Evaluation

• I chose to use the 'old wives tale' concept for my final outcome as I wanted to use my family within it to show how the tales are passed down in generations, my family as a representation of many other families. I thought that this was a good concept to look at as it is very intriguing as to how they come about and it flowed nicely with my other experiments and how I have looked at the study of people and getting to know different subject matter and how they work, for example my fashion myth post.


• I think that my final outcome went quite well as I finally able to set it to the scale wanted as well as including everything I wanted in it and I was also able to finish it within the specified time. My only problem was; how to change the video tape to DVD which in the end I asked someone who knew some people who was able to sort out the problem.


• The way the two boards touch to create 'old wives tale' of 'knock on wood' as well as the visual and conceptual links between the people speaking on the tape and the portrait of mothers on the opposite side. It was a very personal final outcome to me with the way I can relate to each of the people used within it with which I am now sharing through my final outcome. My family is the visual representation of many other families of which have passed down these mind-boggling tales.


• If I were to redo this whole project then I think that I would have probably stuck with the theme of landscapes and showing the 'form of god' through visual objects as from previous experience you cannot always rely on people to help with your project and many won't let you take their photo or worry about how they will be percieved. I think it all depends on the type of person you ask, however you always learn from yor mistakes.


• In my opinion I don't think that I could have really done any more if I was given more time as I would have only been able to carry out a few more experiments but then again if I did have more time then I may have been able to conjure a better final outcome than what I have done but then again it could have been worse. I believe that you shouldn't look back on the past, 'don't cry over spilled milk', you should just move on. I am very happy with what I have completed and challenged my self to overcome within this project and so I am proud to be submitting this body of work to the exam board.

My final outcome

I wanted to show the process of the making of my final outcome in which will be able to see how it all came together to create my complete exam piece; First I bought two wooden boards in which I then hinged together. From this I then drew out the lettering and painted along the writing. The writing isn't as neat as I wanted it to be but it still has that motherly feel to it, as though a mother had actually wrote it. In between the lettering is where the film will be projected.

I then added the photos of the mothers that I had collected from the people I had videoed and stuck them onto the opposite side to the lettering. I think that having the people photograph their own mothers then it gives each photo more value and it gives a different and sacred perspective that I couldn't have captured if I had taken the photographs myself.

Here are the photos close up:

Here is the video of my family telling you what 'old wives tales' they know and of which have been passed down to them:

Planning of final outcome

After looking through the different installations by Joyce Owens I have decided on my final outcome design. I wanted to include the 'old wives tale', 'knock on wood' within my final outcome as this was one of the main 'old wives tales' that my mother used to tell me when I was younger. I decided to use two boards in which would touch somehow which then brought me to the idea of hinging them together in order for them to be permanently connected and therefore 'touching/knocking' together.

As another aspect of my final outcome I am going to film my family speaking about what their mothers told them about 'old wives tales' when they were younger. There will also be a few clips of family relations to show the relationships and generations throughout my family. This I have decided will be projected onto one of my two boards in order to link both my video with the 'old wives tale', 'knock on wood'.

Even though this is a good link I still have a board that would be empty, so I decided to link the emphasis of generations even further within my final outcome by having photographs of the mothers of the people in the video on the spare board. This will link to both the board and the video in which will create a much better viewing of my final piece. For the photographs I will ask the people I videoed to take their own photos of their mothers in which will let me and the audience have an insight into how they view their mother and not one photograph will be the same, they will all be unique and sacred in their own way. I am also going to use lettering within my final outcome which will read - 'Mother knows best...', '...but is it always the truth?' I feel that this will link my whole final outcome together as the rhetorical question will really add emphasis to the thought of 'are old wives tales actually true?' Here is a diagram of what my final outcome will look like:

Back to research...

In order to know exactly how to shrink and make my installation my own and yet still have the essence of my original ideas but with further development I knew I needed to see how someone else combines their ideas and produces and small and yet significant installation.

For this I researched into Joyce Owens:

This installation really inspired me. The fact that it's quite a small installation has good development of how it shows the process of still life within 4 different materials in which change the picture each time, finally producing a final piece/outcome which is seen at the very top. It almost shows the ladder of success in which many people use to get somewhere high up in life.

