REFLECTIONS
07/03/2017
Mark gave us a talk about about his work and showed us some of he's recent pieces. It was good to get a clearer understanding of what an art director does and see the skill of work that we in the future should be aiming to produce.It was our task to create a piece by focusing on the relationship between text and image. I did a quick photoshoot of some clothes i had brought in for a shoot in the evening.
The images in the pieces i created are a sort of collage of the different details in the clothing. I feel like they correspond with the quote 'open things that should be closed, expose things that should be hidden ' well as they literally demonstrate the act of opening and exposing.
At first i wasn't sure which version of the poster i should pick to present because the first one was very busy and the second one isn't really understandable. I printed both off anyway but decided they looked good together because by placing the more minimalist version one underneath it was like a reiteration and it physically demonstrated the act of exposing.
Below is the peer feedback i received:
06/03/2017
Today we had a group crit. We each spoke about our work while Tim and others gave us ideas to think about. Tim asked me about the approach i will chose to casting which i didn't have a response for. My next plan of action is to think about that.
08/03/2017
Today I began to lay my photos in a magazine format. I had tho think long and hard and conduct thorough research into a title for my magazine that would best suit my concept. I wanted it to be maximum two syllables, powerful, relatable and most importantly memorable. Names I initially came up with included '22/5' as that is my birthdate, the date of my naked arrival. I thought this was effective as it was personal to me, my most innocent and free moment, where i was un-judged and had absolutely no worries.. because ultimately between the age of 1minute up until about 5 life was all about me and getting what I wanted. I did however to chose to name my magazine 'immune.' because i thought it was catchier and metaphorically rather than literally suited the of the running theme of 'being naked'. The word immune can be defined by the following:
I have thus adapted the definition to specifically mean that one is immune to negativity, failure, bullshit and finally rules. Through this immunity is how we can be truly naked and free to exceed.
12/03/2017
After looking at many magazines i have found that a lot of them have a running theme throughout. For example I-D's Luxury issue of 2016. Instead of doing a different shoot a week on a different aspect of 'being naked', im going to have the running theme of 'freedom' and explore all aspects of 'freedom' through literature, blogs, primary and secondary interviews, photography, film etc. I will make sure that i audio record all my interviews because i may want to have them playing over a fashion film. This week i will make a start on the interviews making sure to interview people from different age groups cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
21/03/2017
Today's shoots were very productive. Seli and Prefina were both confident which made it easier to shoot with them. I called them both up in the morning to organise a spontaneous shoot because i wanted to catch them wearing clothes that they had instingctively chosen to wear that day. Prefina’s shoot was more succesful than selis in my opinion because the shots appear more professional and polished. We were lucky to find that stipy brown backgroup because it matched refinas stripy white and black top very well. I feel like Seli’s shoot while it was very natural doesnt over have a fashion connection to it. In the shoot with Seli, I was focussing on angles and colours, while the pictures of him eating are fascinating they don't quite fit in with any of the other photos i have taken. But do they have to fit? I guess they could be seen has a slightly different take on fashion photography employing natural behaviours and human instincts..collectively investigating how far from free we are.
The term ‘Human instinct’ classifies the definition of an inborn pattern or activity or tendency to action common toa given biological species. a natural or innate impulse, inclination or tendency. a natural aptitude or gift: an instinct for making money.’
I could possibly do a fashion film related to human instincts..looking at natural tendencies (repeated movemements), innate impulses (sudden jerks especially when associated with pain)?
If i was to do Seli’s shoot again I would have done some full body shots of him against the semi coloured background so the whole outfit cuold be seen.
23/03/2017
Today we spent a lot of time peer assessing each others work. I found it hard to get a grasp of other peoples projects just by looking at their sketchbooks. Never the less i gave the feedback I could regarding the questions they wanted us to answer. The feedback I received based on the questions I asked are as follows:
I feel like my main problem is that I understand my project but it isn't comprehendible to others. Im going to work on the legibility of my sketchbook this week.
