Constructed Photo

I was excited to begin this project as I have not really worked with photography as a medium prior to this. I began this project by visiting the Behind The Mask exhibition by the photographer, Andy Gotts at The Somerset House. I enjoyed this exhibition because I feel as though he approached portrait photographs in new and exciting ways for each of his subjects. I addition to this, I did research on photographers: Carie Mae Weems and Carolyn Drake who both capture beautiful images which tell stories. Weems in particular dramatises her images with the use of body language, lighting etc. These factors all harmonise together to visually communicate the feelings in the images. Whilst searching for visual referencing, a collective I particularly liked was that of 'Magnum' as I found their images striking as they are real. I like the fact that their subjects are real people as the photographers often capture the feelings/things people do not want to acknowledge which I find quite interesting. 

The word/ feeling I choose to communicate was pain/sadness/depression as I feel that these are real emotions that we all come across in our lives. I also feel that we are reluctant/scared to address them as they can be quite taboo subjects. For example, depression can be classified as a mental illness therefore there is a lot of stigma attached to it. Initially, I was unsure what direction I wanted to take my photography in as I didn't want my images to look too 'scripted' nor did I want them to look fake. As I thought about what the most natural approach I could take to visually communicate the feeling of pain in a genuine way (without hurting anyone)  I remembered that the whole point was to 'construct' the photographs therefore it would be possible to create the emotion of pain. I then decided to construct this vis the use of shadows as they hide the identity of the individual as well as dramatise the image which places a greater emphasis on the subject matter. I also thought the connotations behind the use of shadows were appropriate as shadows are owned by every individual therefore each person that views the images can relate. 

The challenges I faced with this approach was manipulating the lighting to suit my vision of how I wanted the image to be as well as the 'set up' I had to work with as I didn't have access to a professional studio which affects the outcome of my images in terms of the quality. If I were to improve and build upon this project, I would develop my idea by forming my images into a story-like sequential format to make it communicate stronger visually. 

Overall, I enjoyed this project as it made me consider an alternate means of communication that I would not normally think of using. I think my final images meet the brief as they communicate not only the word 'pain' but also the feelings associated with pain (mainly depression). In order to build on this, I intend to contextualise the photographs by using them in a relevant context. 

Constructed photo (authors own, 2014)