Elizabeth Chandler
University Of Salford
BA(HONS) Photography - Level 5
International Markets And Contexts
Self Evaluation - ‘The Many States Of Self’
Upon completion of the International Markets and Contexts module I wish to evaluate my my work in terms of it’s strength, appropriateness and overall impact, as well as commenting on my research and development throughout.
I have produced a body of work, consisting of 6 final images as required in the module brief.
The module involved much group work which required compromise in order to establish a festival location and theme that was equally as inspiring to each member of the group, as well as being appropriate for suiting each of our photographic interests. We worked productively as a group, making important decisions early on. This allowed all members much time for experimentation, research and development which I feel is evident in the body of work I have produced.
Initially I expressed an interest in human emotions as this was my interpretation of our chosen theme, ‘the endless cycle’.
In the first week of developing ideas, I began by experimenting with old photographs much like my chosen artist (Natasha Caruana).
Using photoshop I obscured photographs to represent human emotions.
Looking at images and thinking of ways to represent feelings soon developed into an interest in my own emotions and how best to portray them in photographic form. I found various scientific and psychological studies online, which looked at the relationships between sleep and emotion, some concluding that sleep is the most emotional human state and linking such ideas to dreams and nightmares.
Others state sleep is the only emotionless human state.
And some counter balance the arguments, concluding that sleep is the most emotional state, however the only state where such emotions aren’t visible.
This stimulated ideas on how to photographically depict human emotion and I soon found myself interested in the ways in which we understand one an others feelings via an exchange of physical expressions.
“The Many States Of Self” is a photographic study as much as a series of alternative portraits. The work attempts to investigate the conventional taught physical signs we learn to associate with a given emotion.
I was interested in looking at the ways humans understand each others feelings and wanted to explore what happened when these expressions were removed. Was it possible for a human to convey a specific feeling without them?
I looked at the work of Luke Stephenson. And his series ‘spectacle wearing folk’, these images inspired the washed out tonality and composition of my images.
I feel the composition does to my images exactly as it does in Stephenson’s series, only the main focus is the expression as oppose to the glasses.
The overall aesthetic I chose for my final images was purposely done to induce a dream like feeling and ensure the main focus of the images was the facial expressions and or lack of them. Additionally I felt the way I utilise the space in the frame creates a sense of spontaneity, almost mimicking some traits we associate with the snapshot aesthetic, I feel this is an interesting combination as the images are evidently posed yet still posses some of those elements which increase a sense of authenticity.
I found an article online which revealed that 80% of people claimed they dreamt in colour, whist the remaining percentage claimed to only ever dream in black and white, however in an experiment where sleepers were woken mid sleep and asked to select colours from a chart, soft pastel colours were most frequently chosen, this reinforced the appropriateness of my editing choice.
The portraits are paired with images of myself sleeping which I captured using a remote shutter release set to take a 2 photographs every 10 minutes whilst I slept. This required much experimentation and I frequently changed my bedding to observe the impact of the bedding’s colour on the images.
I played around with the positioning of my camera and found that the pictures which make the viewer feel almost as though they are imposing or stalking from a distance work best.
I also included some of the images which were captured in the morning as I slept in, I feel these reflect my student lifestyle and give the body of work more context. (For example, in one image I am wearing a wrist band from a night club)
After much experimentation I found both the portraits and the images of me sleeping worked best with the absence of clothing, as the colours and styles of my attire seemed to distract from the expressions and altered the mood of the images too much.
I also experimented with long exposures whilst I slept, then using photoshop to layer them on top of each other, although I feel these images have potential for future development I felt they were swaying away from my initial interest in the emotion and it’s relationship to sleep.
In terms of exhibiting these images, I would display my prints relatively small directly on top of one another in a vertical line. My reasoning for the small size prints is that the images, particularly ones of me sleeping are quite intimate so the small print size would encourage viewers to get closer and perhaps educe a feeling of discomfort.
