MAPS AND NETWORKS: Narrowed Down Idea

Another idea which has sprung to mind also is the idea of disconnection, which is the opposite of the other ideas I have mentioned before which would focus on connection. The route I would take is how people can disconnect themselves from the earth around them. People disconnect themselves in many different ways and for many different reasons. I could still use the diegetic sounds of peoples voices and warp them in ways i.e. how the voices in these sound like -

I want to include music, potentially warped and experimental, around these voices too. Visually I still want to incorporate multiple screens (minimum 3 screens), inspired by John Akromfrah's 6 screen 'Purple'. Another thing I liked about this piece is how some titles were included in between the landscape shots that had an entire purple background with just a tiny little white title in the middle. I liked how since the screens were so big and there were multiple of them, the purple lit the entire room. This got me thinking about lighting and how I want to incorporate it into my piece. I would say my piece would be a sound video installation. Another option is to make it interactive by asking questions to the viewer through titles or deciding to take the opposite route of sending a message and vibe to the viewer through aesthetics, visuals and sound.

The way I want my piece to be presented like is inspired by the way a lot of the pieces in The Store X are presented. I really enjoyed and took a lot of inspiration from this exhibition when I went last year in October 2018, I loved the piece Wu Tsang's 'The Looks' and Kahlil Joseph's 'Fly Paper'. The sound and music for both of them is what I loved most, how it really made an impression and left a certain vibe to the viewer.

I searched disconnection art in google and I found a photographer called Jamie Brisick, who took a series of photos which portray disconnection and alienation, mainly within a big city. He said this:

“These photos are about the alienation and the disconnect in the big city. When I first moved to Sydney I was here by myself so I probably felt very disconnected by being on the other side of the world, and disconnected to the space and the big city. A lot of the photos I take are about the disconnect, and to some extent I’m always searching for that disconnected look in people.”

I took a lot of inspiration from these photos for my own project:

There's also the option of combining disconnection with fears and anxiety. One of mine being fear of illness and death, so I could explore that fear and isolation it brings me, with shots of hospital wings, things within a hospital, all with a certain aesthetic in mind. I would bring in colour correction and things like that which have strong yellow colours, reds for blood etc. The only issue that would bring is getting permission to film in a hospital. In my head an ideal thing for me would to have a shot of a nurse taking a sample of blood from someone from their arm, or injecting them with an injection. The easiest way to do this would be to film myself since I can provide my own consent for it but I don't know if it's possible to get permission to film in a doctor's practice or hospital. This collection of shots would help me face and deal with a very deep rooted fear of mine to see it all on screen, of things happening to me in a hospital. The way this idea would link to Maps and Networks however is through how it connects to a wider network of anxiety that a wide array of people suffer with, even though this specific fear is relevant for me.

STUDIO SHOOT: The Brief

To gather my thoughts, ideas and plans I decided to include all the brief for the studio shoot in this post. Our two main groups were decided today for the studio shoot.

My Group:
Evie G
Ben
Carrie
Katie
Hazel
Alex
Richard
Majd
Dani
Terrell
Cristina
Nathan
Suriñe
Evie M

My initial thoughts have been that I have wanted a role in directing or cinematography. The roles in the group are:

Producer
Production Designer
Director
1st AD
- With this role, I'm aware the person will take on jobs such as assisting the director, coordinating all production activity and supervising the cast and crew. Core responsibility is to keep filming on schedule by driving it forward, so they frequently make announcements and give directions to coordinate the cast and crew.

They are also in charge of a department of other assistant directors and runners. Overall, they provide the key link between the director, the cast and the crew, while also liaising with the production office, and providing regular progress reports about the shoot.

- create filming schedule

2nd AD
DoP
Camera Operator
Digital Imaging Technician
Set Design
Costume Design
Props
Sound Recordist
Boom Operator

So far, we have placed a few people in roles such as
Producer: Hazel
DoP: Katie
Boom Operator: Richard
Sound Recordist: Alex
Production Designer: Cristina

I am now interested in the role of 1st AD or even Director.

Photo by Gregory Crewdson – Untitled (Dylan On The Floor)

We decided to split into small groups within our group, each group was designated a photo to research and look into more for pitch ideas. From this image I see a loss of self control, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, stress, crime, trauma.

notes:
man cant cope with his self loathing
man cant cope with inner pain from trauma or self
man cant cope with something he did, a crime maybe such as murder - the lights suggest fear/hallucinations of police coming and sirens.
man cant cope with stress, anxiety, having no purpose in life, depression - his work being too much to handle, he can't deal with the stress of it.
man's privacy being breached by others
house setting, all not perfect on the inside uncovered, but looks perfect from outside even though is not. - Melanie Martinez album of crybaby, song called 'Dollhouse' (creates same vibes as that song and music video)
brings in Riverdale vibes of perfect town and houses, but with hidden secrets and underlying or hidden spooky crimes
in terms of cinematography and design, there is darkness, coldness, pale colours, browns, blues and retro style. I also love how there is such a high amount of saturation but at the same time, low exposure and brightness. I definitely want to be able to use that style in our film.
could take a stance of following a male/or female following a traumatic event, lives alone (bring in Unbelievable - Netflix - those vibes)

Unbelievable (Netflix TV Series)

I really like the shots used in this series, the whole vibe of the show is created through the choice of colours throughout, colour grading and close up shots. It links to the Crewdson image from how he is alone in his home, he may be going through something traumatic in his mind, trying to deal with the pain. That is what this girl is trying to do in this series, even more so she is trying to hide from it, ignore it, try to pretend it never happened. I definitely like the idea of taking the route of there having
been a crime, therefore taking the route of crime genre.