I chose to research into the installations of Joyce Owens as they really caught my eye with the originality and interesting aspects of them, for example, within the installation above there’s a mannequin that’s been painted into a realistic skeleton with a bright red heart that’s in the wrong position of the body and the mannequin has hair coming out of it. It’s these objects within her installations that really intrigue me. The fact that she uses hopeful and needed words to peoples lives, that feeling of reassurance and almost the religious sacrament, the hands of god, ‘I can heal’.

Conjuring an idea for my final piece...

For my final piece I wanted to do something that was out of my comfort zone, something that wasn't usual for me to do.
After a lot of thinking I decided that I wanted to do an installation, but what to do for it was an issue that I hadn't yet resolved. I knew that I wanted to link the theme of the installation to the different themes throughout my blog.
While looking through my blog I found the phrase 'old wives tale' in which caught my eye. From this I decided that I wanted to use this phrase somehow within my installation.

I came up with a few ideas from this topic:

1. The first idea I had was to use boards to create that feel of claustrophobia from the amount of 'old wives tales' that are circulated from word of mouth and how you can't escape them.
I was going to display this within a room where on the wall next to the door there would be big writing saying 'Mother knows best...' in that italic, neat way that a mother always writes and there would be flowers on the door and so from the outside of the room it would look really welcoming to show that its a 'mother' who tells their children these tales, the non-escaping tales, the person who loves you and who you love. However when going through the door there would be a really narrow passageway that's filled with portraits of mothers to add that daunting feeling to the 'never-ending' passage way as everyone knows that frustration of not knowing whether something is true or false.
When you finally reach the end of the claustrophobic passageway there would be a big whiteboard that would have a tally chart drawn on it with the headings 'true or false'. This would be for people to draw a small dash under the heading of what they believe 'old wives tales' to be.
From this you would enter a really light and airy room in which there will be a video of people saying what tales their mothers had told them when they were younger and them saying whether they believed it or not.
The light room would give you that feeling of freedom and space thus making that daunting almost claustrophobic feeling go away.
You would then go out of the room having felt different emotions from the same topic and almost feel relieved and hopefully have actually learnt and liked your experience.

Even though I really wanted to continue with this idea I felt that it wouldn't be practical within the space available and it would also be quite a daunting task to complete within 8 hours.

2. My second idea, inspired by my first one, was to still have the boards, but only two of them in which would be set at a 90 degree angle. I would have a shelf on the second board which would situate a television playing my video as well as a photo frame with a portrait of a mother.
On the first board I would have a child's bed coming out of it with the usual teddy bear laying on the bed with a chair next to the bed on the floor. This would represent a mother telling her child an 'old wives tale'.

Even though this was quite a good idea, I thought that it didn't really represent the telling of 'old wives tales' that well as I feel that this installation would be better suited with nursery rhymes. I also figured out that I wouldn't be able to get a bed and I don't know if the board and shelf would actually support and hold up the television safely.

I told myself that I had to be much more practical if I was actually going to succeed with my ideal installation.

The myths of fashion

For an industry that prides itself on creativity, fads and the tendency to push boundaries, it tends to have a lot of rules.

Many people have passed on outfits because it doesn't go with the ''Do's'' of fashion myths which when in actual fact the outfit suited their body shape and skin tone.
A lot of these rules have been around for decades, they relate a lot to that of 'old wives tales', tales that sometime people believe because of superstition and appearance to the outside world, but are the same rules that applied years ago still true today?
The runways and fashion statement of today beg to differ.

My mission is to find out if these myths do in fact still stand today and photograph them.

'You can't wear gold and silver together'

As we all know there are two primary metallic colours in the world of jewellery - gold and silver. But if you have a gold wedding ring for instance then does that mean you can't ever wear silver again? That's ridiculous!
Every jewellery store today has stunning jewellery pieces that have the silver-gold combination. Silver and gold together has now become a very popular trend within jewellery today but does this mean that the myth is false?

'Horizontal stripes will make you look fat'

This is one of the most famous fashion myths that many people go by today. The myth here is that horizontal stripes draw the eye across the body, making you appear wider and vertical stripes are meant to draw the eye up and down the body making you appear slimmer and taller.
However a study done by a perception expert at the University of New York found that people find horizontal stripes to appear more slimming on the body as vertical stripes which are widely set apart provides the eye with width illusion. This actually goes against this myth?

