RESEARCH: CINDY SHERMAN

'American photographer. She studied art at Buffalo State College (1972–6), concentrating on photography, which she maintained is the appropriate medium of expression in our media-dominated civilisation. Her photographs are portraits of herself in various scenarios that parody stereotypes of woman. A panoply of characters and settings is drawn from sources of popular culture: old movies, television soaps and pulp magazines. Sherman rapidly rose to celebrity status in the international art world during the early 1980s with the presentation of a series of untitled ‘film stills' in various group and solo exhibitions across America and Europe. Among 130 ‘film stills' taken between 1978 and 1980 are portraits of Sherman in the role of such screen idols as Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe. While the mood of Sherman's early works ranges from quiet introspection to provocative sensuality, there are elements of horror and decay in the series from 1988–9. Studies from the early 1990s make pointed caricatures of characters depicted through art history, with Sherman appearing as a grotesque creature in period costume. Her approach forms an ironic message that creation is impossible without the use of prototypes; identity lies in appearance, not in reality. In this, the artist has assimilated, even while retaining a critical stance, the visual tyranny of television, advertising and magazines. Works are held in the Tate Gallery, London, and the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, as well as in the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums, New York.' Source - Tate


I will be looking into self portraits and thought a great place to start would be with the work of Cindy Sherman. Although her work is portraits of herself, they are not always defined as self portraits as they don't necessarily show things relating to her personally. She chooses to portray things within her images that relate to different issues within modern world. Even though some people wouldn't see this as self portraiture specifically, it could also be seen as this as she is making the decisions as to how she will be seen in the images - much like the subjects within my images. I don't know what they will be, they could all be normal images of people smiling but there could be a few more elaborate ones in there, dressed up like Sherman's. They might try and portray someone else within the image, but honestly - I won't know. It will be down to interpretation as there is very little information that will be able to go with my images.

Sherman tries to depersonalize her images by naming them Untitled, or as a number to take away from the emotional attachment to the imagery, leaving it solely to the image to portray what she wants.





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'SELFIE' IS OXFORD DICTIONARIES' WORD OF THE YEAR

'Selfie – "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" – has been named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries editors, after the frequency of its usage increased by 17,000% over the past 12 months.'

The Guardian (See more of the article here)

RESEARCH: WEDDINGS

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When thinking about and researching into the use of disposable cameras there was one thing that kept popping up; weddings! This was also the case when I was hunting for the cameras I wanted to purchase for the project, a lot of them were designed to be used at weddings. 

Couples buy a bunch of these cameras and leave them around for people to take pictures with and this is sometimes instead of having a professional photographer there. 

This again is taking the pictures of this day out of their hands and into all of their friends and family. It's the same idea and I definitely thought it was worth touching on because I can imagine there would be a lot of self portraits included!

RESEARCH: ROLLS TOHOKU

'When the earthquake hit on March 11, I was running my art exhibition entitled, "ROLLS of one week."
At that time, I felt so powerless, being in the same country yet unable to do anything to reach out and help directly. However, I realized it was not the time to feel weak. I grabbed many disposable cameras and headed toward the location of damage.
"ROLLS TOHOKU" is a document of the area that was hit by the earthquake, through the perspective of the victims, taken in a certain period.
For reconstruction, it should take much longer than we think.
If seeing these photos make you want to do something to help the victims of the earthquake, please take action.
Using an approach/system that you can trust, please continue to support the victims as much as you can, for a long period of time.'

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This is a total new way to look at the idea behind each of the projects that I have been talking about and looking into. It's a much more moving and emotive way. It almost feels more real. The project is looked at in a positive way, it is showing these people after such terrible things have happened but they still smile, they still are happy. They're pulling together. It's beautiful to see. 

Although this isn't the same subject matter as mine it is really interesting to see the other ways a project like this can go. It's interesting to see all of the different ways a project can go, when you put someone else in charge of the images and this is what I am really interested to see. 

RESEARCH: TEPSIC MAGAZINE

'Tepsic Magazine (pronounced: TEP-SICK) is a poster-sized music magazine that documents what it’s like to live a day in the life of your favorite rappers, singers, MC’s and groups. All artists’ pictures are taken on their own personalized camera given to them by the magazine. No interviews, no reviews. Just pure photo verité to create your own visual commentary between yourself and the artist.'

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Again this is a very similar idea but through selecting a specific group of people and in this case it is musicians.  I like the fact that there is no text alongside it as it allows you to create your own story around the images which will be the case with mine also.

RESEARCH: DISPOSE

Dispose are doing a similar thing to that of 'The Disposable Memory Project' as they are giving cameras out to people around the world. This is more of a chosen photographer type situation as they are choosing who gets the camera where 'The Disposable Memory Project' are letting the people choose the camera. They have chosen photographers like Alec Soth and musicians like James Murphy but also others that aren't already photographers like a weed dealer and a human rights worker.

'We at Dispose distribute throwaway cameras to a wide range of people living across the world. We ask contributors to document one day in 27 exposures. From the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep, these individuals shoot a minimum of one photo per hour including one self portrait. '

I really love this idea. It is again about the person behind the camera. You are getting an insight to that persons life within those 27 exposures for that day. You don't know anything but that. You can write your own stories behind the images, think about who that person could be. In the case of this website they are giving you an insight into that person for a day, for the 27 exposures that they take but in the case of my project it will only be the one. The self portrait.

Photos by Alec Soth

(Photos by James Murphy)

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RESEARCH: LINDSEY BOCCIA

Lindsey Boccia is a photographer and on a trip she forgot her camera bag. She bought some disposable cameras and turned them into lo-fi toy cameras. 

Boccia wanted to add custom 'filters' to alter the look of the resulting images. She modified the lenses by scratching them with her car key and applying chapstick to the surface to give a dreamy look to the image. She peeled off the labels over the camera and cracked the cases open to add some light leaks.

Below are some of the images she produced by doing this: 

 

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I really like the idea of changing the cameras to change the effect of the image that will be produced. Obviously in this case I am not taking the pictures myself and I don't want to alter the images because I think the beauty of my idea is that this is down to them. I don't expect them to do anything like this but its a similar idea of alteration. They change the image to how they want to portray themselves and how they want to be seen within that image.