27/03/2017
I would consider myself an image maker but today I decided to explore a completely different approach to exploring freedom. I found some jeans that I don't often wear and embroidered them.
The idea was sparked by the book 'The little Black Book of Style' by Nina Garcia.
I have only just begun reading this book but i already love it. This is because she effortlessly encourages you to be free and totally with regards to different factors. During college was where my confidence regarding styling myself dropped. I began college expreessing myself throught the way i dressed but i was an anomaly and found people always looked at what i wore. i wouldnt wear anything outrageous but just baggy (mainly mens) clothing because i found it comfortable. I subsequently lost confidence and conformed to the way that the general consensus at my college dressed. Skinny jeans/ trousers, a hoodie and trainers. When i came to CSM i continued to dress like this, i guess because it was what i felt comfortable in and for the last year that was all i knew. It was encouraging to see how courageously dressed students were at CSM.. It made me realise that whatever i wore would be nothing compared to what id seen some student wear. There is nothing wrong with wearing a duck flipper or Chunky biker boots, but it simply is not my style, which is ok. Ifeel like CSM has helped to to find who i am as there are no boundaries, you don't feel judged or intimidated. Instead you feel connected to everybody because you all have a common ground; creativity however you choose to express it.
I feel like this mini project will go well because it is playing with Fabric Freedom and how we can express ourselves in an available visual way.
Below are some good quotes i have found in the book so far:
"What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language"
"First know who you are then adorn yourself accordingly" - Epictetus
Text box
01/04/2017
I was meant to have the rescheduled photoshoot with the No role modes group today but again they cancelled because one of their group couldn't make it. This is he second time they have cancelled now which is a bit annoying. I think I'm going to jst leave the and move on to other shoots because they are wasting valuable time that i don't have. Instead I will spend tody carrying out extra research for my up and coming mini projects
11/04/2017
Todays crit with Mark was good. He said i need to be careful with the way i integrate text and image because the photography is good and it would be a waste to hide it. He also said i need to do a few more shoots because generally you need a decent amount of pages if you want the booklet to bind properly. Oliver said he went to a printing place in covent garden who said its best to have 55 pages. They are also a lot more flexible with the paper you print on if you are looking to have a range. Mark said that he has had booklets with 40/44 pages in the past and thy came out ok. I need to get al my shoots done so that I can work out the economics of printing. Later this week im going to have a look at other magazines like the GentleWoman, FantasticMan & Noon Magazine as suggested by Mark because while ID magazines are great they are rather limited in presentation techniques. Tomorrow I have a shoot with a fashion designer called Yemi.
http://yemsxoclothing.bigcartel.com
https://www.instagram.com/yemsxoclothing/Ia I am shooting with her because her work ties in with the sub theme of Fashion Freedom. She incorporates African fabrics in her garments with the hope of making "African clothes modern". through these pieces she is expressing her own freedom through her designs, she is also freeing the African Fabric from its own culture and opening it up for others to interact and become familiar with.
Below are some of her pieces.
16/04/2017
I went to visit a friend that was leaving to go back to university today. When i got there I was shocked to see that she had cut her hair. I asked her why and when she started explaining i was like ahhh perfect do you mind if i record you for my project. I explained it to her and she consented. I transcribed the voice recording and began to play with layouts on indesign. I asked her for a picture of her with the weave she used to wear and her current hair style. I found her story most interesting because cutting off relaxed/damaged hair is something I know a lot of black girls can relate to. The has been an increase in the popularity of embracing your natural hair. Celebrities like Alicia keys and.. have endorsed this. I think its great to see this step of bravely because a lot of black girl hide behind all these different hairstyles because they are not comfortable within theirselves - myself inclusive. while I don't really weaves and stuff I do straighten my hair and have never worn my natural afro out. When I show people my natural afro people are always like oh my god you look soo cool why don't you wear it out. I think i don't wear it out because its just so different to how i usually wear my hair; and once you do something drastic everyone always notices and either starts talking about you and i don't like that. Also i think afros are very crazy and because I'm already quite crazy i feel as though i might be percieved as even more crazy. I don't really like afros though if im honest. But i guess as much as I'd like to say I don't care about peoples opinions we all do to an extent and its something I have to overcome.