Frames and mounts would be minimal to reinforce the theme of endless cycle and recycling. The wall would be white as to make the images almost appear to fade away into the interior of the room, mimicking the irrational sensations of dreams.
I have also captured some sound clips of me sleeping which include texts and notifications coming through on my mobile phone as well as other ambient sounds. I feel these sounds give information and more substance to the images, I would like these sounds to be played alongside the images through headsets so that no other sounds in the room interfered. (unfortunately I have no cable which allows me to transport these clips to the computer, however hypothetically speaking in terms of an exhibition the above explains my intentions)
Monday 11 March 2013
500 word critique - my series
Elizabeth Chandler
University Of Salford
BA(HONS) Photography - Level 5
International Markets And Contexts
Critique of the series I have produced
Series title - The Many States Of Self
‘The Many States Of Self’, is a photographic project by Elizabeth Chandler. The series consists of 6 individual images each compromising two portraits. (12 images in total)
The project translates as an exploration into human emotions and their visual signs, attempting to establish the physical taught expressions we learn to associate with feelings and comparing these physical offerings with the vacant expression humans posses when asleep.
The work offers an understanding of how we communicate emotions and perceive others feelings through the exchange of a physical expression and promotes the photographers interest in human behavior whilst stimulating questions regarding our own understanding.
The Many States Of Self is a project which undoubtably encourages us to think about our own expressions and how they are translated and perceived by others.
The work is backed up by various psychological and scientific studies which investigate the relationships between sleep and emotion, each concluding different results. Chandler refers to research which suggests 80% of people claim to dream in colour and utilises findings from a scientific experiment in which sleepers were woken and asked to select colours from a chart. The results being that soft pastel colours were most frequently selected. This knowledge helps justify and understand the thought process behind the overall aethstetic Chandler chose for her series.
The images feel almost dream like, which is appropriate considering half of the images feature the subject asleep. Interestingly, the dreamy appearance is surprisingly fitting and works well on the portraits too. Not only does this cross over of effect help the two images flow together whilst remaining individual images, but it also induces a feeling of memory and reflection from the perspective of the subject.
The sleep portraits were captured using a remote trigger, which Chandler admits required much experimentation.
In both the portraits and sleep photographs the subject appears nude which is interesting and encourages us to consider the relevance. There is much association with colour and emotion, so perhaps clothing would have dominated too much of the frame. When viewing the work, it is possible to feel almost as though we are invading the subjects privacy, although they have been offered to us.
The work is somewhat captivating in the sense that it pauses moments which occur daily in each of our lives, yet rarely become a spectacle.
Witnessing someone asleep is always a slightly surreal experience, this hypnagogic sensation is heightened when we don’t know the subject of who’s private time we have become bystander by viewing the work.
The surreality is another element which reinforces the sleep topic as we look into the photographs.
The facial expressions appear almost isolated within the frame, with other details requiring a significantly longer time to be taken in. The composition of the images is absorbing and brings an element of spontaneity to the work, this is particularly effective considering the portraits are presumably set up and ensures the emotional displays seem authentic.
University Of Salford
BA(HONS) Photography - Level 5
International Markets And Contexts
Critique of the series I have produced
Series title - The Many States Of Self
‘The Many States Of Self’, is a photographic project by Elizabeth Chandler. The series consists of 6 individual images each compromising two portraits. (12 images in total)
The project translates as an exploration into human emotions and their visual signs, attempting to establish the physical taught expressions we learn to associate with feelings and comparing these physical offerings with the vacant expression humans posses when asleep.
The work offers an understanding of how we communicate emotions and perceive others feelings through the exchange of a physical expression and promotes the photographers interest in human behavior whilst stimulating questions regarding our own understanding.
The Many States Of Self is a project which undoubtably encourages us to think about our own expressions and how they are translated and perceived by others.
