task 1b

Leeds
Recently Martin Parr took photos of many of Britain's major cities in  a project for the Guardian newspaper. This project also included several pictures Leeds - they were not in a narrative form, but constitutes of much of the city - from the prison, to shopping, to Opera North and the ballet at the The Grand. The project was to show the hidden parts of the cities to the public and to document some of the life that went on there.

There are many pictures of Leeds, not by Martin Parr, showing various historic or interesting places (that seem to all be in west Leeds if they arn't in the city center). They all show a different side of Leeds - such as the Bear Keep on Cardigan Road (the castle-like building below) and the Corn Exchange in all its glory.

I quite like the picture above of the canal, but I'm not too

sure about the obvious Photoshopping. I like the lighting

effect its created, but the clumsyness of it ruins it a bit 

(you can see a lighter line all round the inside of the bridge)

Many projects based on city life (that I have found) are films, made with an outsider perspective, or about the cities bars or commercial interests.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036932/New-York-City-photos-Charles-W-Cushman-reveal-1940s-life-Big-Apple.html
http://www.londonphotoproject.co.uk/blog/
http://citylifefilmproject.com/#/
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Martin-Parr/2008/GB-ENGLAND-Leeds-Guardian-Cities-Project-2008-NN197357.html
http://www.ntileeds.co.uk/events/creative-networks-presents-martin-parr/
http://www.tymchak.com/blog/?p=382
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2008/nov/01/photography-martin-parr

PersonX
Julian Germain created 'For every minute you are angry, you loose sixty seconds of happiness' a project made over 8 years of about Charles Snelling - an old man who lives alone. The project follows Charles round, showing parts of his life - the photo albums, the kitchen, Charles himself. The photos seem very sensitive to the man at the center of them. The photos are colour, which seem to try to show the world as it is, and to show Charles to be a colourful man (which Julian Germain mentions in the prologue with the photos)

Richard Avedon photographed people out of their natural surroundings - this lack of back-drop gave the people a staged quality, whether they were or not, and took away the supporting personality, giving them an almost 2D quality. His pictures are always taken in a studio, everything is under his control, so that the subjects act. The photographs are still trying to be sensitive to the subject, but at the same time are not.

http://www.juliangermain.com/projects/foreveryminute.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/may/12/martin-parr-floods
http://iconolo.gy/archive/great-richard-avedon/1304

Government Cuts
The recession has lead to the current government making large cuts to government spending - in education, benefits and the NHS - and increases in taxes, such as VAT. There have been a number of protests as a direct result of this - such as virtually the whole country on strike on the 30th December, the riots this summer and the university fees protests last summer.

Lack of money or government funding has been at the hart of all politically motivated art for decades, much of the satirical cartoon found in newspapers deal with the current political issues - such as If... by Steven Bell in the Guardian G2

http://www.yorkshiredailyphoto.com/2010/12/topshop-protest-leeds.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2011/nov/13/1

task 3/5: replication of in camera techniques using Photoshop

 Cling Film Effect:  I prefer the Photoshop version (above) to the 3 others, I found using the cling film quite hard, as it constantly creased awkwardly and my camera originally kept focusing on the the cling film, which also ruined the effect.

For the tunnel effect I prefer the original version, made with a tube of foil around the camera lens, as opposed to the version I put together using Photoshop. The photoshop version looks flat and unconvincing 

Using stockings or tights to darken a picture - the picture with a diamond pattern across her chest uses actual tights, the one without was edited with Photoshop. The distorted feature are barely noticeable due to the size.

make-up ideas

I noticed, when I was trying the masks on, that the eyes are very obvious, so I started looking at the eye make-up. I tried several colours, and the results varied, some worked exceptionally well, others, not so much.

The first colours I tried were black and white - the black I used was not strong enough and made me look like I had a black eye, while the white was barely noticeable and somehow made my eye look smaller .

My second ideas was with yellow and purple - but I put cream eyeshadow down first this time which made the colours much more vivid. The purple went really well with the multi-coloured mask, so I decided to try the other two masks on as well to see if it only looked good with the purple in the mask. Neither yellow or purple eyeshadow went with the other masks, they just just looked sea-monster-ish

My final combination of colours was dark blue and (another, different) black eyeshadow, again using cream eyeshadow underneath.
The dark colours both brought out the eyes, as well as blending them better into the masks. The blue worked with the black and gold mask less well than the others, so over all I have chosen to use the second black with cream eyeshadow with the masks on the actual shoot.

I also tested lipsticks with the mask:

orange-bronze lipstick

 red-bronze lipstick

red lipstick





pink lipstick

Overall, I prefer the orange-red lipstick, and will use it in the shoot. I may take them all with me to the shoot anyway, though.

I looked at clothes my model could wear, I think that they would all suit the model equally and the masks would not all go well with each of the dresses.

The jacket, I have ruled out on the grounds that it barely fits me and the model using is a size larger than myself. The dress may not fit her, but as I feel it would match the feathered mask exceptionally well - as it is a very fancy, occasion dress, like the mask is less party dress and more occasion dress.

The yellow dress I think would work well with the coloured mask, purely because it is coloured. The black and lace dress would, I think, work best with the lace patterned black and gold mask.


I have also taken my models hair into account, I felt a simple up-do would draw the eye more to the mask, as well as looking rather classy. The first idea was to try something similar to how I wore my hair for my school prom two years ago, the models hair is much shorted than my own, so most of the ends were hard to tuck away

 

The most important part of the hair style was that it should be able to stand a hair-band style mask hold, as well as a tie-back mask, which it managed.

The feathered black mask has had its attachment changed to a tie-back fastening, as the mask itself was too big and liable to slip down while it had a hair-band.

The model also suggested a half-up-half-down hair style, but the pins loosened when she put the back tie mask on, and got caught, so we decided against it, despite the fact that it looked quite nice.