INTRODUCTION
In this project we were partnered up with a classmate at random and told to create a portrait of both them and ourselves. A set of restrictions on how to approach this project was given — eight sheets of 18×24 inch material (not necessarily paper), black and white (one color if you wanted), and it had to be a portrait in some way of our partner/self.
DEVELOPMENT
With this in mind, as well Alyssa and I’s instagram conversation (bellow), I began to think of what kind of medium I wanted to explore. I immediately thought of analog photography and how a black and white portrait project would feel like a wasted opportunity to use film. I choose to use film instead of digital just because it captures such starker and stronger light, much more than a digital image that has simply had its color taken out.
After narrowing that down I began to brainstorm how I wanted to create portraits. I knew I didn’t want to make just a boring or beautiful photograph — I wanted something that wasn’t just a picture of someone. So, I kept thinking about how I wanted to depict myself and Alyssa, and the more I thought about it the more ridiculous the whole idea got to me: I hardly know Alyssa, and any way I choose to present her would be me projecting my ideas of who she is onto her — not who she actually is. With that, I started to thinking about how I, as an artist, get to choose how my subject is understood. I wanted to work with this meta idea, using a piece of photography to comment on photography as a medium of art. Bellow are some drawing/questions that helped me figure out how I was going to do this.
During the brainstorming process I thought mostly about how the display would engage with the observant. I wanted to play with scale, so I ended up picking the last of the options I made. My original intention was to make a very large print of Alyssa’s face (6/8 of the papers) and two smaller prints of me and the inside of my camera. However, as I began to make the project I encountered some difficulties. I tried to take artistic self-portraits with my film camera, which turned out to be much more difficult than I expected. I ended up portraying myself as simply a hand and a camera — which is more appropriate since my identity as an artist in this piece does not go beyond my operation of the instrument. Bellow are all the pictures I took to choose from (these are the scans of the negatives). I also edited some images further in Lightroom and Photoshop to enhance the contrast and resize for maximum quality.
I ended up picking the scariest picture of Alyssa simply because I felt was the most powerful. Her eyes are almost gone and the shadows on her face make her appear almost like a skull. I also wanted to incorporate our found poetry. I thought it would be more appropriate than our essays because the idea of looking for words within a text that speak to you ties into the idea of projecting ourselves onto others. Bellow are the final images and found poetry.
Originally, I wanted to make the largest image with 6/8 pages, but neither the plotter nor the design lab print on paper that large, so I changed to 4/8 and gave each smaller print 2/8. since the design lab would not be able to print so large in such short time I decided to use the photo plotters at the UC. For the other two prints I used the design lab. I tried printing on tracing paper, as the fragility of it would contrast with the big terrifying print, however the ink did not take and remained wet for hours. Instead I picked a rich matte paper that would absorb light rather than reflect it, which contrasted with the glossy large print beautifully. Bellow are the test prints (video link) and final piece set up.
CRITIQUE
The critique went well. People understood the piece and overall the feedback was positive. We spoke about how the image in the middle felt like a combination of the mechanical from the camera and the organic of the hand. A comment was also made on how the image has a sculptural quality to it as it appears to be a totem. My classmates also agreed that the large image is the most effective way to convey fear; a small image would not have the same effect. They also thought the lack of light in the eyes and stark shadows of the brows and lashes made Alyssa appear different from what she looks like every day — which was one of my goals. However, a comment was made on the white boarders and how they appeared to separate the images. I thought about this both during and after the critique and if I were to redo this project I would keep the white borders but at .5 inches thick. I would also not display with the images touching (but his was more of a space issue).