Doing the layouts was surprisingly more difficult than i had expected. It was only until I was talking to greta when i realised how important it was to use rulers so that everything could be aligned properly. After a couple attempts at re arranging i kind of got the hang of it.
18/04/2017
I saw this girl called Fave with an afro and beads in her hair and I felt compelled to go and ask her if she would mind being interviewed and photographed briefly for my project. Her name was Fave and I asked her some questions off the top of my head referring to why she wears her hair the way she does. Her transcription can be found in my sketchbook.
Later on today I went to my friend safarii's house and interviewed her based on the questions i put in the last reflection post. the voice note was 9 minutes 35 seconds. Im sad because of how long the transcription will take but Im happy because I will have a lot more data than if i had just given her questionnaire to respond to after over text.
Fave's recording
File(s) to download
Text box
19/04/2017
I have chosen to stick to an informal interview style because i wanted to keep up the genuine-ness of the ocntent in my magzine. All stories/ interviews are true stories so i felt that tey should be communicated in the true manner in which they were delivered to me in. I have kept the 'erms' and 'ahs' and added *laughs* etc for added personal effect. I will ask peopl ehow they feel about reading such an informal interview. Also we live in such a day and age wjere evrything is kind of informal now. We call teachers by their first names we communicate using text speak. Integrity is very important to me so by doing this i am allowing the uncensored expression of others and myself.
21/04/2017
Today I printed of a mock up o the magazine. I haven't put the page numbers in yet nor ordered the pages correctly but i felt it was necessary to see the magazine in paper format because i was sick of seeing it on the screen. It was motivating to see it printed out, makes you feel like your work is finally coming together. I am happy with the layout of the pages. A few of them a bit more text heavy than i had envisioned but i will atTend to that. The scale that i printed the test (for financial reasons) was just below A5 this makes some of the quote authors written in white size 12 font difficult to read. I pressume this ill be rectified when printed bigger. one of the pages which i had made brown on indesign has come out looking purple. Perhaps this is the fault of the CSM printer but i will double check the colour on indesign. There are a few spelling/ grammar erros i have found but i have noted them down and i will change them accordingly tomorrow. The illustrations look crisp i am very happy with them. They break up the magazine a bit, making it less traditional. one of them was meant to have a cream background in the back but there is a different coloured rectangular shape around it that needs fixing. I had put a small illustration of 3 birds next to a quote written by Rachel Hudson but the background of the illustration despite me inserting it as a jpeg is visible. The back page is too busy in my opinion. I think I'm going to make it simpler because it detracts from the front image. And ideally if it had a title on the front i would be strong enough to be a front page which could be confusing. I love the red I have used its bold - a theme within the magazine definitely calls for your attention. i fear i may have used a few too many colours in the magazine though. But i guess its all about being bold and if colours don't read bold i don't know what does. The full bleed photo of my sister with the jill scott lyrics on the right page is very different to the rest of the pages. It's dark and i just feel like it stands out in abad way. I will ask other tomorrow hat they think.
Feedback from Amelia today :" I love your illustrations they definitely have a distinctive style.
I think it was better that I did my illustrations myself rather than using the one tat georgia did for me because after all the project is about my interpretions eg. how i interpret images in my head on to paper.
Before on the front page i had the full stop after 'immune' in red. I think I'm gonna put it back because it puts more emphasis on the word. A full stop already shows the end of a sentence/ the end of a phrase. and seeing as this is one word 'statement' the importance is shown but with red connoting boldness, passion etc i thin kit will look more striking and place more value on the title.