'Never mix and match prints'

Vintage clothing has made a huge comeback, and as a result loads of people are wearing mixed prints. Stripes are seen with paisleys; Fleur-dis-lee can be seen with plaids, so it seems that no-one is playing by the rules of these myths anymore?

'Never wear dark tights with light-coloured shoes'

In fact dark tights god really well with light-coloured shoes as beige tights wash you out. Black tights are actually at an advantage as they make your legs appear slimmer and more toned as beige tights are more baggy as they have a smaller denier.
Nude colour shoes, especially high heels end to go especially well when paired with black tight as they have a good contrast between them and make your shoes stand out from your body.
Does this go along with the myth?

Overall I found that this experiment was quite an interesting one, how I got to understand the myths of fashion and how many people abide by them within daily circumstances. I thought that the experiment also paired really well with the 'Acting like robots' post as its almost a developmental stage coming on from the previous post. 'Acting like robots' was the viewing of the myths and how the designers are trying to teach people about the myths and how the designers themselves are abiding by the 'rules' in order to get people to buy their clothes because if they didn't do this then the superstitious population would not buy their clothes if it was too way out with the creativity and designing of the products being sold.
I found that this was quite an educational post as it taught not only me but my audience about these myths and how to overcome them. Fashion seems to be developing and in the future maybe it will break all the boundaries and we can then all leave these myths and 'rules' behind.

Performing like robots...

While on the topic of movement, I decided that I wanted to capture movement but within fashion. How models are told what they have to do and how they have to appear to the audience in order to sell the clothes worn for the designer/ company. They are almost like a mannequin in whic people dress do their make-up, their hair and prepeare everthing for them in order for them to go and perform something they've been taught by someone and walk how they have been told.
Its almost like a robot in which someone controls.

I wanted to capture the movement of the 'robots' and how even though they have been taught and controlled on how to do everything, their personality and their own movement still somehow come through within thier facial expressions, the way they present themselves and the way they each move differently. The best place for this was definately a fashion show, so in order to complete my experiment I decided to go to Southampton fashion show which is held every year.

There was loads of people which went to see the fashion show, it was packed.

They showed all the trends which were on the brought from the catwalk, in which all the clothes were lent by surrounding shops within West Quay shopping centre. There were four main looks for the catwalk; The boys are back, Country Squire, Denim attitude and Posh frocks. In each catergory there were different outfits worn by each of the models and there were also different dances in which they had to perform.

I watched the catwalk 6 times over 2 days in which gave me the best advantage to get the best out of my photos and to capture the models in motion.

Below are just four of my shots:

So that you could see all of my shots not just the four above, I have uploaded my contact sheets:

Overall I really enjoyed this experiment as I got to go to something that really interested me and in which I had never been to before so it was a really good and enjoyable experience for me to participate in and I feel that I have learnt a lot from this experiment and have captured some great shots from it. It has opened my mind up to other suggestions in which I could use or in which could contribute towards my final piece, later on in my exam project.

Movement

When looking through my photographs which were inspired by the 'hidden object' games I found that movement was used alot within them and was what caused the playground to look how it did in that moment of time. This is when I came upwith the idea of taking 5 photos of someone moving around and show them within one photograph to suggest movement within the scenery or place. For this experiment I used my sister as I thought that she would be a good subject for movement as she loves to dance around and be active which would show not only movement within my photo but her character and personality as well which also links within my 'personality' experiment. Once I had taken this series of photographs I thought that a great way of showing the movement that had taken place was to create a flash video using the 5 different photos in which when combined would create that feeling of movement which will also be visable not only on screen but within my sisters expressions and body language. Here is my video:

This is the finished photograph that came out of this experiment:

I quite like the outcome of this experiment as I have been able to capture not only the sense of movement with which happens to people everyday, nearly every second but I have also been able to show my sister's personality within the sequence on photos which I didn't actually realise that I was doing until I had shot the photos as my overall outcome in the beginning was to show movement and space.

Taking a break...

Last night I decided to take a break from school work and so I played one of my all time favourite games. Within these games you have to search for the objects listed, within the scene shown on screen. The faster you find them the more money/hints or clues you get to help your investigation.

Here are a few examples:

I really like playing these games as they give me a thrill that I have to try and find these objects in order to get money and move on, I spend hours on them. When playing these I thought that they linked really well with the theme ' Mystery and imagination' as eventhough you are playing a game, it is still quite knowledgeable as there are many puzzles and riddles within each scene.