The work is backed up by various psychological and scientific studies which investigate the relationships between sleep and emotion, each concluding different results. Chandler refers to research which suggests 80% of people claim to dream in colour and utilises findings from a scientific experiment in which sleepers were woken and asked to select colours from a chart. The results being that soft pastel colours were most frequently selected. This knowledge helps justify and understand the thought process behind the overall aethstetic Chandler chose for her series.
The images feel almost dream like, which is appropriate considering half of the images feature the subject asleep. Interestingly, the dreamy appearance is surprisingly fitting and works well on the portraits too. Not only does this cross over of effect help the two images flow together whilst remaining individual images, but it also induces a feeling of memory and reflection from the perspective of the subject.
The sleep portraits were captured using a remote trigger, which Chandler admits required much experimentation.
In both the portraits and sleep photographs the subject appears nude which is interesting and encourages us to consider the relevance. There is much association with colour and emotion, so perhaps clothing would have dominated too much of the frame. When viewing the work, it is possible to feel almost as though we are invading the subjects privacy, although they have been offered to us.
The work is somewhat captivating in the sense that it pauses moments which occur daily in each of our lives, yet rarely become a spectacle.
Witnessing someone asleep is always a slightly surreal experience, this hypnagogic sensation is heightened when we don’t know the subject of who’s private time we have become bystander by viewing the work.
The surreality is another element which reinforces the sleep topic as we look into the photographs.
The facial expressions appear almost isolated within the frame, with other details requiring a significantly longer time to be taken in. The composition of the images is absorbing and brings an element of spontaneity to the work, this is particularly effective considering the portraits are presumably set up and ensures the emotional displays seem authentic.
Friday 8 March 2013
Poster and exhibition space
I have come up with a poster that i would circulate as an exhibiting artist to promote my work at the festival. There would also be the flyers and posters from the festival but this would be my way of reaching my audience for my work and making people aware that I was part of a large event
using photoshop and an image of an exhibition space i have made a moc up illustrating the kind of look i would go for when displaying my work.
Obviously scale ect isn't accurate and i would actually choose to have them much smaller. this is for explanatory purposes only
As you can see from the images showing the stages of how i created this moc up in photoshop i found an image and lightened the wall before placing my images.
I then used the shape tool and the transform tool to make a bench, applied textures and drop shadows to make it look more realistic then included the headphones which would be wireless and play the sounds of my sleeping on a loop.
using photoshop and an image of an exhibition space i have made a moc up illustrating the kind of look i would go for when displaying my work.
Obviously scale ect isn't accurate and i would actually choose to have them much smaller. this is for explanatory purposes only
I then used the shape tool and the transform tool to make a bench, applied textures and drop shadows to make it look more realistic then included the headphones which would be wireless and play the sounds of my sleeping on a loop.
grid layout
decided to experiment with a grid format of the portraits that could be used in the exhibition and or for promotional purposes. I decided this should include only the slef portraits so that if seen before the body of work still has some mystery.
Wednesday 6 March 2013
final 6 images
In terms of selecting my final 6, I asked family members and peers to select some of the images - in particuliar the self portraits which they felt displayed a true representation of myself and some of my expressions they feel are genuine to my own physical displays. Although I used my own photographic knowledge to select the ones i felt were strongest the input did help influence my choice and i feel i have the 6 best, more accurate and most effective yet varied images.
Monday 4 March 2013
explanation to my project to date
I have chosen Natasha Caruana as the photographer who I feel I would select to exhibit along side my own work under our chosen theme ‘ The Endless Cycle’.
There are many reasons for this;
the main one being that upon viewing her projects I feel there is a strong cyclic theme of love, hate, betrayal and loneliness.
Her three main projects available to us are titled:
‘Portraits of the other women’
‘Married men’
Fairytale for sale’
I would describe Caruana as a photographer not afraid to use her camera to confront difficult subjects;
embedded in her projects is suggestions of the impact of love and lust on women’s emotions.
On one level her work can be seen as a typology of adulterers, but that only scratches the surface.
Deeper meanings in her work expose a complex investigation into the boundaries and repetition of human emotion.