I love the wonky page numbers. they are different and unique. Wonky usually means wrong and people automatically think to make it straight. they allow peoples minds to be out of their comfort zone from the ordinary. I can imagine quite a few people will say that the wonkiness bothers them. But so be it. I like it and so it stays Here I am exercising the importance of trusting, having confidence in yourself and being a individual of self-intergrity.
Today I bumped into my friend who was printing off her publication it costed her £33 for 44 pages. I have 64 so far and our paper size is approximately the same. i'm guessing mine is going to cost around £50. While i was there i asked about binding. There is the fast bind and the perfect bind. I originally wanted the perfect bind but this is a bit more expensive and takes 3 days to do. i would have done this binding method but it would be ready on Wednesday afternoon if i hand it in tomorrow which would be too late. I will have to go with the fast bind. Luckily thy have a white fast bind strip and my front page is white on either side so hopefully it will blend to a decent standard.
I know on magazines they usually have whats staring in the magazine or a quote from the juiciest story. tomorrow i will consider if i want to put any of that on it. only think is i feel like it will distract from the beauty of the photo.
15/03/2017
been wrting down for the past week anything that comes to my mind thats related to the project the list is below:
- Tank & avaunt mag & cereal mag
- Tale into considerationa nd make ur own judgements
- Politically correct
- Text is like talking through a brick wall
- 'I put nair in places the packet said it shouldn't go'
- Light pink trousers light yellow bomber
- Light yellow hoodie with patterns
- creative degrees r fake degrees.. article
- what was freedom, what is free dom what will freedom be
- nina simone lack of freedom in music
- glasses bag.. transparent
- define freedo, formyself now
- vision of now and te whats ahead
- image that expresses ideas about freedom
- quotes n stuff to elaborate these ideas
- text/audio piece
- muisc video ?
- chocolate is healthy
- Bf/gf
- Bras
- Georgia and Chips.. human leg on plate with chips
- human hotdog
- shredded human logo on tshirt
- Good or bad we eat a lot of meat
- metallic skin.. the glowingnes of freedom
- CRIME TO MIX RED AnD PINK
- piercings and jewlerry shoot
- dark elbows pits and knees--- sketched ? shot....
- something you?ve always wanted to do but havent --- in questionnaire ?
- metalic body paint
- laws
- Manifesto for magazine
- Giant nike sock as a dress
- Hands all around the page trying to grab something in the middle--- a person? trying to break free
- What things do u not usually find writing on
- Change the colour of food
- Nervous habbits bitting nails etc----nerves contol as and our movements
- article on importance of..Black owned hair shops
- Photo tucked into a pocket
- "they keep telling me to step into line but i see no fun in that"
- "conditionally love sacrifices its freedom" ---- emmanuel prodano
- ?you got 10 seconds to hang up? ---- caption for Lana 'im on the phone photo'
- _______ makes me feel free.
- L SHAPPER POCKET IN MAG acetate pocket?--- interactive
- Lean back trust test
- Buttons shoot..buttoned wrong way
- ?UNLEASHED?
- YELLOW and pinstrip blue.. stradvarius
- ARE U FREE? Yes no no yes collage
- baby girls
- Hockey with walking stick and umbrella .. free to use items for unconventional reasons
- Proper mask
- 'You're mind is open wide'
24/03/2017
Today has been very eventful. I travelled to and from Westfield twice to buy and return the garments for my shoot, conducted a shoot and edited my photos. Todays shoot was based on the concept of colour blocking to mirror that freedom is an act of boldness. To be free one must step out of ones comfort zone, be outspoken and brave. Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.
In my opinion the shoot in the red suits was successful. The poses were very strong which symbolised the mental strength and determination one must have in order to persue freedom. The striking red colour works well because of its strong connotations. The suits were so bright that people who walked by often stopped by to have a look at we were doing. While this was a little off putting at times I kept on shooting because the purpose of the shoot was to represent boldness so i had to be a follower of my own concept.
Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow produces a warming effect, arousescheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy.
