Trials and tribulations……

Well another day and another set of issues, after printing out my first round of images for the memorial I found I don’t like the composition as much as I would have liked to, so what do I do, well after some discussion with my tutor I cut the main pieces out of the images and played around with them on a blank canvas and after a few jostles found something the might work a whole lot better than before, still yet undecided but at least now I can see a solid path to finish this set of images on. Also taking out the human element adds a lot of ambiguity to the images, the viewer is left to decide the whys and whats that I have loaded the images up with but not perhaps in the sense that they are seeing, total ambiguity. as always I start my day off with the local and world news, I like to see if they have loaded any feel good stories or its just the usual maim blame and drain type of stories. I am never disappointed by our media, they always look towards doom and gloom, no wonder so many people have a shitty outlook on life, imagine if the stories were all feel good and only about the positive things that happen, how many lives would that save in the end. Or even heaven forbid that those in a greater power to do so actually spend their millions of dollars on those that have nothing, wow how amazing that would be, I mean in a world that spends 1735 billion a year on wars to achieve nothing when 1/10th of that equation would eradicate world poverty, in fact last year 100 of the richest people in the world earned more than enough to achieve this goal, thats only 100 people out of 6 billion, shows how little compassion they have for their fellow humans. All of this adds my content and context to my poverty image, now without the human personal element i can make these images connect with any gender, race, religion or background, not that it would affect the higher ups, heck the only thing that affects them is whether or not they have enough champagne in the cellar for tonights cocktails. Cynical much some would ask, yes totally is my answer, and to those that think that, well maybe I shouldn’t say what I like but only that you need to wake up and take a look at the big picture.

Right thats enough vitriol about the world today, time to get back to the tasks at hand, I have a model being made up this afternoon for me domestic violence image, this image will be portrait style in different lighting situations and views until I get that image that has the greatest impact. Yeah right ya say, well so do I at times, thats the beauty of being an artist, Oh and yes I consider myself to be an artist, photographic artist as opposed to being a photographer, why do I class myself as this, well its mainly because I don’t always take straight photos anymore, I often manipulate my composition to fit an image I see in my head, I paint with my camera and film is my canvas. Don’t worry though I still do take regular images and standard photography at times as well, in fact I very much enjoy landscape photography.

While waiting for my make up artist this afternoon, talking to my model and cohort I thought about the cheap latex masks found in stores, they have plenty that are scarred up with all horror bits, maybe some of those cut up some spirit gum and foundation and viola set to b/w and shoot away, the bits should blend well an create a very effective feel. Playing with a few applications last night (zombie makeup) I created some pretty cool looks, manipulated and digitally enhanced, oh hell yes, so now I want to do those without the manipulation other than the makeup or prosthetics in play.

Well makeup done, nice cut under the eye and softy bruising looks fantastic and not over the top just like the real thing

Right so after around two hours I managed to produce 20 images, so not quite a roll of film  but none the less a few more than I wanted to but that was because I decided to use my holga lens, a budget plastic lens on my digital camera but the old school effect is another edge. The only reason so many shots was because trying to view the a pinhole is a little difficult so it was hope I was in the right spot but as I found out a few times I was slightly offline and did not get all of my subject in view properly, but with persistence and tenacity I struggled with positioning so that I could get a good reflected image, a person seeing themselves in the mirror but so the camera was not showing up, not always easy when limited space and close to the subject as well, however a plug for the iPhone, I use mine often for some of my iWork as I have found them to be a bloody good camera, don’t overlook them or dismiss them too quickly nowadays they are pretty well up to par with most digital point and shoot cameras you can get in closer lower and in limited space is very handy indeed, best to utilise all the available tools at your disposal.

Oh and out of those images, the first and the last were two of the best

And so it continues……..