A perfect example of an endless cycle.
I feel human emotion is the epitome of a true endless cycle and it exists in each and every one of us, you will see how this is embedded in the work I have produced.
Caruana creates her work combining found images, snapshots and staged pictures.
Her projects come together to compromise three challenging bodies of work all dealing with similar issues.
Fairytale for Sale consists of photographs taken from online adverts of brides wearing redundant wedding dresses.
Their faces have been scratched out or obscured, and the dresses, symbols of an idealized view of western life, are reduced to commodities.
The Other Woman is a more conventional photographic project.
The pictures portray women who have experienced affairs with married men and the project was inspired by Caruana’s own personal experience.
Her other series ‘The Maried Men’ is the photographic part of her work which depict some of the 80 dates she went on with married men, each met on internet dating sites.
The identities of the men aren’t revealed, and the photographs captured clandestinely and adhere to the snapshot aesthetic.
The work questions the motives of the men.
More interestingly for me, it also questions Caruanas motives.
My work is an exploration of the cycles of human emotion, and an attempt at studying the conventional taught physical signs we learn to associate with a given emotion.
I was interested in looking at the ways we understand each other’s feelings by an exchange of a physical expression.
I found various scientific and psychological studies online, which look at the relationships between sleep and emotion, some concluding that sleep is the most emotional human state and linking such ideas to dreams and nightmares.
Others state sleep is the only emotionless human state.
And some argue sleep is the most emotional state, however the only state where such emotions aren’t visible.
I looked at the work of Luke Stephenson. And his series ‘spectacle wearing folk’, these images inspired the washed out tonality and composition of my images.
The overall aesthetic I chose for my final images was purposely done to induce a dream like feeling and ensure the main focus of the images was the facial expressions and or lack of them. I found an article online which revealed that 80% of people claimed they dreamt in colour, whist the remaining percentage claimed to only ever dream in black and white, however in an experiment where sleepers were woken mid sleep and asked to select colours from a chart, soft pastel colours were most frequently chosen, this reinforced the appropriateness of my editing choice.
My portraits are paired with images of myself sleeping which I captured using a remote shutter release set to take a 2 photographs every 10 minutes whilst I slept.
After much experimentation I found both the portraits and the images of me sleeping worked best with the absence of clothing, as the colours and styles of my attire seemed to distract from the expressions and altered the mood of the images.
In terms of exhibiting these images, I would display my prints relatively small directly on top of one another in a vertical line. My reasoning for the small size prints is that the images, particularly ones of me sleeping are quite intimate so the small print size would encourage viewers to get closer and perhaps educe a feeling of discomfort.
Frames and mounts would be minimal to reinforce the theme of endless cycle and recycling. The wall would be white as to make the images almost appear to fade away into the interior of the room, mimicking the irrational sensations of dreams.
I have also captured some sound clips of me sleeping which include texts and notifications coming through on my mobile phone as well as other ambient sounds. I feel these sounds give information and more substance to the images, I would like these sounds to be played alongside the images through headsets so that no other sounds in the room interfered.
There are many reasons for this;
the main one being that upon viewing her projects I feel there is a strong cyclic theme of love, hate, betrayal and loneliness.
Her three main projects available to us are titled:
‘Portraits of the other women’
‘Married men’
Fairytale for sale’
I would describe Caruana as a photographer not afraid to use her camera to confront difficult subjects;
embedded in her projects is suggestions of the impact of love and lust on women’s emotions.
On one level her work can be seen as a typology of adulterers, but that only scratches the surface.
Deeper meanings in her work expose a complex investigation into the boundaries and repetition of human emotion.
A perfect example of an endless cycle.
I feel human emotion is the epitome of a true endless cycle and it exists in each and every one of us, you will see how this is embedded in the work I have produced.
Caruana creates her work combining found images, snapshots and staged pictures.
Her projects come together to compromise three challenging bodies of work all dealing with similar issues.
