For my FMP I chose to showcase, in an artistic format, the five stages of grief. My aim throughout this project was to bring attention to grief, as it is something that everyone will experience within their lifetime, that I believe, society largely disregards. In an extreme work and economy-oriented society, subjects like grief are heavily neglected and pushed aside. Despite this issue being a universal experience, I believe that workplaces fail to give people adequate amounts of time to healthily process the loss of family and friends.
When coming up with my idea, I decided that I would create a single piece for each stage, so that I could have each image exist on their own or within the set of five. I chose to use an art mannequin as a representation of the person mourning as it leaves a basic and blank reference model of a person that the audience can reflect themselves onto, this then results in making the entire project more relatable.
As well as this, I also took into consideration how complicated I made each piece, as my intention was to leave each image slightly simplistic or ambiguous, so that the viewer may make their own interpretation from the sequence of photos.
During researching different photographers and artists, I found considerable amounts of inspiration for my images. For example, two of the people that inspired me the most throughout my project were Elicia Edijanto and Alex Da Corte. Elicia Edijanto explores themes of loneliness and isolation using black and white watercolour. Edijanto’s pieces are very simplistic, but the viewer can draw a wide variety of meanings from each painting, and this is something that inspired the minimalism of my images.
On the other hand, Alex Da Corte mostly works with creating sets and physical experiences, which is something that inspired my idea to build a stage, to support the idea of my final images being a narrative. Completing this project has allowed me to explore my creativity, while using artistic symbolism to discuss a serious topic, which is something I would like to express more when I progress onto university.
For my FMP, I decided to create photographs that are related to song lyrics. The main reason I chose this theme was to show the personal importance of music. All the artists I chose have helped me overcome hard times within my life through their lyrics, especially during lockdown. I also wanted to incorporate graphic design to draw in the connection between the words and images.
The song lyrics allowed me to be more experimental and explore more unfamiliar aspects within my photography. I believe every song lyric ever made has a different meaning depending on who you have a conversation with, which is the sincere beauty of music; I wanted each viewer to experience and feel something different with each piece.
This truly tested my ability to capture the emotions in my photography and I really enjoyed the challenge that has been presented to me throughout the project. I had to adapt to new aesthetics, new equipment, and new edits for each image, all in an attempt to capture the meaning and feeling that the song lyrics intend to evoke.
My FMP is a collection of images I shot on the theme of growth, I wanted this to be my final project as I feel I’ve not only grown as a person in the last couple of years but very much grown as a photographer in terms of skill and preferred styles/ aesthetics in my work.
My main aim behind this project was to really explore how people form emotional attachments to places, how they can act as triggers and how well you get to know a person through a series of images.
My inspiration for this project was mainly inspired by Geloy Conception and his work for Vogue titled “Things you wanted to say but never did’’. The editing of the image to leave only a silhouette is something that really captivated me and is something I decided to put into this work. I did this because I think removing the subject of your image is a very bold thing to do; I also decided on this style of work as I don’t usually heavily edit my work in this way and wanted to explore something new.
For my FMP, I wanted to create pieces which looked like they were created on a professional level. Bringing out as much detail and making the item as attractive as I could. Exploration was key to this as colours, backdrops, focal length, and aperture all change the appearance of the items that I photographed.
I felt that it was important to stick to tech as well, that way I could keep some consistency between my shots. It is also because everything important now seems to revolve around tech, so it’s important to keep with the times.
With my final project, like most others, I wanted to raise feminist issues within my images. Although aesthetically pleasing photographs are enjoyable, often based on their superficial beauty, I aim to create photographs with meaning behind them. From the title, I have created contemporary art-based photographs.
In the image with Megan, I wanted to convey the censorship of the female chest compared to that of a male. To explore irony, I intentionally censored a woman’s nipples, replacing them with a man’s to show how differently they are “viewed” in society.
In the image with Mia, I created a narrative, of a woman who has run away or escaped her wedding to show that people are whole on their own. That they do not require another person to be seen as complete. I wanted to show people as art in their own right.
In the image with Caitlin, I wanted to showcase how women in particular can embrace their natural bodies, without it being sexualised.
In the image with Emily, I collated all my ideas within the theme of “Don’t Touch the Art” because I wanted to show a person as a natural art form. I really wanted to display my love for the individuality of people.
The final image idea was created very late into the project and is related to the recent American law system trying to dictate what women do with their bodies. This photograph is in protest of that, I wanted to use this last photograph to really empower female identity.
A main inspiration for this series is Ellen Von Unworth and how she captures women, through a female gaze, as opposed to viewing them as objects to consume. Unworth’s photographs are full of empowerment, which she evokes within the audience seamlessly.
