For this shoot I had the idea that as we hide behind fake lives and self denial, it is destructive and as we stop focusing on ourselves, the real us starts to deteriorate which I wanted to portray through a negative and destructive theme. I have to do this I will take pictures of people in mainly portrait mode or just in a general everyday poses. To replicate the works of Dicke I will maintain the images in black and white and focus the image predominantly on the models face to keep the focus of the images and keep them looking organised.
Amie Dicke
Artist Analysis
I have chosen the artist Amie Dicke as her work is symbolic of the style that i am trying to portray. She does not incorporate technology within her images, however I thought that I could include this within my development. Her style that scratches out peoples face and main attributes of their being can be linked the effect of technology and to my hypothesis of human dependancy on technology and how we are each losing out own individual value and style. Looking at these images I can see their representation of how we are loosing ourselves, although these images doe not co- operate with the theme of technology specifically the are more about representing the effect after we have been too dependant on them. The genre of this work is portrait, experimental that is narrating a story beyond what we are capable of explaining. Dicke uses bland colours so they at first look as if they are back and white, this correlates to a bland mindset that people are forming into. The off white and harsh black contrast is used to maintain a repetitive formation to the style of work. The lighting is quite low, this initiates a setting to the work so that it has a classic effect that reminds me of a 60's theme. Dicke uses a lot of negative space in the background, this keeps the focus mainly on the subjects of the image and so the only pattern visible in the images is the scratching of the faces. As this is a manual piece of work the materials used would have been certain tools used to remove the ink from the cartridge paper, the technique to complete this work would have been a various amount as they will not have been precise; this will be such things as just scratching the paper vigorously without a synchronisation. Looking at this work makes me feel a sense of understanding and melancholy as I can read into the work and see the people themselves rather than just a piece of art. I see people fading away and as they disintegrate from reality. I feel that the people are seen as un- important, I feel sombre from this as I can relate to feeling just another face within this overpopulated world that is filled with a lot of success for the few that are given the advantage. The bland colour scheme represents how dull life can appear to be for the majority of people that are not seen as an individual but just another number, just another learner, just another being. I think that Dicke is saying that possibly if you rub out a persons outward image that we are are similar looking in our frames as there is little difference between each of the models in each of the images; if we all stopped focusing on the petty irritations that we would notice the true meaning of our selves. Even though we are all completely different then why do we all act the same?
Contact sheets
To complete this response I knew that I only needed to photograph portrait images of people, because of this I knew that it would require close up portraits of the models. As I was going to be scratching out the face of the model in the image I did not focus my entire piece on how their face looked, instead on that they had their entire head in the images that was visible enough to recognise that it is a portrait image. This was simple, however I wanted to make sure that each image was useable for my shoot, this would mean that the portrait would have the requirement to have a centre composition in each image as I would need to edit the images that would require a visibility of the entire portrait.
Artist response
Overall I am pleased with how these images turned out as my artist responses. To complete these images, I printed them onto cartridge paper at the size of A4, once I had decided on which images were my favourite I used a coin to scratch on the models to distort their faces. This was quite difficult to do as I had to damp the coin and aggressively scratch the paper, this occasionally resulted in the paper ripping too far and creating a less structure engrave. It was a long process to proceed, however once I was happy with each image and how they turned out I scanned the images into photo-shop and edited them into black and white and increased the contrast; this further improved my images and gave them a darker shadow effect which contributed to the disturbing composition. I admire how destroyed each image looks as the shadows and heavy contrast within each image extends the intense horror theme to the images. I find that my completed images are less precise and more destructive, this is not bad as I think that my edited images work well and are well -developed.
The best way to replicate this photography work will be to do it manually by printing the images off and scratching them, however I will perform both photoshop and manual methods to complete this work. This is to maintain and provoke the visual clash between the technological and manual world and how they each have a distinct image. To do this I have printed my images off onto cartridge paper, after I had done this I got a small penny and dabbed it into water and scratched the faces on the paper in no particular order. As I was doing this, parts of the paper began to rip which irritated me, however when I look at how this made the final images look I think it is improves the damaged appearance. Once I had scanned them in I edited them on photoshop to black and white, as I was replicating Dicke's work I made the contrast harsh to make the white bland and the black defining that facilitated the final piece of work.
Development
For my developments, I have decided to manually develop the destroyed faces using a needle and thread, I though that this would maintain the theme but provide more of a daunting look. I am happy with how the developments have turned out, this is because it was a long process which was difficult to complete as I only used one thin needle with thread. I did not have a consistent pattern to follow with the order of the threading, this is because I wanted to maintain the work in a similar pattern as if I was scratching the image, this is because there would be a pattern that is not structured which was a random formation. I found that the threading over the faces produces much more of a precise finish to the work whilst maintaining the destruction of the persons appearance. I shall be using this development work to inspire my final piece as it is similar to my plan and I admire how it has turned out.