By time we got to the yellow suit shuit we were alot more comfortable. Unfortunately though the photos n my opinion were not as successful as the red suit ones. Due to time constraints regarding of my models i felt the stress as i had paid a lot of money for the outfits and felt that it would have been a wasted effort of going to buy the jackets if i wasn't going to get good shots with the outfits. I tried a few different things that I hadnt originally planned. This included the head shaking long exposure shots and the the leaning against the wall shots. I did this because i felt that the shots i had planned to take, inspired by Belzoni weren't as great.
On looking back on the shoot i feel that my choice of models was spot on they had similar features. this was particularly effective in shots like the one bellow where the hair was a prominent component of the photograph.
Exploring freedom through a self initiated project has allowed me to understand how become more free as an individual. I thought I was free but thinking about it I am still affected by the opinions/ presence of others. For example in this shoot when the tutors were observing while i was doing my shoot. While they were suggesting poses for the models that could of helped me I allowed them watching and giving me suggestions to through me off and loose focus. Atleast this is something I am now aware of. Usually I shoot in a studio with my models myself and friend watching for support. Im glad I have realised how I react when there are others about because it is something I need to overcome especially If i am wanting to possible explore a career in fashion photography.
28/03/2017
Today i was meant to have a photo shoot with the music group - No role models but they cancelled on me and asked to reschedule. I didn't let this discourage me, instead I decided to carry on with the theme of Fabric Freedom. I customised a jumper...i did a mini photoshoot to show the details of the jumper.
I also made some earrings out of some scrap fabric. these can be seen on the jeans themselves.
I chose to cut the jumper the way i did simply because i was playing with the concept of redesigning but i guess the process of cutting inevitably exposes skin, symbolising freedom. by sewing the cage like parts to the cut part of the jumper It could also connote how we are only free to a certain extent due to mandatory things like I.e Laws, Gravity and time.
I spoke to a friend of mine and she said while she loves the deigns i perhaps shouldn't do another jumper because it is coming up to the summer months and presumably the magazine will be a spring summer magazine. I plan to take this advise onboard and work on lighter items of clothing. I looked into further method of customising/redesigning. This can be found on my research page.
Fabric Freedom Gif
07/04/2017
Today I had the privilege of being in my friend, @chelingo 's new music video for his new song 'black girl magic' This is what inspired me to make my magazine on black youths because I feel that while racial equality doesnt completely exist exist. I meam there are people that are still parcially racist because thats all theyve ever known but yh its important to celebrate black lives sometimes especially because of our heritage and history.
What was most inspiring about the day was that I saw creative direction in action. I was able to see the way photographers, make up artists etc work and see the complexity of it all. It was a great experience and I am excited for my course - creative direction this September.
09/04/2017
Today I scanned in some illustrations i had done previously in hope of expressing ideas for photoshoots. After speaking with Greta she suggested that i stuck to the illustrations as they were my way of freeing my mind. Following this discussion I edited them on photoshop.
"Only stop dreaming of freedom when you can see it"
This illustration about how black people tend to have dark armpits and how its important that we are freed from our insecurities and stop hiding our flaws and overcome our insecurities because they hinder complete freedom.
This illustration was drawn to symbolise that you need to free your heart from, stress, worries etc before you can become immune to them and finally be free from them.
12/04/2017
My shoot with the model who goes by the name of 'Confz' was very sucessful today. With a mixture of good planning and a breakthrough of sunshine i was able to get some really nice shots. This shoot was to gain visuals for his interview responses. Prior to the shoot I asked him if there were any exciting places in his area to shoot in. HE had a little think and said yeah he can show me a few cool places to shoot. On our way to the location he had in mind we had to go up a staircase.I stopped looked at it and thought YES lets stop here. As I was focusing on the use of depth of field, a shooting technique i hadn' t really worked with in the past, the staircase was perfect because i was able to get underneath him to get the perfect shot. I told him to make some hand gestures that related to him. These included the prayer had gesture and the east side gesture. I Think it was a good idea to play with the subject of focus because the hand gestures when out of focus make them seem censored, while when they were in focus a completely different message was conveyed. Below are some examples:
17/04/2017
Thinking about the interviews i sent over text i feel that they were successful because of the accessibility and convenience of distributing them. I received responses very quickly and I don't there was no need to try and read peoples hand writing or sort through piles of papers. The only downside is that the extent of the responses i received were quite concise. While this makes the data collected easy to analyse and interpret it meant that the data collected was not in depth and i couldn't gain insight into the thought processes that could have provoked why people defined freedom in the way that they did for example.
