Photography Final

These photos are a culmination of a lot of the skills I learned in Photography 11 and 12 being chucked away and refined into the most minimalistic but effective parts. I knew I couldn't push/learn skills further without more time and equipment. So I decided to make my Final naked in terms of technological scale, and minimal in presentation. I feel I aimed for a very subtle conceptual story that at times was hard to cultivate. 

After a while of thinking I had settled on what I thought would be a series of photos that illuminated the crisis of imbalanced representation of skin tones with Bandaids. It would have been numerous people from different races, with the exact opposite bandaid colour to their skin tone plastered all over their faces. It felt oppressive and entrapping, and I still admire the idea of that Final, which would have had numerous faces all in different skin tones, being bashed with the opposite shade. It would have been a call for proper representation with skin tone band-aids. 

Unfortunately, the very problem I was trying to show affected my project, as there weren't enough tones to get the right matches I wanted. And the time constraints on this project forced me to rehash the idea in service for a new one. 

My adapted final is a battle between Diversity, Oppression, Complicity and Objectivity, I found the tension between those two feelings compelling and having skin tone and transparent band-aids represent those two playing fields warring I felt content with creating a smaller scope project with the time limit I had. I felt these were interesting and challenging themes that could spark thought-provoking discussion and wanted to elicit that with as much restraint as I could.

The concepts I want to present here are distinct from each other, Diversity in this scenario is the claim that every person should have their own form of representation despite culture. personal, traditional circumstances, this is best shown by 2nd photo (Hassan) as the band-aids match his own skin. The Oppression in these photographs is shown by the 1st photo (Rejoyce) as the colours of the bandaids clash with him, it feels unnatural and forced, rigid and messed. The 3rd photo (Jericho) features him with transparent band-aids, maybe suggesting that an equal and objective look into these issues could be a more beneficial solution. At the same time that brings the question that Objectivity could just be a nicer way of agreeing to be Complicit with the larger problems of the world. 

Ultimately what I also admire about these photographs is that they are open-ended and detailed enough for anyone to have their own interpretations of them. Several people have said that the bandages represent these people hiding their wounds or traumas and are indicative of the broader burial of trauma in communities of POC. I also appreciate that I was able to speed through this project, adapt to changes, and still maintain a high level of conceptual storytelling in it. As well as the flexibility with the people I chose to photograph, who all volunteered to be photographed. 

On the technical side of these photographs, I used the standard DSLR Camera, set up with a tripod that would be able to turn vertically to maintain a still photograph. I experimented with different compositions and framings such as a wider shot revealing more information about the body and background, a 3/4ths wide shot and a close-up of the face. I purchased a whiteboard for the background and used the large LAOFAS lights that shined head-on with the face of the subject, as well as a small sidelight that shined in the eyes of the subject to bring them out more. The camera setting used was manual for full control of the cameras abilities, and the compostions needed to be tight and more focused on the face.

Initially, I took a large set of photographs for each model, but for the vision of the project it would have been glaring to include less than I needed to, so I chose 3 photos instead of the required 5, also the restraints with timing played and affect on the number of people and photographs I was able to get. 

I wanted to edit these photos in a way that wasn't too overbearing or obvious, the photographs were always meant to be minimalistic and rigid. The clear-cut look would not have worked without subtle editing that only made their facial features pop out more to the viewer. 

I pulled inspiration from the "Big Head" photographs of Martin Schoeller, who would shoot his subjects objectively and coldly, to bring out the personality, or more accurately, the humanity in all of them. This connected to a greater beauty that I wanted to emulate in these photographs.

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What I would have changed would have been the time restraints that were placed on the project. The snow days and the hard accessibility of the props needed, coupled with the availability of all the models all affected the shoot and the project could have been larger in scope if more time had been given. However, trying to adapt and get my concepts into a small amount of photographs was still a welcome challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt it would have been an even harder and longer task to push myself with the resources in my toolkit, so I wanted to instead refine my skills in service of a story and concept that I wanted to portray.