During the workshop, Steffi helped a lot with density levels which was one of the issues I was having trouble with when printing my previous units. She also helped with colour, as she pushed me to take each print further than I would have which made me realise that the colour casting was still off on most of them.
In the end I decided to stick with my original idea as I feel this portrays my ideas of aspirational & materialistic waste more than my self-portraits as they look isolated & abandoned.
These are the following set exposure times for each of the images & images of test strips demonstrating the colour casting & exposure time changes:
- Christening dress: F. 22 12 secs C-0 M-45 Y-69
- Prom dress: F. 16.5 10 secs C-0 M-44 Y-76
- Wedding dress: F. 16 8 secs C-0 M-49 Y-81
- Ball dress: F. 16 13secs C-0 M-48 Y-77
For each of the images I had to burn in at least areas of the backdrop but with most of them I used my hand near the lens to block the dresses when exposing the background for at least double the original exposure time. By doing this with some of them I had to reduce the exposure time by a couple of seconds to cancel out the extra exposure that would seep through when burning. Although the scans aren't very clean I found the most successful part of the shoot for me personally was how dustfree and clean the prints are as I had a lot of trouble with this in my last units & had feedback about the issue.
I really like how due to the dresses being white in most of them the contrast is very bold and effective which creates this eerie, ghostly feel. When burning the dresses the edges of the dresses became slightly faded as if fading from the memory of the owners, being absorbed into the darkness.
Although I am very pleased with the results I would have liked to have matched the scale better however the way in which I photographed them restricted my ability to do this. However this does link back to my comparison with the original photographs of them as I tried to mimic the way in which they were photographed eg. the angle of camera position and distance (realistically keeping the image effective).
They are posed in a way that looks as if someone could be inhabiting them, the burning was a lot more effective than I imagined it would be as I thought I would have to print the self-portraits without choice. They all look as if they could be floating in space, wasting away, isolated representing the location that they are normally being kept in eg. the attic or garage.
Due to the deepness of blacks the dresses start to take on this shimmery glow effect like an aura, as if emitting the memories held within the fabric as well as the possible wasted memories through the lens as they are sucked back into the darkness.
The black background surrounding the dresses creates anonymity, a void of unknown time & space reflecting the lost memory that is connected to it. The treasured possession is protected, untouchable but also unlocated from use, being wasted, posed in similar poses to the original photographs of them which ties the dress to a specific memory & experience.
I used these special items of three female generations of my family, my nanna's ball dress, my mum's wedding dress, my christening dress & my sister's prom dress highlighting the excessive waste in just one family & most probably all families. It also focusses on the idea of our materialistic society, the way in which more effort is put into making these special clothing & more money is spent on these items for special one off events. I wanted the subjects to be personal to me as I myself & my family like to keep things as physical memories, however by doing this we are wasting them, not allowing others to wear them; however the items are also able to be generalised to many people in Western societies. They are milestones that most girls are expected to go through and although being christened isn't a personal choice but a family choice, I feel the other milestones are also expectations, not really personal choices either despite them being viewed as aspirations and in this way create this idea of waste of time through trying to achieve these experiences in life.
By using a very large soft box the clothing hasn't got any harsh highlights or shadows within the fabric which makes them look very delicate & fragile as if they are wasting away, fading into the darkness. The softness also allows the audience to begin to notice marks & stains on the fabric to show discare & the ageing of the clothes highlighting how long they have been kept wasting away in the darkness.
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