On the contrary interviewing Rachel meant that she was able to give me more elaborate answers and not solely respond to the question i asked. Through this data collecting method i was given more information than i even asked for. Only think about this method is that i had to transcribe the voice note that i made. Surprisingly it didn't take as long as i had expected. Within 15 minutes i had finished transcribing.
Hence I have decided that i'm going to do some more interviews. The next one i have lined up is one with y friend Safarii whois all about helping and supporting people. last yer was given the opportunity to go to Tanzania and volunteer as part of Camp International (an established volunteering organisation). Below are the questions I intend to ask her:
What provked the decision of going to Tanzania?
What exactly did you get up to there?
How long were you there for?
What was the experience like travelling on a plane by urself?
How did you feel having minimal access to technology and methods of communication between friends and family?
What was most freeing about the whole experience?
What arts of africa are you planning to visit next? (expand on visit ur currently planning for)
Why do you sugar coat? have you always had the interests you speak of/how did they develop?
File(s) to download
File(s) to download
20/04/2017
I have chosen not to use the interview i did with the girl called Fave I interviewed two days ago because while it was interesting she was rambling a bit and I wasn't able to get a good photo of the and her different hairstyles. She said she had deleted the original copies of the photos she had of her different hairstyles off her photo so I would have had to screenshot the ones from her Instagram which would be bad quality.
22/04/2017
Would have been nice to put in the new picture i had planned to take of the clothes i embroidered but i don have a relevant enough story to write with it. i guess it could go with the real life story i wrote about how i adapted my dress sense becausei was influenced by those at my previous college but i think i will leave it out because i don't have enough time to conduct another shoot and i know the magazine will be expensive enough to print with the 64 pages i have now lol.
Today I spent time rearranging the pages so they flowed better. This was a very difficult job because being so accustomed to the content makes your judgement a bit disorientated. Before I send it off to print on Monday I intend to get a couple of people to take a look and answer some questions.
24/04/2017
Today I printed my magazine at ABC, It was extremely nerve racking. The original size I crated the indesign page in was slightly bigger than A4 measuring at 320x251mm, but after consulting with the assistant he said that it will be way cheaper to have it fit widespread on to a3. I proceeded with this size because I only had £40 on me. The decision was the choice of bind I was going to have. There were about 3 choices: The perfect bind (which was my prefered binding method but would take 2-3 days), the fast bind, the zine bind and perhaps another but I can't remember it. My original plan was to go with the fat bind with the tape strip down the side because I had seen a peer do that bind and it looked like a decent alternative to the perfect bind.
On collecting the magazine I want to cry lol... of happiness of course. There is such a difference in seeing your work printed compared to on the indesign document. I flicked through it and immediately spotted Quite a few spelling mistakes and that I'd cropped a photo wrong and a few other things, but I guess it it happens to everyone. I'm going to print a corrected cpy again tomorrow.
07/03/2017
My shoot today was very successful, I feel that because the two models were sisters there was a strong and natural connection between them. By playing RNB music in the background the were able to communicate the music genre through their movements. I encouraged them to dance which lightened up the mood immensely. The one thing i wish i had done is had more outfit changes because i took about 550 photos with only 3 outfit changes. This meant that while i had an array of photos to chose from only 65 of them were of high quality as the rest were mainly repetition. While shooting i was a ware of how many photos i had taken but i felt like it was better to have more photos than too little. I shoot on a keep shooting basis rather than analysing what i was shooting. I also wish i had taken the shoot outside of the studio environment, maybe to a block of flats or in some open space with a retro car.