This project has aided me in my preparation for university and extended my photographic study to a new style. I want my work to be empowering and expressive, but also allow people to understand me more as a photographer, and as a person.
Automotive photography is all about showing the subject’s variation and character through the image, by visiting numerous car shows I was able to piece together a project that displays both my passion and skill.
Ranging from Bicester all the way to Donnington, I have travelled the country finding people who share my passion and so I am able to show my love to fellow students, staff, friends and family. After many long, hard and stressful months of planning, booking, organising, shooting, editing, uploading and printing, this is my Final Major Project.
Curious New World performed by Level 4 Professional Diploma in Performance
This exciting project is based upon ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ adapted by the students of the Level 4 Professional Diploma in Performance. Using the original play as a starting point, the students created a hybrid fusion of live stage and pre-recorded elements. As Covid struck again, the students adapted magnificently to stage scenes using only Zoom and Teams group video chat and integrate them seamlessly into live shot scenes once we were back in college. Filming took place in our new TV studios at Inspired in Brierley Hill, where we managed to bring Christopher’s unique perspective of the world to life with dramatic results. Everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the process and we are all extremely proud of the result.
Cast
Robert Hollington – Christopher
Bethany Hall – Siobhan
Chloe Di Franco – Mrs. Alexander, multiple characters
My New Year’s Resolution for 2020 was to try and expand my photography skills and photograph more people. With covid, lockdowns and social distancing, it was difficult to meet and photograph people, so I spent my time researching and planning photo shoots.
Unfortunately, lockdowns went on for longer than I could have ever imagined, so I took to another passion, which is macro photography.
This set of images is a mixture of skills I developed for taking macro and portrait photographs, which I have managed to achieve in and around lockdowns.
For this project I decided to go down the route of still life and focus on macro photography. I decided on this as I believe that there is beauty in everything, and we don’t always see these details. With our busy, hectic lifestyles we don’t have the time to stop, look and admire the true beauty of an object, so my aim was to try and capture this through my photography.
I began by looking at flowers and thought about going down a more commercial style of photography. I found it quite hard to photograph the flowers as there was either an imperfection with the flower or it just wasn’t quite ‘perfect’. Because of this I had to take into consideration the positioning of the flower, what part I would focus on and the lighting I used. I experimented with using both colour and black and white to see what effect it would have on the final image. I found that by using Black and white it removes the distraction of colour and helps you to focus on the shapes and patterns of the petals.
From flowers I then moved onto pencil crayons, again with a more commercial feel to the images. With pencils I found that I could be more creative in the way I arranged them on a surface and the angles at which I shot them from. As I was using branded crayons in my shot, I had to think about the placing of them so that in one of the shots you could see the name. This would then allow for the photos to be used for advertising purposes.
After experimenting with the commercial side of macro photography I tried going for a more artistic approach and tried photographing oil on water. This technique again allowed me to be more creative with the shot and produce an abstract effect. By simply placing a different image under the Perspex dish, I was getting a different result each time and an image that looked layered.
My original plan was to photograph still life objects to make them appear commissioned and then utilise them in commercials because this was such a broad topic, I began by looking at glass objects. Despite the fact that I began with perfume, I rapidly moved on to other things. My work with glass drink bottles has evolved as a result of this. I was able to exert more control such as composition, and lighting techniques as a result of this. Above aesthetic designs, the ability to light through the clear bottle is the most important.
This allowed me to have more control over artistic designs, the ability to see through the clear bottles and liquid is the most important feature. I was trying to figure out how professional photographers made product photos, I researched photographers which prompted me to try things I’d never tried before. Spraying liquid on products is an example. These items are intended to be used in magazines and blogs. I wanted my photographs to reflect this beauty that can be seen in the backgrounds. I was trying to understand how professional photographers created their product shots, which led me to experimenting with ways I never thought work such as spraying liquid on products. These objects are meant to be perfection and I wanted this to show in my images.
I produced a concept board for the Freddy Krueger makeup using photographs of the original makeup from the film as well as photographs of people who have cosplayed the appearance. I made a mental note of where the sunken regions were and used red eyeshadow to map them out on the models face. I used Aertex, which comes in two jars, one labelled part A and the other labelled part B. These have to be combined in equal parts. To activate the makeup, they had to be blended in equal parts. I applied the makeup with a spatula and sculpted it around the appropriate regions. I used a cream colour wheel to colour the appearance and painted the model’s hair to disguise the few portions that were visible. The costume is now complete. This all was about how I create the makeup and scene. I choose a horror and fashion theme for this project.
