I selected my Bridge 5 project from my previous Integrated Seminar: Shift course. It was a recreation of Andy Warhol’s admired Polaroids of celebrities, moguls, fashion icons. I firstly investigated Andy Warhol. I looked into his inspirations, muses, the materials he used and the compositions he created. I investigated why and how he picked the individuals he chose to photograph and how he chose to convey them in a portrait. Additionally, I had to visit the museum his polaroids were displaying at and gather information on the museum labels and the pieces themselves. I then mind-mapped my ideas and put down what I initially wanted to elucidate onto my pieces.
I picked my subjects based on how they envisioned themselves to be and how talented they were in their fields. This project prompted me to look into my subjects and truly get to know them on a personal level, as I illustrated their aspirations and goals onto the photograph I took of them thus allowing me to delve deeper into their true wants and ambitions. I had to gather data on their fields, look into their inspirations and reference notable people in their respective fields. Although a recreation of Warhol’s Polaroids, I refashioned the concept and contextualized to my own project, by glorifying and exalting the people in my photographs as how they imagined themselves to be in their future careers.
Drawing direct inspiration from an artist is always a harder creative topic to broach. It’s a constant battle between seeing the referenced artist and retaining a sense of originality within my own work. Furthermore, how I gathered data for this project was completely novel to me, through the means of interview and visiting museums my sources were mainly all primary, which usually isn’t the case which most research. I additionally had to do material research. I had never dabbled in film photography before and so I had to research the different types of film cameras, films and techniques. Finally I settled on polaroids due to their accessibility and versatility after researching a plethora of different cameras. I had to understand how the film worked, the lighting, position and more in order to master the medium I was using.
