art3

 

For my ART3 Personal Investigation I have been researching photographers in the self-portraiture genre as my initial aim for this year was to produce a series  self-portraits as a medium to express ones inner issues which otherwise would have no external/physical characteristics. My main photographer whom I have researched thoroughly being Francesca Woodman, famously known for her hundreds of self-portraits expressing her displacement from the world around her and her inner emotions and problems that she visualised through her photographs years before her suicide in 1981.

 

After analysing her work along with similar artists, I  then took inspiration and put it to good use whilst creating my own self-portraits in a similar fashion to Francesca Woodman..

 

 

 

 ISO-100
 f/22
 ShutterSpeed-20 seconds

ISO-100
f/-22
ShutterSpeed-20 seconds

I purposely used a high aperture of f/22 in this both of these images which allowed me to use a slow shutter speed of 10-seconds/30-seconds to achieve motion blur. As always I kept the ISO to 100 to avoid noise or grain. The high aperture of f/22 meant that the lens opening was very small resulting in more detailed light but also meant that I had to use a slow shutter speed of 20 seconds (which I intentionally wanted) to compensate for the small amount of light being let through the lens.

I feel that this second image is the stronger of the two visually as well as compositionally. The lighting in the photograph is of a very similar fashion to that of Woodman's work as the contrast in light is more subtle and softer as opposed to the more harsh lighting in the first, which creates shadows a higher contrast in light. This image on the other hand has a lower contrast in light as it does have both pitch black areas along with bright white areas, however, they do not appear within close proximity of each other, giving the image a more smooth natural look to it. The framing of this image is effective due to the fact that I purposely zoomed out making the fallen tree (that I positioned myself on) visible which breaks the photograph up nicely and is visually effective as it is entwined with ivy leaves.  I am positioned more central in this photograph as opposed to the slightly off centre positioning in the first.