These games reminded me of an abandoned or mysterious place that has once had memories or movement within it and has now been laid to rest until someone finds these unique treasures again. Like at a carboot sale or in a junk yard, you never know what your going to find. Unwanted treasures can be your jewell.

Even deserted playgrounds can be of a mysterious nature as to ask the question of what happens to it or who uses it when the children have gone to bed or are having their dinner? Is it quiet? alone? or is it a subject of beauty and sacredness?

This is one of my favourite photographs from the set as I really like how the bars and rope bridge draw your eyes to the hut in the left of the photo, I also like the way the darkness of the playground apparetus contrasts well with the light blues of the sky in the background. I didn't actually spot these values until I had taken the photograph and so they appear in the photo by accident. The photographs I value the most are when they were pure accidents as this shows, to me, that you can actually, truely take a photograph without using factors such as compositional values and visual elements. They happen on their own.

I really like the outcome of this set of photos, especially with the contrasts of the blues within the sky that give the photographs that sense of mystery and an almost a moody and yet sacred atmosphere. In the first photo of the set I have burned out the bottom right hand corner as to draw the audiences eyes toward the bright red and blue swing which stands out from the paleness of the sand. I have also tried to capture the colours within the playground as to show that it does really come alive in the evening/night when the children have finished playing with the apparatus. This in my mind sparks off the thought of does the playground actually truely come alive as in the sense of 'living' and not just with colour. Who knows? When I had left who could have seen if it did or not?

Showing within from the outside

For this experiment I set each photograph in a different atmosphere as to reveal the personality of the person within it more to the viewer. This will help my set of photos flow together nicely as people will be able to see the link between them easily and understand why I have chosen to complete this experiment.
I wanted to use the most 'famous' stereotypes to complete this experiment in order to show that even though people look and dress differently we are all equal in the eyes of god and that even though everyone is unique and special in their own way, they shouldn't be singled out or abused just because they wear different clothes or have a different personality or different features to you. To show this I have pixelated the faces so that no one can judge them and it will make their inner personality shine through the environment they're in and their clothes as well as their body language, which is exactly wanted I wanted out of this experiment.

Here is the set of photographs of which complete this experiment:

''Indie''

"Goth"................................................. "Chav"

"Geek"

For this experiment I wanted to show that controversy over stereotyping and how it can affect people as well as how the person is percieved not only in the viewers eyes but in gods as well. This experiment was actually inspired by one of my first experiments; 'seeing god through an environment, object or place'. I wanted a set of images that could get the message across to people who view people as a stereotype and show how they can change their opinion, hence pixelating the face as to show that anyone could be behind the pixels as everyone is equal in the eyes of god. Don't judge a book by it's cover because until you've read it no one knows what it's really like.

Moving on to brighter ideas...

Now that I have completed my experiment on 'time' I have decided to change my idea of fashion and the tension within it. I wanted to make more of that hidden feel to my photographs, such as how John Rees hides his models behind make-up and face paint. Going back to the work of Gregory Crewdson and Edward Hopper I also wanted to include that sense of mystery and how it can set off questions and story's within your mind, how a person stands or what senery they are in as well as what direction they're heads are pointing can help with setting the atmospheric scene.
To try and get sense of my idea I looked at another artist called Luis Sanchis.
The photos below really inspired my idea for my next experiment 'viewing mystery in a different light':

I love the way Luis Sanchis can create that atmospheric sense of mystery within the character and the way he has dressed the model in white, above, as to contrast the dark shadowy tones of blues and greens in the background in order for the person to stand out, as well as how she is standing with her head pointing towards the upper left of the photograph, drawing your eyes to the corner. There is almost a beauty to the photo with that sense of timidness and thought process of how this photograph came to be.

This is what I would like to experiment with and see if I can get someone to question my photograph when they look at it.

To complete this experiment I decided to set my scene at the beach, mid afternoon in order to get that pale, almost moody effect within the sky and surroundings in order to help with the 'mystery' theme. I chose to take pictures of people who almost seem as though they are a silhouette in the photo in which will set off the question 'what do they look like' within your mind. I chose to do this as I won't know who the people are and neither will the audience in which will put me in the seat of the audience. I wanted to know what it was like to be questioned, almost as though I am looking a someone elses work and I am just as clueless to who the 'silhouettes' are as the people looking at my photos.

