Project #5 Part 1

Image 1(Constructed Identity):
Composition: I wanted the image to capture as many photographs around my face as possible. I was not sure as to what to have as the background. I wanted the audience to be able to see the pictures around my face clearly but still able to see my eyes and be able to tell it is me in the image.
Concept: The whole idea behind this image is finding out who i am by looking at who i have grown up with as a way to tell something about my personality and my life. I thought it would be interesting to have people try to figure out who i am by looking at who i know.
Method: I took a mask that i have and i attached many photos of my friends and family. I think Took a picture of myself that included some of my body and then none at all. The ones of my head you only can see my eyes. Which some people say that you can see into a persons soul through their eyes.
 Motivations: I wanted people to try and figure out the persons identity/personality by looking at everyone that is in their life.
Context: I think that this probably relates to many other artists and ways of creating identity.

Image 2 (constructed identity 2):
Composition: I wanted to create many aspects of an individuals personality. Originally i wanted the Main image to come through all the small ones but i was unable to have it look i wanted it to.
Concept: My image is about capturing many facial expressions and bringing them together in order to try and give a look at my personality or the many expressions that humans give.
Method: I took multiple images of me making many different faces and i put them over top a bigger picture. I was wanting the bigger picture to come through but it did not work how i wanted it to so i left it so that all the smaller pictures are on the top. So now this image is called hidden Identity.
Motivations: I wanted to capture the facial expressions that humans tend to make every day.
Context: This are essentially many self portraits put together in order to create an identity from them all. Many artists take pictures similar to these.

Image 3 (narrative):
Composition: I wanted the image to be a shadow of the person so that there would be no detail of them. That way all you would see is the transition of what the person would be doing. I wanted to include the background because to me it added to more to the narrative.
Concept: I wanted to created a narrative using as little detail as possible within the person them self. I wanted the focus to be more on the glass because that is the object that was moving within the frame.
Method: I had to position the lights at a specific spot behind me in order to get the shadow effect i was looking for. I also positioned the glass in a specific spot so that the light would hit it in just a specific way.
Motivations: My goal was to create a narrative through a shadow. I think that i succeed in the way that i wanted to even though the lighting is not quite what i wanted but it was the best that i could do.
Context: I do not know if this relates to any other artists.

Image 4 (miniature):
Composition: I wanted to be able to create a mouth from an orange and in order to tell that it was an orange. I originally wanted the orange to be on its own but it seemed not to work the way i wanted:
Concept: I wanted to create a double of the mouth on the orange so that the orange could kind of become a person in a way. It really was only noticeable when it was next to my mouth.
Method: I carved the orange a mouth or what looked  like a mouth and then i took pictures of it with many different angles and with different backgrounds but it only seemed to work next to mouth.
Motivations: I thought that it would be interesting to create a mouth in an orange. It made me laugh the whole time i did it.
Context: I do not think this falls into any photographers way of doing things or actually doing things.

Blog #24

A. Pick two images from any of the “constructed reality” photographers presented in class or linked on the assignment sheet. Describe how you could recreate these two images on a “smaller scale”. 

I think that it would be interesting to create both of these images through toys. It would make them that more interesting. They would be a constructed reality within a constructed reality. It would be more difficult to do but it should be possible one way or the other.

B. Describe your plans for your self-proposed final project (if the plan is the same as before, paste it here again and give a bit more detail). During the final critique for Assignment #5, you will discuss/present these ideas to the class. 

I am planning to use my smile face mug that i used in my one portrait image to do a series of them. This time instead of creating a background that would be the same for everyone, i want to capture them in there natural environment with the mug. I thing it is going to be interesting to see there eye expressions since we will not be able to see their mouth expressions. I have not decided on how many pictures i want to print or take for the final project but i know i want it to be at least 20 of them. We will see how many i can get. I also have not decided how i am going to display them. 

Project #5

Blog #23

1. In what ways do you “construct” your identity? In what ways do you “perform” in your daily life?

 Whenever people pose i feel like they are constructing their reality. It is the same things pretty much for performing in your daily life. Some people put on certain acts for different people.

2. Describe some ways in which your personal culture and social environments are “constructed”.

 My personal culture is somewhat constructed because it is influenced by my parents. I love things from the 70s and my parents grew up during this time. I mean if you think about it, it seems as though everything in out lives is somewhat constructed in one one or another.

 3. Describe some ways in which your physical environment/space is “constructed”.

 My physical space could be considered constructed because some people might look at my room and think that it is something that is constructed for the benefit for other people even though it is for my own benefit.

4. In your daily life, what would you consider to be “real” and what would you consider to be “constructed/fabricated”?

I dont know for sure what i would consider real or constructed. I think that most of what is in my world is real and not constructed but i am sure that it would change depending on who was looking at my world. 

5. Describe a narrative tableaux that you might create to be captured by a photograph. A narrative tableaux can be defined as “Several human actors play out scenes from everyday life, history, myth or the fantasy of the direction artist” ( Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged Photography Edited by Michael Kohler , 34).

I feel like it would be interesting to try and create a fight between too people. The first image would show them perfectly fine. but then they would get up set and things would change and their facial expressions in each of the images could show what they are feeling which in turn could possible explain what is happening. 

6. Describe an idea for a photograph that includes a miniature stage or still life. A description of such an image is “The tableaux reconstructs events as in the narrative tableaux, but in miniaturized format, using dolls and other toy objects” (Kohler, 34). 

I thought about creating a miniature stage with my nieces dolls. I would create an everyday situation with the dolls but it would be with this perfect body images that everyone typically sees.

Anne Zahalka work references Jan van Eyck

Gregory Crewdson

 He was born in 1962 in New York. where he continues to live and work.
 When he was ten his father, a psychoanalyst, took him to see a Diane Arbus exhibition at MoMA. Her work as well as his seems interesting. The thing i like about his work is that you sometimes have to take a second look at it in order to get everything out of the picture that you might not get if you only looked at it once.

"Gregory Crewdson works within a photographic tradition that combines the documentary style of William Eggleston and Walker Evans with the dream-like vision of filmmakers such as Stephen Spielberg and David Lynch. Crewdson’s method is equally filmic, building elaborate sets to take pictures of extraordinary detail and narrative portent."

 

Anne Zahalka
Marriage of Convenience (Graham Budgett and Jane Mulfinger/ artists), 1987
Ilfochrome print
80 × 80cm
Her pieces seem to have a lot more put into them then meets the eye.

Ilfochrome (formerly known as Cibachrome) is a dye destruction positive-to-positive photographic process used for the reproduction of slides on photographic paper. The prints are made on a dimensionally stable polyester base, essentially a plastic base opposed to traditional paper base. Since it uses azo dyes on a polyester base, the print will not fade, discolor, or deteriorate for a long time. Characteristics of Ilfochrome prints are image clarity, color purity, as well as being an archival process able to produce critical accuracy to the original slide.

"Zahalka’s portraits reveal more than just the individual – with an ironic and critical voice the images cleverly subvert stereotypes while capturing subcultures and a spirit of the times with acute observation."


 “Zahalka likes to explore the nature of image making and examine what a portrait reveals about a person and how the medium of photography can bend and reject the truth,” Frances Thomson explained.

 "Tampering with truth in representation, blurring the boundary between reality and fiction, Zahalka uses a variety of photomedia techniques."