Object & Body Unit Presentation

 Object Unit

For my object unit I decided to base my still life photograph on the issue of consumerism. My initial research was based around the photographer Keith Arnatt who created still lives in studios out of rubbish from tips making ugly subject matter look intriguingly beautiful.

Keith Arnatt's Untitled from 'Pictures from a Rubbish Tip' series

I began to consider how I could represent consumerism through a still life using items that are often not recycled and products of our throw-away society such as glass bottles, batteries, paper & film. I was inspired by the work of Steffi Klenz & Gary Bryan in the way that they make their subject matter look much larger in scale than real life.

Steffi Klenz's 'Dagenham East'

Gary Bryan's 'Bottles'

Also I found articles on the artists, Max Liboiron who created ‘landscapes’ out of recycled tea bags and Elise Morin & Clemence Eliard who built mountains out of old CDs reflecting the throwaway technological society we live in.

Max Liboiron's project

Morin & Eliard's project

Enthused by Ansel Adams’ sublime landscapes and after taking some test shots at a tip to explore how litter can form mountain-like structures I decided to create a small scale landscape of mountains, a valley and river out of recycled items.

Ansel Adams' 'The Tetons and the Snake River, 1942'

Rubbish Tip test shots

I used a low camera position to enhance the scale of the mountain structures, to reflect the theme of consumerism, I also created an overcast feel by using a flag to put the backdrop in shadow. I used an aperture of F/2.8 to have a shallow depth of field to blur the background and enhance the look of a landscape. While most of the scene is flowing and looks relatively natural showing how we consume the landscape like cardboard produced from trees becoming trees again in my scene, I placed objects like batteries in spots to break up the scene and shock the audience into realising our destructive nature through technological pollution. 

Contact sheet of the three shots

I took three shots and found the last (3) to be the best with more highlights so that subject matter was easy to identify. When reflecting on the shoot I feel I should have practised the set up more than I did to make sure I got the result I wanted with greater ease including composition, lighting and camera position.

My Final Object unit Image

 Body Unit

To start my body unit I began to think about what theme I wanted to make work about; I was interested in exploring the idea of child innocence in this day and age. I was initially inspired by recent news articles & programmes highlighting children growing up too fast in today’s society; getting pregnant, wearing inappropriate clothing, smoking, swearing and turning to violence in and out of school. 

Vee Speers' 'The Birthday Party' series

Bettina Von Zwohl's 'Profiles III'

I firstly researched the work of Bettina von Zwohl, Vee Speers & Loretta Lux, who all approached the theme slightly differently however all used quite soft lighting probably using a fill in light to eliminate any shadows which I wanted to use in my final shoot; this is because I feel innocence is a purity reflected by the colour white however I found them too perfectly posed as if the models were mannequins.

Loretta Lux's 'Ophelia'

Loretta Lux also edits her images afterwards creating a perfect, ‘fantasy’-like innocence which is unrealistic however reflects early artistic portrayal of the purist child, Jesus Christ as well as cupid such as William Bougereau’s ‘Cupid and Psyche as Children’ in 1890.

William Bourgereau

 I also looked at the work of Wendy McMurdo, I was intrigued by the way she explores different aspects of innocence through child play.

Wendy McMurdo

I was able to get in contact with Adele in administration who allowed me to photograph her four and seven year old boys; when discussing the shoot with her I asked her to bring some different clothes with her and outlined the shoot to her. Due to my models I had to do a risk assessment form and had to position my set carefully and secure all wires etc. which I was able to do with ease.
I firstly thought I wanted the boys in quite formal white shirts but then decided I wanted them relaxed and natural in everyday clothing; I also had them sat and stood at different times asking different things from them such as sitting still, playing moving statues and even acting out their favourite animal. Although the whole shoot was very active, I felt the most innocent shot I took was a moment of stillness where they were looking into the camera with anticipation; I positioned the camera slightly above to create a wide-eyed look reminiscent of third world charity adverts which try to create empathy through depicting innocence.

I felt even when naturally playing they were acting up to the camera and therefore weren’t portraying true innocence. I set the main light and camera to F/4 and the fill light to F/5.6 to create a slight contrast; draped fabric formed the backdrop to create the idea of children playing in their bedroom. Although I believe children lose their innocence from the moment they are exposed to society I feel I have captured a moment of innocence within the photoshoot; of course the most significant challenge was working with children however I have enjoyed the experience allowing me to build on my communicative skills for future photo shoots with people.

Body unit shoot contact sheets

I am also very pleased with the variety of results I achieved allowing me to print a couple of option and then choosing the image I felt worked best for my theme, child innocence; I was also pleased with the lighting which creates a soft feel on the children and backdrop.

My Body unit Final Image