I used Lightroom to edit my photos and considering it was my first time using it I think they came out pretty well. I found that reducing the saturation and making the photos cooler made them look more commercial.
16/03/2017
"Do the things you used to talk about doing but never did. Know when to let go and when to hold on tight. Stop rushing. Don?t be intimidated to say it like it is. Stop apologizing all the time. Learn to say no, so your yes has some oomph. Spend time with the friends who lift you up, and cut loose the ones who bring you down. Stop giving your power away. Be more concerned with being interested than being interesting. Be old enough to appreciate your freedom, and young enough to enjoy it. Finally know who you are." Kristin Armstrong
Based on this quote i made a questionnaire to gain some insight into peoples interpretation of freedom and to allow people to take a moment to evaluate how free they really are.
I purposely didnt title it 'freedom questonnaire' because people would automatically know the reason for all he questions. Instead to make it more ambiguos I soley labeled it 'questionnaire and put quite a few questions in there that were directly related to freedom. For example 'do you rush a lot. When constructing the questionnaire i felt that to those who don't know the kind of person i am could find the questionnaire quite intrusive. But i didn't mind because at the end of the day people will only say what the want other people to know in a questionnaire and they would still have exercised the thought in their mind.
Currently im thinkin of having a page in the sketchbook of like a collage of amounts of 'yes' and no responses i got from the question 'are you free'.
My resposes to each question are below:
I asked geoigia to do an illustration for me based on :
The illustration will hopefully visually represent how animals are not as free and fortunate as us. My intention is not to put people off eating meat per say (as i am a meat eater myself) but just to show that we as humans are way more free than animals.
This is what Georgia drew:
then i took it to photoshop and turned it into this:
I'm very happy with the illustration on a whole i feel like it explicitly get the message that i wanted.
25/03/2017
Today I have been planning a photoshoot I have scheduled for the 28th with this music group who go by the name of 'NO role models' The are a male music group of 6 living in south east London. I felt like they would be perfect for this project because they're name gives the impression that they are risk taking rule take boys who clearly shouldn't be looked up to. I have a couple Ideas mainly relating to ways that rules can be broken or challenged in everyday life. Couple Ideas I had included getting them standing on the swings/slides - general kids park equipment, another was to have them stood across the seats on the tube with one foot on either seat. One more idea i had was to have them say all on top of a car or stood in a line all blowing pink bubble gum. I thought the pink bubble gum would be effective because it gave the idea that they were still young boys living their rebellious lives. Bubble gum is something that is associated with childhood and by using the pink colour it show that they don't follow stereotypes e.g that everything boys associate themselves with must be blue.
29/04/2017
Today I went to work but I did a tiny bit f shopping for items i could reconstruct/deconstruct customise.
also did some primary research by taking photos/screenshots of clothing that i thought had unconventional aspects.
30/03/2017
Today my mind ran back to my last progress tutorial i had with Tim; one of his comments were to explore freedom interms of the naked body. I decided to make a few videos of the naked body with a mesh top on to symbolised how in my opinion we can feel free but it is only limited (reasons for this can be found in the reflection from yesterday). I took quite a few photos but i found that the videos appeared quite sexual. While this was not my intention after speaking to a friend of mine she said to her the videos appeared as though i was exploring sexual freedom. Below is a screen grab from the video:
14/04/2017
Ive been thinking about the grabs and I dont feel like they are overly appropriate for my magazine. As while I am exploring freedom I have to not explore it in a literal way. I wanted to take a different approach. While it could be a good idea to explore it in a literal way to show variety I thing stark nudity is not the way I wold like to go about it. I think I may consider doing a shoot with translucent/opaque sheet if i have time and explore freedom of movement. As an ex dancer I think i'll be an appropriate model for this. I will only do this shoot if i have time though as i am conscious of time and that I may have lots of good material but not enough time to format it into a publication effectively.
