The Selfie:
So many people have different meanings of "a selfie" to them. For me selfie means "A picture of yourself taken by yourself or someone else". But thats not always the case, in photography the rules can be broken always. When you go on Instagram or Pinterest to look up "selfies" its usually pictures of girls by there selfs example:
Now these are all 3 different types of selfies. The type of selfies I take is all of these, but mostly a mirror selfie to show my outfits.To me the reason why i see so many girls taking pictures is because society has placed in our heads that "girls only look fabulous when they take pictures" which to me is a complete lie because a girl doesn't need to prove she beautiful by a picture, she is beautiful only when she feels beautiful not when society says she is. I created a mind map on "The Selfie" and here is what i got:
The Selfie:
-With selfies you know how people dressed in the 1950s etc.
-They are adverts of yourself. A picture whether its a selfie or a full picture your never telling the truth.
-People will believe photographs whether its the truth or not.
-Why would an artist make a self portrait? To show them selfs, to trick people, to show off their techniques, to keep memories.
-"Sharing a picture of yourself on social media that makes it a selfie"
-We could see how people like grandparents look like when they died.
-They are adverts of yourself. A picture whether its a selfie or a full picture your never telling the truth.
-People will believe photographs whether its the truth or not.
-Why would an artist make a self portrait? To show them selfs, to trick people, to show off their techniques, to keep memories.
-"Sharing a picture of yourself on social media that makes it a selfie"
-We could see how people like grandparents look like when they died.
Vivian Maier:
Vivian Maier was a nanny and a photographer. She wasn't discovered until she died. The man who discovered her said "I want to put Vivian in the history books". She is the most mysterious photographer there is because she didn't show anyone her pictures and prints during her lifetime. She was a hoarder. She kept everything like receipts, train tickets, boat tickets and plane tickets. She loved to travel and take pictures along the way. Her pictures are a combination of everything from surreal to mundane. It gives a message about her life. She had a powerful personality but she was very private. She didn't talk about her family or have a love life. We in class are watching how the man who discovered her archive of images is attempting to piece together the mystery of her life. In the documentary it shows how she didn't like being touched by men. I thought that she might have had an abusive relationship but it's not clear what happened to her.
We were asked to play the role of curator in designing an exhibition of Vivian Maier's self portraits. In my group we made sure that all the photos we picked out were all linked in some type of way. The title of our exhibition is " Uncovering Her Shadows" because in our display we are showing objects then shadows then her face or shadow of her. The idea we are exploring here is that the mystery of her is even in her photos in the way she incorporates shadows and reflections, disturbing a clear view of her face. The thing I found most challenging was the way we were going to place the pictures because once you've stuck them down you can't do anything to change it.
Our exhibition went really well when we presented it to our peers. It was scary but it was successful because they encouraged us by listening carefully and applauding when we had finished. The thing I would do better next time would be to make sure I'm more confident and have more say in the exhibition because I did participate but I was very quiet as well. In conclusion, I really enjoyed being a curator for a day and I now appreciate the hard work that goes into planning and talking about the exhibition. And now I really want to go to an exhibition and see how they have laid it out and why they did that because what goes on behind the scenes is really important in shaping the final product.
Here is our exhibition:
We were asked to play the role of curator in designing an exhibition of Vivian Maier's self portraits. In my group we made sure that all the photos we picked out were all linked in some type of way. The title of our exhibition is " Uncovering Her Shadows" because in our display we are showing objects then shadows then her face or shadow of her. The idea we are exploring here is that the mystery of her is even in her photos in the way she incorporates shadows and reflections, disturbing a clear view of her face. The thing I found most challenging was the way we were going to place the pictures because once you've stuck them down you can't do anything to change it.
Our exhibition went really well when we presented it to our peers. It was scary but it was successful because they encouraged us by listening carefully and applauding when we had finished. The thing I would do better next time would be to make sure I'm more confident and have more say in the exhibition because I did participate but I was very quiet as well. In conclusion, I really enjoyed being a curator for a day and I now appreciate the hard work that goes into planning and talking about the exhibition. And now I really want to go to an exhibition and see how they have laid it out and why they did that because what goes on behind the scenes is really important in shaping the final product.
Here is our exhibition:
Shadow Selfies:
Shadows are the silhouette's of yourself that is made by any negative type of light. I experimented with my shadows and a "view finder" like Kenneth Josephson did with his famous " Chicago" in 1980. Here is Josephsons picture that i annotated with what i thought if the picture, my questions and with confusing looks on them:
Here is my interpretations on his pictures the, raw pictures before i edited them:
These are the pictures that I have edited and made it more extraordinary pictures:
Obscured Selfies
To me an "Obscured Selfie" is where one takes a picture but we can't see the face of the photographer or subject that is in the picture because they have done something to cover it up or if we can see the picture then we can only see part of it where the photographer has drawn on in an interesting manner. I have been inspired by Akihiko Miyoshi's pictures to take some abstract pictures of my self with tape that hide but also show my face in the same way. The pictures that inspired me was these:
I liked these pictures because they show his figure but he has made it in a way that you cant see it clearly because he is using washi tape to make his interesting image. You can see his tripod and he has made it to a more interesting way that everyone would enjoy to look at and duplicate it but in their way. He is a very interesting photographer because he uses old cameras to create his new images which is really cool. Here are the ones that aren't taken by Akihiko Miyoshi but by other amazing photographers:
Akihiko Miyoshi inspired photographs:
Here are my interpretation on Akihiko Miyoshi's pictures
Arnulf Rainer:
Final Product:
Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas:
Whilst I was looking at the picture I noticed that the artist is inside the art work, which was meant for Philip IV of Spain. I thought the painting was a group of cousins getting ready for a family painting, and getting the little girl ready because she was the king's daughter. But the picture is the King's daughter, Margarita Teresa, allowing her maids to get her ready for the painting that was going to be drawn of the Infanta. My thoughts changed a little whilst I looked more in depth of the picture. I had a lot of questions like: Why did Velazquez include himself in the painting?, Who is that man in the back and why is he looking in like he's admiring someone?, Who are those two older people in the back and why are they in the painting? In response to the picture I had ideas on cutting some pieces of the image out and putting bright block colours in there places, because the painting is muted colours and it oesnt have anything bright and bold as the king's family wouldn't wear bright colours but it would make it more interesting and different from what the other artsists did.
5 Things everyone should know about the painting:
1. The Painting is more of a mash up as some artists would call it.
2.The King and Queen are cleverly included in the art work. They are seen in the mirror in the painting.
5 Things everyone should know about the painting:
1. The Painting is more of a mash up as some artists would call it.
2.The King and Queen are cleverly included in the art work. They are seen in the mirror in the painting.