REVIEW OF IDEAS

My starting point for my exam was looking at fake papparazzi and looking at Ron Gallela's work as a massive inspiration. At first I thought it was a good starting point and related quite well to the theme however I didn't find it very interesting and I began to think of different ideas which were a bit more exciting. 

I then began to do some work in the style of Sally Mann. I really liked how contraversial her photographs were and how they sparked different feelings and emotions on the viewer. I took some images of my younger brother and painted his face to look like bruises. This worked really well and I was pleased with the outcome, however I was short on children to photograph and thought they would become quite repetitive if I kept taking photographs of my little brother. 

Since then my ideas have changed due to an image I saw on getty images which had a fingerprint covering a mans face. This then sparked different ideas such as hidden identity, obscuring faces etc. I then thought of criminals because of the photograph and began to really like that area for doing some photography so I looked at a photograph called Melanie Pullen, who did high fashion crime scenes. Although I was going for something less glamourous the basic premise about how she composed her models and how she made it look like a crime scene which I found inspiring for my final piece.

I found that one of my most successful experiments was with the paper cutting. Both in the dark room and outside. This is one example I did in the dark room, were I cut different stripes of photographic paper and stuck it down on another piece of paper. This worked very well in giving the image more texture and also different levels.

This is another variation of the top image. After achieve the desired look, I went on top of it with more digital cut-outs. This helped to add colour to the photograph and give it a more 'modern' look. I also liked the idea that I can always scan in an image I've done in the darkroom and alter it digitally using photoshop.

An experiment which didn't work as well was the solarisation. It is quite difficult to get the perfect image. I think it didn't work as well because I wasn't as careful as I should have been. When I was moving from my workstation to the stop I was moving too quickly and the water began to run across the the paper creating this effect.

An experiment which I would like to develop further is the paper cutting and the mixing of different medias. I may get my darkroom experiments, scan them in and experiment using Photoshop and programs like that.

At the beginning I mainly looked at Sally Mann and Ron Gallela  However as of recent, I have been looking at Nina Chakrabrati and and the detail that she does on the faces of her photographs. This type of work is something that I may experiment with for my final outcome.