Key Post #2 Investigation

Although I hadn’t produced any work regarding still-life photography in relation to time. I had decided to meet up with Alan Jones again to try and re-evaluate my focal point for unit-x. It had come to both of our attentions that still-life isn't an aspect of photography I am too interested to explore. Without sounding to naive or arrogant, if it was something I'd enjoy, I would have already explored the wonders of still-life photography. Therefore, Alan and I have explored ideas in which I can develop and progress my lighting skills, whilst also venturing into the principal of time through photography.

Therefore, for my unit-x work, decided to focus on portraiture through time. It would be entirely based around the face and how time can have an impact on the representation of its unique structure.
This is an aspect of photography I am extremely interested in, and would therefore approach with great passion.

In order for my work to progress, I decided to experiment heavily with a diverse variety of portraiture styles/ approaches. Whether this be exploring the principles of studio lighting to enhance the representation of time, or exploring more deeper ways of exemplifying my character whilst focusing on the initial subject matter.

One studio session in particular that had a major impact on my investigation was the series of images titled ‘Feral Child in the City’. For this, I decided to approach the concept of portraiture through a variety of styles, all synchronised together as one. For this to be possible, I researched, explored and combined styles of lighting from each iconic era whilst asking my make-up artist to produce a look that represents the theme of time. This would allow both the MUA and me to be as creative as possible as there were no restrictions with regards to what we could do. From an alternative outlook, I also approached the theme of time through a more spontaneous experimental perspective. By simply going into the studio during my free time and just practising my lighting skills and developing my technical knowledge of the studio, I enabled myself to exemplify portraiture and time through a variety of styles; whether this be using a slow shutter and rear flash to create movement blur, to using the concept of colour to represent a particular moment in time/atmosphere.

Personally, if I were to change/improve my investigation/experimental skills, I would prefer to have more studio time available. Due to a large quantity of other students using the studio, it meant that I was often limited to how much experimentation I could do. In a similar sense, I did also find that despite the studio is supposed to be a sanctuary of creative, I was often extremely limited to how I could work whilst photographing. This purely being due to the fact that there are far too many rules within the studio. This did frequently have an impact on how I could work and what ideas I could try out.