Inspiration - Bertil Nilsson

Bertil Nilsson is a Professional Photographer who works with dance and the body.  His photographs are an inspiration to me for my dance portraits.  His still work is relevant to my MMP but his short films are relevant to this project.  These images below show stills of the short film called 'Figure Scrub'. 

It is a video through vimeo so I can't post the actually video on here but I have included the URL, so take a look.  I love how the movements work with the 3D colouring he has used.  The contemporary dancing works really well and shows a very shadowy shape whilst he moves.  

http://vimeo.com/33005159#

http://www.bertil.co.uk/films/figurescrub

This kind of short film is very significant to my idea, the subject will be very similar as I am looking for ballet or contemporary dance. 

I like the idea of shooting with a black background and is something I will consider taking away from this video.  I could do a contrast between a black background to white background to represent night and day which is now something I will definitely try out. 

Dance

In my Major Practical project I started looking into Dance photography because I found that it was a brilliant way of getting the the full extent of how the body moves and how we can see parts of the body in various shapes and movements whilst dancing. So I had done some research for my MMP, but only on still photography dance for different ideas. For this project I have decided to experiment with dance and like I mentioned, how we se the body move through dance and consider trying to capture what we cannot see. 

MY PROTOTYPE:

So I have decided to not do a film about myself as a photographer and am not going to create a sculpture anymore, instead I will create a short dance film which will still explore the body like my previous intentions.  

When researching dance films I found this video here.  It is produced by photographer Richard Dunkley and shows a celebration of some of the 'wonderful dancers' he has done still photography with from over the last 12 years.  The film has dramatic music and some inspirational image's for my other projects. 

http://www.richarddunkley-photography.com/

I like the images within this short films, but because it is a short film of just still images, I think it looses it's potential as a strong short dance film.  This is always an idea that can work with any photographer.  To piece together a short film of still images but to sound.  It is a nicer and professional way to look at a portfolio of work, with the music on and the order of images throughout.  

I personally have not got as many images to put together of the same category to do this, but after seeing this video, I think film making would be quite interesting with the subject of dance. 

Inspiration - Alexa Meade

Alexa Meade is an Artist who has left me with a lot of inspiration for her work.  She is a very talented painter who uses performance, instillation, photography and painting in her work.  She paints onto the model in a very unique way that I hadn't seen before. She combines the person into the image to look like a canvas painting. Here is a short video about Alexa Meade. 

http://alexameade.com/index.html

Analysis

The denotation of her images are what I can actually see and they are what looks like a canvas painting, it's only when you look very closely that you realise that it is an actual human person that had been painted on and the connotation is that it is meant to be deceiving. The viewer is supposed to think that it is an actual painting and not realise the real body.  The thing I really like about this work is the fact that there is no digital manipulation used in her images at all, and all the painting is done by herself. 

The strengths in this work is that there are a number of different mediums used which gives a wide variety as an artist for her, and the fact the audience can be at any age.  She talks about how the children seem to notice before the adults do which is interesting.  The things I will take forward from her work to think about in my own is the fact of not cheating photography and using what you see rather than digital manipulation.  

I do think this work is very interesting and was definitely something that I wanted to show within my research because I know that if i was able to paint, I would try this idea for myself and consider using it in my project but I will use it as inspiration to experiment more with different media's. 

Sculpture Making Idea

My one worry with this project and from my first idea of filming myself taking photographs was that I have never done any filmmaking before.  I don't really know if I am going to be able to create a short film myself and am unsure if it would work out. Because of this, I have thought of some other ideas I could do that don't include filmmaking.

I still want to want to include the original idea of using the body, and maybe nude too. So I came up with an idea of making a Sculpture.  I have worked with clay before and think that it could be possible to create a sculpture of a female body and then think about shooting the model in a photo-shoot as if it was a real model so get a creative image of a sculpture against a real background.  I first had the thought of sculpture making when we went to a trip to the Brighton Photo Biennial and I saw Gavin Bambrick's work Exile, of sculptures he had made to show emotions;

Gavin Bambrick 'Exile'

He made the sculptures himself and they are not the best but are a perfect way to show emotion through body shape. The also are the start of my idea of photographing the sculpture afterwards because of the way he has photographed them. The lighting of his models (figurines) looks very dramatic and can resemble nude photography which is my original idea. From this I looked at sculpture making videos.

This film above shows a film of a female body being sculpted.  One idea is to create the sculpture and then shoot on a realistic background i.e. the beach, but another idea is to either do a stop motion or short film or me making the sculpture.