Below are my experiments:

I think this experiment worked quite well as I managed to capture that multi-toned sky in which is almost 'moody'. I find that how I have taken the photographs works quite well as most of the people within them appear as 'silhouettes' which has a nice contrast with the tones of the background image of the beach scenes. The only thing I would say that I don't like about my images is that I have only been able to capture one photograph of someone on there own which sparks the question of 'lonliness' and a sense of mystery of why they are there in which I was hoping to maybe get within a few of my photographs.

However, my favourite image form the set of photographs above has to be the one that has the most people within it. The 5th image in which has 5 people and five dogs within it. I feel a sense of claustraphobia within this photograph in which is quite a nice feeling as I wasn't expecting to stimulate that sense within my photographs when I set out to take them, so I was a nice suprise. I also find that by having 5 people and 5 dogs within the photo it give a balance to the image as they are not all situated within the left or right of the photo. By having the couple situated in the top-right hand corner it balances out the heaviness of the bottom left hand corner in which makes the photograph appeal to the eye.

Experimenting

After looking at the different photographers/artists that really interested me, I decided to have a go on my own and make a mini project of 'what if time stopped before the camera could click?'
I wanted to be able to see connections from the photos I produce to that of the photographers/artists I have researched.
I want my photos to have that sense of tension and awkwardness and yet that airiness of a dream like situation. A pause in time - still life. However, I wanted that uniqueness to influence my ideas by Tim Walkers and John Rees' work and so I have decided to make the models in my photos into mannequins in order to get that pause in time across to my viewers. I thought of mannequins because they are still and most of them, when you look into their faces, have an awkward face or expression as thought they haven't got their pout right or their hair right or even their pose right.

Here are the photographs in which came out of this experiment:

When I started this experiment I didn't think that I would be able to complete it as I thought that I had set myself to much as there wasn't really any evidence or any photographs that could link really well with this task as no one had any evidence of what it would look like if time stopped so I was quite nervous about doing this task.

One of my major problems was to actually be able to have the hair and clothes in the air at the point of the camera flash as she would have had to have been moving quite fast for her hair to be directly in the air. However I found a way in which I could have this effect without actually having the model blurred.

Here are the screenshots of the process of one of the photographs above to make you understand what I done to get these photographs:

The first thing I done was opened up photoshop. From this I then opened my photograph, File > open > (my photo), and selected around the model using the 'quick selection tool'.

Now I opened a new page > file > New > International paper > A4

I now added a gradient to the page using the 'gradient tool' of which there were a selection of colours to choose from but I chose a warm grey as I didn't want the background to distract away from the model. Once selected, I then had to draw a line with the 'gradient tool' from the left top corner to the middle, bottom of the page. This then set the gradient accordingly.

This was my finished result.

I then went back to my photograph. Using the 'move tool' I dragged the model from my photo to the new page.

As my model still had some of the background of my photograph within the selection I used the 'eraser tool' to rub away any of the background visable. This then left me with my model as a rough cutting so I used the 'blur tool' > opacity 23%, to lightly go around my model and make her look more 'within' the backgound.

After I had blurred the rough edges, I then decided to add a 'drop shadow' so I selected the layer I wanted the drop shadow to be present and then > Layer > Layer style > drop shadow. This then lead me to this window, above left, from here I had to decide what angle I wanted the shadow to come away from the body, what distance from the body, what spread and what size. Distance 87 > spread 9 > size 68. This image, above right, is how the shadow came out.

I then repeated my first steps, File > open > my photo. This time I opened up my photo of a blu tack blob. The image was placed directly into another layer of which I placed behind my layer with my model on. I then adjusted the 'brightness and contrast' to match that of my model.

As my model's foot didn't have a shadow on the blue tack I decided to make my own. I selected the 'eyedropper tool' and clicked on the area just below my models foot. I then clicked on the 'colours' window and made the colour about 50% darker than it was. I then painted on the colour just under my model foot using the 'brush tool'.

This is the shadow of which was created.

I then cropped the picture to a decent size using the 'rectangular marquee tool' > image > Crop.

This was my final outcome. (above)

I am actually quite happy with the outcome of this set of photos as the model looks very similar to a mannequin of which was the look that I wanted the photograph to have, that sense of movement without actually moving and the facial expression that would not have got into the likes of Vogue or Elle as they would not have been the signature pout or look of the model or brand.