Exam- covert and obscure

Rebecca Waterson. AS

photography.

Brief “Covert and Obscure”- concealed within any artifact or work of art is the hand of its creator & each object leaves precious clues to his or her identity and intentions. A fine cabinet may have exquisite copperplate handwriting on a secret label at the back of a concealed drawer. These hidden pieces of evidence can excite the imagination and mentally transport the discoverer to distant times and exotic locations. Concealed within every piece there are two stories; the first is the one the artist wants you to perceive, the other conceals elements of personality and identity that are more difficult to access. Urban and rural locations can provide a refuge for artists who wish to avoid the distraction of social interaction. Ironically, large metropolitan cities often more effective anonymity. Graffiti artists use the vast tracts of bland architecture and concrete to demonstrate their aesthetic skills and express political views.

Idea 1 I want to take some photos with a model so that they’re completely different from all of my other photos. I plan on taking the pictures with a model in a slightly ethereal-looking place, with trees and shrubbery, ect. I want most of the photos to be her blurred movement so I intend on using a slow shutter speed to capture every movement.

Artist research (visual)- Claire

Shakespeare

I like this photo because of the blurred element to it. Although the woman’s face is blurred out, I can still faintly make out the ridges on her face where the facial features are supposed to be. I particularly like this because it makes the picture obscured but not in a way that the viewer is completely oblivious to what is in the picture.

I want to focus on the blurring of faces much like Claire Shakespeare has done with her work. I am going to take inspiration from the way that there are darker areas in some places of her photos where the facial features are. This particular effect is a given when taking photos with a slow shutter speed which is fairly obvious- although it has inspired my idea.

Evaluation of initial photos I originally wanted to take these photos so I could create a sense of obscurity using the branches and nature to cover my model’s face. However, I took many of these photos with a slow shutter speed so that I could blur her face out so when I was developing these photos I thought that it would be a better idea to just use those photos as it makes for a much more abstract outcome. So, I did not end up following my original idea- I came up with something better. I found that many of my photos were quite white and bleached out due to the bright weather on that day- however this added to the effect of the photos because it made the outcome look more obscure. This is particularly visible in photo 1 where the whiteness has blurred out the difference between the background and my model’s face. Most of my photos were out of focus to achieve the blurred effect that I wanted. In most of the photos that I have chosen to use, there is an out of focus face that is the main subject of the photo with some background appearing around the sides of the face. I achieved these blurred movement type photos by making the shutter speed on my camera quite long (around 5 seconds) allowing the background to lighten and my model to move around freely. Some of my photos (for example, photos 1 and 2) include the top half of the torso as well as some of the face- showing a clear change from skin to clothing. I like this change in colours because it is quick and abrupt- unlike what the rest of the photo portrays. The whole of the frame has been filled up with my model in each photo and this is important because by doing this, it gives the viewers a better understanding of my idea. The colours in all of my initial photos are very light, they almost become washed out because they are so white. (For example, photo 4) I like this effect, because it obscures the face and background further, they almost merge into one. I wanted to show how the face wasn’t all that there was to a person- and I thought that by blurring the face it might suggest this idea to the viewers. However, it wasn’t completely obvious and I don’t think it came across in the photos all that well- could have taken a different set to show this idea more thoroughly.

Evaluation of developmental

photos When developing my photos, I decided to take some new photos of the same subject so I could work on them knowing exactly what I wanted to achieve. I thought this was a good way of refining my photos because it meant that I knew exactly what I wanted to photograph and in exactly what way. All of these photos are similar to the others, however they were taken inside this time so most were not bleached out like the initial ones were. The first five of my developed photos are purposely out of focus so that the face was blurred. I think these photos look abstract and they show exactly what I was trying to achieve. After taking those five blurred photos, I took some photos of my sister that were in focus to cause a juxtaposition between the photos in focus and the photos out of focus. The portrait shots of my sister were nicely focused with soft light and (I hope) they didn’t come out too harsh looking. I made my model look away from the camera (partly because she was embarrassed of looking directly into the camera and posing) because I wanted to get shots that looked like she didn’t know the photographs were being taken. I think I have achieved this well because her emotions aren’t forced. In all of the photos, her emotions are neutral. The portraits of my sister’s face are completely in focus because I wanted to show the difference in how photos look when in and out of focus. I showed this difference by using acetate sheets and layering the photos on top of each other- whilst in and out of focus. The subtle colours do not distract the viewers attention from the main focus (being the face)- they are successful in this sense. I layered the acetate sheets so that the outcome would show distortion within the face. The outcomes are quite scary, and this wasn’t my intention but I still like them. When layering the acetate sheets of my sister’s face over the pieces of paper, they became grainy which gave the outcomes a nice effects, (for example, photo 13)