulate and develop my photographs until the final exam.
To show progression in my work I will screenshot my Photoshop journey to show what tools I have used, but this is also helpful as I can see where I have made mistakes and what tools I am weak at using so I can improve my skills. Screen-shotting my Photoshop journey will also help me plan more wisely for my next shoot as I can see my strengths and weaknesses in my previous work. I can also work on my strengths and weaknesses through advice given to me from my teachers and peers through assessments. I will also create galleries to help create a clear layout of my work and when they are grouped I am able to see which of my outcomes are most relevant to the theme. I will also research an artist other than the ones that are given in the exam question to one, increase my scope in ideas and secondly use it as inspiration. All of these elements will definitely help me improve my shoots as I am clearly able to view my previous work in a structured format. At the end, I will also write up a final evaluation reflecting on the project. When I create a final piece it will be the literal embodiment of my personal response, thus showing progress.
Coggle Mindmap
Rosanna Jones
Content & Composition
The structure of this image is quite unique as it has an abstract aesthetic. However, the image also has an element of realism as the main subject of the image is a human face being shaped by a pair of hands. This further helps emphasise the paint brush like strokes that have covered the entire image. The colours of the paint are all pastel colours, ranging from pastel pinks/peaches to purples/blues and there is also a hint of green. It seems that a photograph has been taken of the models face and the hands pulling her face creating a disfigured look. I believe that photographer, Rosanna Jones, has then printed the image onto a canvas and has worked on the canvas to create this layered look by adding paints and also bleaching it. My eyes are instantly attracted onto the face and hands as there are no other components in the image that are displayed. This makes the viewer focus only to the face which we can see is clearly being disfigured by the hands. It is a very interesting piece to look at it is unusual to see portraits, especially female portraits to have such a distorted look. This challenges the norms of portrait photography by creating such a distinctive look. The eye line is on a sweet spot which makes you further look deeper into the image, you can see the eyes are quite darker than the rest of the image, thus creating a contrast. The lighting for this image is unclear as it has been heavily altered by being bleached and painted so much, to the point where the image no longer like it was photograph in the first place. The image just looks like a painting