Research - Stephen Gill

Stephen Gill is a British photographer. I have been looking at his series 'Outside In' that he created in 2010. This series features unusual photographs where objects and insects had been picked up from the ground and put into the body of the camera.

I was pretty amazed whilst looking at this series. The photographs are almost like projections in their own way so I can understand why my tutors wanted me to look at Stephen Gill's work.
Some of the negatives of his work were dipped into the sea or we permanently marked by having a magnifying glass shone onto them. A few of the above images have had these techniques applied to them and they almost have an ethereal glow to them.
Although not suitable for this project as I am not using film, I think that this would be a good idea to consider doing in a future project.

Research - Projection Photography

I decided to have a look at other projection photography and see what I could find off a search engine. I found a few pictures that were quite interesting just off typing in 'projection photography'. I remembered that I had seen a photograph of Nico and the members of The Velvet Underground on the sleeve of 'The Velvet Underground and Nico' vinyl I own. I decided to research this a bit further and found that Andy Warhol had taken quite a few more photos of Nico that were involving projections I had actually seen a few years ago and completely forgotten about!

Below are some photographs I took at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia in September which show projections from oil and normal projectors.

Revised Proposal

Proposal - Exploring the influences that the music we listen to has on our fashion choices

Key Words

Portraiture, projection, projector, psychedelic, psychedelia, avant-garde, lo-fi, low fidelity, country, psychobilly, Asian, Bhangra, electronic, drone, folk, punk, post hardcore, music, influence, fashion, style, genre, sub-genre, clothing, experiment, experimental, studio.

Overview/Topics of Interest

My area of practice tends to have a psychedelic theme to it, which includes a range of everyday objects, nature and people. I am inspired by work that uses bright colours and I like to work using bright colours myself. I am majorly influenced by Karl Ferris and Ira Cohen because of their use of colour and materials used within their shoots are very experimental, notably 'The Mylar Chamber' series.

The idea for my final major project was influenced by visual light shows that I saw at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia and a piece entitled 'L'Expedition Scintillante' by Pierre Huyghe at the Reflections From a Damaged Life exhibition.

Title:

Refraction

Introduction/Research Question

How does what we listen to affect the way we dress? Does the genre we listen to cause us to dress stereotypically? Or do we not dress stereotypically at all?

Aims and Objectives

For my final major project my aim is to explore the relationship between clothing and fashion and how they influence each other. There are many different genres of music that influence the wearer to dress a certain way. This could be down to the way a famous person from said genre of music dresses or the fashion of a certain era.

I intend to photograph people whose clothing choices are clearly influenced by the music that they listen to. The way that I will show the relation between music and fashion is that I will be using an overhead projector to play a video onto the subject's face and backdrop, for example, post punk and a video of frequency waves (this would connect the subject to post-punk band Joy Division through their album Unknown Pleasures which features frequency waves on the front cover.)

Rationale

I think that this will be an interesting idea to pursue as there are many genres of music that I will be able to explore and every outcome will be completely different to the others. It would also be interesting to see if the viewer(s) of my work will be able to make the connection between the genres and fashion styles.

I would not be able to use any video I pleased and what I personally thought related to the fashion, so I would have to ask my subjects about what they listen to and who they are influenced by amongst other things as not to create a stereotypical piece of work.

Previous Research

Below I have compiled a list of sub-genres of music, along with the main genre of music that they come from, that I have researched into and that I think would be interesting to explore.

    ⁃    Avant-Garde - Lo-Fi
    ⁃    Country - Psychobilly
    ⁃    Asian - South and Southeast Asian - Bhangra
    ⁃    Electronic - Drone Music
    ⁃    Modern Folk - Psychedelic Folk
    ⁃    Rock - Hardcore Punk - Post Hardcore

General Methodology

    ⁃     Plan questions to ask the subjects. Doing so will enable the subject and I to choose an appropriate video to project.
    ⁃    Print final pieces to either a2 or a3 poster size

Data Collection and Analysis

As mentioned previously, I will ask my subject some questions about the genre they listen to. This is mainly to avoid using a stereotypical projection relating to the chosen genre.

Specialist Needs

I intend to shoot my work in the studio with the aid of overhead projector. I will experiment using black and white backgrounds before I have the subjects come into the studio to see which would look best with the projections on it.

Research - Charles Freger

Charles Freger is a French photographer who explores typologies, using uniforms as the basis. The series is called 'Portraits Photographiques et Uniformes', which includes portraits of Japanese sumo wrestlers, water polo players, Finnish syncronised ice skaters and young Buddhists amongst other groups.

I do find Freger's work very interesting, however, I do not want to take my work down the path of typologies. Everyone that will be included in my final major project will be of a different sex and dress quite differently to each other, therefore making it difficult for me to place them within a category.

Research - Carlotta Cardana

Carlotta Cardana is an Italian photographer best known for her portraiture. She created a series of portraits called 'Mod Couples' which I have been recommended to look at.
She is quoted as saying, "I decided to focus on couples because I am fascinated by the way their identities blend together to produce something larger than the sum of its parts. I am also quite interested in the relationship between a person and his or her surrounding environment, in seeing how they complement each other. Consequently, I took elaborate planning out of the equation when making these pictures: the couples chose what to wear and where to be photographed. The world depicted in the pictures is entirely the world they have created for themselves."

What I like most about this series is that the subjects are photographed in surroundings that are relative to the era of their dress sense. There is nothing modern about the setting and this can give off the impression that it may have been taken in the 60s. I also like the fact that the subjects were allowed to choose what to wear and where the photographs were taken. Knowing this makes me feel that the photos are more authentic in a way, as it is not guess work by the photographer where the location should be.
With my idea for the projection being played over, I was going to ask my subjects to choose it themselves so this has made me feel a lot more confident about creating something authentic.

James Mollison - Typologies Video

The following is a video I found on YouTube where James Mollison discusses his series of work 'Where Children Sleep', 'James and Other Apes', 'Disciples' and the typologies within his work.

Research - Jason Mollison

James Mollison is a photographer best known for his series 'Where Children Sleep' and his work focuses on typologies.
He produced a series of work between 2004 and 2007 called 'Disciples' where he traveled across Europe and the United States with a mobile photography studio and went to gigs. He would then take photographs of the fans and compile them into a panoramic image.

I think that these images are brilliantly done, they work extremely well in showing the stereotypical people who listen to certain bands and they are rather humorous.
With respect to my work, I would like to stay away from creating humorous portraits of people.