portrait research

                           Portrait Research 

Douglas Gorden

For my portrait idea, I have been thinking of ways to change and distort the face. so I thought about using tape to create an ugly image of ourselves as these images are ones people wouldn't like to show due to the media showing us what beautiful is. I then look at this book called (Face the new photographic portrait) which helped me a lot with this project and saw Douglas Gorden's work. He used tape in his double portrait work. one of the images is just him an ordinary man and the other is taped up like a monster. The reason why he wanted these two images to go together is because he wanted to show split personalities and that people have a side they might not want people to know about.

I liked how he has distorted the face drastically, whereas I felt that the tape wasn't sticking enough when I did it and it wasn't really changing the face as much as I wanted. I also like how he is questioning if good and bad are in everyone and is the monster really you or is it this other person.

I think I may try it again but use more tape. 

 Jason Slavon

I then moved on to another idea that I Preferred which was to Experiment with Time and movement within an image. so I started doing long light Exposure and playing around with the shutter speed. As I was looking thought (Face the new photographic portrait) I saw this artist Jason Slavon, The Class of 1988 & The Class of 1967-1998. This reminded me of my work but his images were photos overlayed. Jason Slavon got photos of people from there class book photos and layed all the females photos on top of each other and did the same for the males. This made you realize that in these images, people looked quiet Similar, the Clothes, the hairstyles and the way they all look in front of the camera. I really like how this makes me question that every class may look similar due to the times and what we wear and how different it would be if there was a class 2000-10 work. I also like that overlaying these images create a distorted effect like showing movement but instead showing the people of that time.  

                                          

Andy Warhol 

I then looked at Andy Warhol, Screen Tests, which I really liked the idea of a portrait being a film. Andy Warhol places these young famous people one at a time in front of an unmoving camera for 4 minutes. As the viewer, you can see how the person in front of the camera starts to feel Uncomfortable and then starts Fiddling. I feel that in some of these films the stare are quite intense and that you can't help but to stare back. In one of these films Reeds screen testing, he avoids looking at the camera. I like how there in black and white and the plain setting as it makes us more aware of the person and what there doing instead of being distracted by the background. I read up that  maybe Andy wanted to challenge us to be bored, but I also feel that he wanted to show that people who are so used to being in front of a camera have this side to them were they feel Self-conscious about themselves to the point where they don't stare back into the camera and play around with there hair.
I want to try and get someone to sit in front of the camera with a long shutter speed and see what effect it has. This also Relate to my first idea where we worried about our looks.