The theme I have in mind is horror-styled portraiture; like mugshots you see typically for criminals or offenders in prison. The photographs after could be edited to look grainy or darker for the after-effect.
A reason why I have chosen this theme is due to both personal preference and the way that different kinds of portraiture paint’s a different ‘story’ in a sense. If you use darker lighting, the subject could look more ‘evil’ or scary, while lighter lighting could portray them as a good person.
My intentions for my project was to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding mental health. Many of us have or know someone who has struggled with a mental illness, but we still avoid the topic or shy away from the conversation. Through my images, I narrated feelings of anxiety and isolation as well as also showing images associated with seeking help. I wanted the images to be something that people can feel connected to, and like someone has visually shown how they’ve felt. I wanted people to know that they aren’t alone, and that their mental health matters.
My creative independent project title is Perspective. The project includes topics such as feminism, gender stereotypes, toxic masculinity, and LGBTQ+ community. Raising awareness about these topics is important in my eyes as it needs more recognition. I have included macro photography within my portraiture work as this is what I started with and it developed into my project. I want to raise awareness about these serious subjects. I want to show the negative stereotypes of some of these topics and show that we need to change our views on this and start looking for the positives.
My creative independent project is focused on fashion photography. In my work I have shown modern garments made by the fashion students and I am collaborating with them for my final 6 images. Also, the garments are based of environmental issues such as weather patterns, so I have tried to link them by taking some of my images outside. By the end of this project, I want to be able to achieve some creative photos that outline some environmental issues and showcase the fashion students work. I also want to be able to create a time lapse of photos to show the working stages.
For my creative independent project, I decided to work in a commercial context, choosing to promote analogue watches. Research shows that young people are not wearing wrist watches but rely on the phones that tell the time. It’s more commercial based than artistic. I used different products like shower gel and glass bottles to experiment with. I attempted action shots including dropping the shower gel into water and trying to capture the moment where it splashes. For the watches I mainly used a dark background and soft lighting. The metal of the watch reflects some light and gave a sharp edge to the product.
I decided to do this project to show how people suffer with mental health. I wanted to do this using a colourful approach rather than a dark, monotoned one, so I’ve achieved this by painting with light and using coloured gels over lights. By using a colourful approach, I hope it will catch more people’s attention and raise awareness of how mental health is often pushed off to one side. I am happy with the photos I have taken and I hope they convey the message that a lot more people go through mental health problems than you initially realise. Basically, what I’m trying to get across is this: Be kind to everyone because you never know what someone is going through.
“Are you a man or a mouse?” Three quarters of all suicides in the UK are men and it is the most prevalent death of men under 30. I feel that our modern post-industrialist era has perhaps affected men’s place in society, but despite this, stigma and pressures have been maintained. My images attempt to explore these issues and make you think, raising awareness and encouraging understanding in an aim to save lives and give people a voice after centuries of being silenced. Suicide statistics outnumber all war and crime statistics combined, so this is something we must address.
For this project I decided to focus on documentary style street photography with my subject of interest being graffiti and other similar street arts including murals, tags, slaps and paste-ups. I wanted to reveal to my audience that not all types of graffiti are specifically vandalism, because I think that if done well even graffiti types that are typically considered vandalism can make a plain building look more interesting. I like the look of graffiti however I know a lot of people only see it as vandalism. With my images I would like to challenge preconceptions and encourage debate around the topic of graffiti.
This project is based around commercial, still life photography. I decided to base my project on more commercial work as I am fascinated with how companies create advertisements in such unique and creative ways. I decided to venture into many different styles of commercial still life. I have experimented with taking photos of many different things such as alcohol, high-end consumables such as shower gel and even coffee. I also had the chance to take part in some extra work taking some images of Indian street food, which I have decided to add into my final 6 images. My final 6 images are going to show the different products I have chosen to advertise and how every product is showcased in different ways.
My final 6 consist of 3 food Images and 3 that have a concept of water.