Fairytale for Sale consists of photographs taken from online adverts of brides wearing redundant wedding dresses.
Their faces have been scratched out or obscured, and the dresses, symbols of an idealized view of western life, are reduced to commodities.
The Other Woman is a more conventional photographic project.
The pictures portray women who have experienced affairs with married men and the project was inspired by Caruana’s own personal experience.
Her other series ‘The Maried Men’ is the photographic part of her work which depict some of the 80 dates she went on with married men, each met on internet dating sites.
The identities of the men aren’t revealed, and the photographs captured clandestinely and adhere to the snapshot aesthetic.
The work questions the motives of the men.
More interestingly for me, it also questions Caruanas motives.
My work is an exploration of the cycles of human emotion, and an attempt at studying the conventional taught physical signs we learn to associate with a given emotion.
I was interested in looking at the ways we understand each other’s feelings by an exchange of a physical expression.
I found various scientific and psychological studies online, which look at the relationships between sleep and emotion, some concluding that sleep is the most emotional human state and linking such ideas to dreams and nightmares.
Others state sleep is the only emotionless human state.
And some argue sleep is the most emotional state, however the only state where such emotions aren’t visible.
I looked at the work of Luke Stephenson. And his series ‘spectacle wearing folk’, these images inspired the washed out tonality and composition of my images.
The overall aesthetic I chose for my final images was purposely done to induce a dream like feeling and ensure the main focus of the images was the facial expressions and or lack of them. I found an article online which revealed that 80% of people claimed they dreamt in colour, whist the remaining percentage claimed to only ever dream in black and white, however in an experiment where sleepers were woken mid sleep and asked to select colours from a chart, soft pastel colours were most frequently chosen, this reinforced the appropriateness of my editing choice.
My portraits are paired with images of myself sleeping which I captured using a remote shutter release set to take a 2 photographs every 10 minutes whilst I slept.
After much experimentation I found both the portraits and the images of me sleeping worked best with the absence of clothing, as the colours and styles of my attire seemed to distract from the expressions and altered the mood of the images.
In terms of exhibiting these images, I would display my prints relatively small directly on top of one another in a vertical line. My reasoning for the small size prints is that the images, particularly ones of me sleeping are quite intimate so the small print size would encourage viewers to get closer and perhaps educe a feeling of discomfort.
Frames and mounts would be minimal to reinforce the theme of endless cycle and recycling. The wall would be white as to make the images almost appear to fade away into the interior of the room, mimicking the irrational sensations of dreams.
I have also captured some sound clips of me sleeping which include texts and notifications coming through on my mobile phone as well as other ambient sounds. I feel these sounds give information and more substance to the images, I would like these sounds to be played alongside the images through headsets so that no other sounds in the room interfered.
some more pairing experiments
Doing this has helped me realise that the images would be more effective if i put the original images together and re edited so that thee is a sense of continuity in the colours and tones of the pairs.
The way these are displayed in this post - in a vertical line directly on top of each other is the mode of display I would choose.
I would also have a white wall as to make the images almost appear to fade away into the interior of the room. This i think would mimic the irrational sensation of dreams.
Frmaes and mounts would be minimal as the rienforce the overal theme of the endles cycle and associations with recycling and eco friendly. I am going to suggest to the group that we could even consider this eco friendly idea in regards to the promotion of out festival, using recycled paper and a green colour scheme for flyers and posters ect.
Possibly making the posters into a promotional item which later serves and additional purpose, encouraging people to keep them - for example a book mark.
We can also consider funding and perhaps getting sponsorship from company's who also have an interest in recycling and being eco friendly ect.
More self portraits
this time i tried experimenting with some portraits where my face wasn't entirely visible as i feel i want to include one of my sleeping where my face is patrially covered by the quilt.
such poses reveal the emotions associated with hiding and so on.
I am yet to decide if i want to pair the images according to the emotions i feel they portray of if to purposely have some where the emotion on the portrait conflicts with the suggestion of the one where i am asleep.
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