If I create a short film of the camera still and facing the sculpture and my hands, I could include sound of a piece of elegant music or someone talking about the body shapes and how exploring the shapes of the body felt through sculpture making.

I found this video of a wooden figurine in my research and this has given me the idea of sculpture too. But in this short video clip it shows the wooden figurine in dance positions.  Dance is something that can play a huge role within this idea and will come further in my research.  The wooden figurine can show different positions and will be handy to use if a sculpture will be made. I will think about this idea still but maybe consider thinking about film making again.

First Initial Ideas & Film-making

My First idea for this project was going to be very linked in with my other modules, because I was going to have a short film made of me shooting my images for my Major Practical project.  I planned on having a film of me taking photos and working with my model's for my shoot and idea for MMP. 

I wanted the film to show how I work and interact with my model's.  This short film would also be great for my Professional Practice module too because it would be showing my professional side to my photography. This is an idea I would still consider doing as a side project and just for me and my brand as 'Suzi-Rae Photography' on particular shoots because they are always good to show to clients. 

Here is a short film of photographer Lara Jade behind the scenes for one of her shoots.  I love Lara Jade's work and she is a huge inspiration for me. This short film gives and idea of what my film would look like if I was to stick with this idea for my final piece. 

I have also included an image below which shows Lara Jade in a photo shoot in a studio but also shows a man with a film camera clearly filming her for a professional side to her work so it can be shown to other clients. Images like this and short film clips would be added to my short film of myself. 

Lara Jade - Behind the Scenes

A reason not to do this idea and to consider other ideas is because this short film of me working as a photographer on shoot is something that I want to do anyway, and is something I will aim to do for most of my shoots to create a behind the scenes of 'Suzi-Rae Photography' for my website and so that I can show them to clients.  It is something that I can aim to do towards my Professional & Community Practice module and fits in more with that module.  Also, I think that I can be a lot more creative with this project and include something a little more artistic.  Short films of me working are completely different to a short film of something I am interested in. 

Inter - linking

As soon as these modules were given to me and the start of the year I had one set idea that I knew I was going to develop in this years assignments. But one thing I also wanted to do from the start was interlink my Major Practical project and Mixed Media ideas together.  The reason for doing this is to make it easier for me throughout my research.  Having a similar idea for both assignments means I will have a lot of research to back both assignments and make looking for artists and photographers with similar work to my ideas a bit easier.

The main idea that I started this year with, was to develop from my nude photography that I have tried once before.  But i wasn't 100% sure on shooting nude photography again this year.  So my ideas changed into working with the body.  Linking the human body and it's shapes and tones with nude so that I am still exploring the look of the body through a nude/artistic and photographic way.

I now know already that I will be throughout this assignment be exploring artists interpretation of the body and different photographers ideas of the body to come up with a set idea for my mixed media piece.  I also know that I can use similar ideas from my Major Practical project to help me along with this project.

About the Module

Mixed Media is always something I have been interested in. In school I loved all of my Art lessons and have always had a very create side to my practice.  When I first started thinking about ideas for this project i thought about, paintings and drawing as well as photography but after some research I have come up with a lot more ideas including sound and film too.

So the first thing I have to do for this project is decide on my percentages between my essay and practical work.  Personally I do not think essay's are my strongest point and think my stronger work is always my practical side so therefore I would like to have less words for the essay as I will find it easier. So for now I will stick with 50% written essay of 2500 words and 50% practical submission.  This may change throughout my ideas and as they develop because I may have a much stronger practical piece and change to 20% written essay of 1000 words and 80% practical work, and this is what I would feel more comfortable with.

For me to be able to achieve a good grade for this assignment I have to consider the learning outcomes for the project I will undertake.  I have to bare these all in mind throughout my work and make sure by the end, I can tick them all off.  Here are the learning objectives below.

Learning Objectives
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the significance of practice-based research within an historical and contemporary cultural context;
2. Demonstrate a focused and clear research topic defined in relation to theory/practice interchange;
3. Employ practice-based research methodologies and examine creative and innovative approaches for the communication and presentation of outcomes;
4. Examine, analyse and evaluate in presentation, written and practice based forms a chosen research area relevant to the Photography Programme;
5. Consider creative and innovative approaches to the communication of findings outcomes and conclusions.

I have a lot of ideas, research and inspiration to show towards the ideas I already have for this assignment.