I do really like the last photo because of the genuine nature of pose. Its like a peaceful stretch, a therapeutic yoga pose.
13/04/2017
Today was long because I spent a lot of time travelling to get the clothes from the YEMSXOCLOTHING distributer. It was also long because the girl and I had a mis understanding regarding who was modelling the clothes. She thought I was going to find a model which was the original plan, while I thought she was going to model the clothes for me. While this was my original plan because i thought it would better for her to style I was cut for time and had to step in as my own model. This meant I had to find a substitute photographer. I appointed Amelia and she did a fantastic Job. t would have been great to have the designer herself model the clothes because they would have been a reflection of her fabric freedom but it wasn't he end of the world. I guess being the model i was able to execute the kind of poses I wanted with ease. I didn't have to explain the poses or physically move my models into my desired positions. I guess the downside to modelling for yourself is that you have to trust the photographer and keep looking at the photos to see if they are what I had envisioned. I didn't want to model for myself in Part 3 because I knew that would be the challenge and as I am applying for creative direction and wanted to experience the overseeing and directing role as this would be good practice.
Nevertheless I am very happy with the photos the lighting was perfect and the poses i did were very engaging. I wanted to shoot against an orange or green background to bring out the colours in the garments but i was unable to get a backdrop, I could afford to hire a studio and using the filters didn't make the background bright enough. Prior to the shoot i went to Westfield to try and find an orange sheet I would hang up as an alternative but nowhere sold them! I had to think fast and think of ways I could bring out the bright colours in the garments. I thought LIPSTICK. I went into a few shops but had to settle for NYX because of the affordability. Only downside is that I they didn't have orange or a bright enough green. I took a look at the tracksuit and saw that the colour I had perceived to be orange was in fact yellow. I thought Great I'll get yellow lipstick. I brought it back to CSM to do the shoot but when i tried it on it wasn't as bright as I had envisioned. I continued with it though because I thought I could juts tin the colour of the lips because I had done it in the past using the colour balance on photoshop.
Below are my attempts at changing the lip colours but I feel like I either look like a duck or it looks like paint. Im going to tone down the saturation i think.
15/04/2017
Im thinking about doing a shoot thats more natural because currently all my shoots are rather posed besides the first one i did of Lana and Carmen. While posed shoots are great I have to remember my theme of freedom.
So I did a shoot with my sister today. She wore the clothes that i customised. I chose the location of the park because open spaces represent freedom. I got my sister to just move freely around and climb the tree and jump about and stuff. while i thought by getting her to do this stuff naturally and not direct her as much would produce natural photos, according to some of my friends they read quite the opposite. Instead they didnt understand the poses and referred to the poses as random. They also said because the background is quite busy it distracts from the customised clothes. I think i will re- shoot in a more simple location and focus on the clothes as they are what i would like people to see most. Just now i tried on the jumper with one of my dads white shirts. The scale of the shirt and the detail of the jumper work well because of the shape and scale of the sleeves and collar kind of juxtapose with the details on the jumper.
*pictures of jumper and dads shirt*
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
20/04/2017
I have been working on putting the final content into the magazine and deciding what is and isn't appropriate. (I have removed to illustration that Georgia did to me of the boy being minced in the mincer - representing how mincing cow meet into beef mice would feel) I did this because it didn't fit with the aesthetic of the magazine. My magazine has moved on to be informative through interviews and quotes and topics that resonate with me regarding freedom. While the illustration was graphic and said what i wanted it to say, perhaps too gruesomely it did have a helpful purpose. Also all the topics in my magazine are related to creating freedom among the human race. Psychology is very important to me which is why it always ends up creeping up in all my projects. I have chosen to include questions within the magazine so that the reader can reelect on reading and their read can be made personalised.
24/04/2017
All in all I am really happy with my final outcome and the process because it has helped me to develop as a person. I was able to explore my insecurities and the research I undertook regarding articles and quotes will forever stay with me. They were insightful and encouraging and i can't wait to live the rest of my life encourage freedom upon others.