Here is a shot from the series of the room where the trauma happened, it portrays a cold, chilling, psychologically disturbing eerie vibe.

I like how the man is in the shot on the back left behind the closed doors, it portrays he is potentially somewhat villainous, sick or disturbing. It portrays exactly what it needs to portray through the framing and positioning of the character. All again, was reminded for me by seeing the Crewdson image.

To link to this, another film that springs to mind when it comes to these sort of vibes and colour scheme is Gone Girl.






As you can also tell from all these photos, that there is low exposure and darkness in them. It is also low key lighting. I like how there is still saturation in them though, that brings out the fresh colours such as the yellows of the back curtain and greens of the grass. I've noticed all the psychological crime genre style films/series take these same signifiers and elements throughout.

Another one to mind is 'The Sinner'. This shot sums entirely my point, the setting is a room, with a lot of browns, yellows, beiges, greys and warm but pale colours. Also again the exposure and brightness is low. It portrays the cold but warm at the same time psychologically disturbing vibes.




Another one with great cold, but saturated colour schemes is The Mist (another Netflix TV series). It also has some really nice shallow depth of fields,

Carrie, who is in the same small group as me for researching more into the Crewdson image, took an interesting view on the image which is slightly different to mine. She took bright colours of clothing from it and historic, traditional, antique buildings and rooms. She made a moodboard to illustrate the vibe and themes she took from the image:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/carinaboult/crewdson-image/?fbclid=IwAR1iPdbUCs4M9yxEZyljalLvmfnis4RsNlR-GpKgCaJDJl6Wkdl9CNtYelg

I do agree and really like the idea of using pale colours such as browns, beiges, greens, whites, greys, yellows and also blacks in the production, costume and set design and also within the shots and colour grading process in post.

In terms of narrative, we could be thinking of, as mentioned before, a crime based narrative. Maybe revolving around one person or more about crimes been committed and how these one or more people are linked either by being victims of a crime that has caused suffering and trauma or been the ones who have caused the suffering and are now dealing with that guilt. The crime narrative of the show 'Unbelievable' is following a selection of women who live alone who have been raped by a mysterious serial rapist, broken into their homes while they are sleeping and then raped for hours on and off. 'The sinner' (in both seasons) follows individuals who have been illustratively set up to look like they are the committer of a crime that they actually are the victims of. First season was a woman in her 30s, 2nd season was a young boy aged about 13. The show untangles the truth of what really happened in the situation, how the individuals got easily presumably blamed for the crime but when actually there is a way bigger picture of the amount of individuals who committed these entangled crimes.

2001 Photo by Ralph Eugene Meatyard – Untitled 1962 

Photo by Diane Arbus – King and Queen 1970

Photograph by Hannah Starkey – Untitled 1997

Meeting 23rd of October
Diane Arbus photo:
notes:
cuts to the shot of strategy map
empires come and go
king and queen have prosperous empire.
turning point when it crumbles
As their empire grows they become even less happy, finding a coping mechanism
become selfish, money can't buy you happiness theme
being drunk
set can become peasantry
strategy board - objects moving

Hannah Starkey:
notes:
individual isolation
mimicks a film narrative style
her work has 3 emotional aims
anxiety, doubt or desire
being trapped in present
composition quite strange
being trapped
morphe trapped inside it, see another woman from a different background
women relationship, what it means
traditional womens roles keep coming in
all around her trapped in a world
bus shelter - starkey works with ordinary environments
setting of prison, not very challenging, exciting or creative
colourful and floral
narrative allows all departments to see womens repression
strong narrative, magazine acts as mirror
handmaid's tail, in a modern society
society has created a metaphorical lab rat environment
internal mind as a prison
sat at bus stop, reading through magazine, quite isolated place, waiting and waiting
reading it going through it, being absorbed in it, then in the waiting room, background is waiting room
magazine triggers her to
womens magazine
blatantly trying to be sexist
almost suggests them to be in a submissive role
oppressing women magazines
one woman is trying to break out
ends with two women at bus stop.
moth being trapped
people who relate and people who don't relate to it, e.g. males instead
outdoor set - inside - everything has to be in the studio - bus shelter
woman puts really ugly make up on, make up starts to rot, starts rotting her face
end of times apocalyptic
woman will get pretty to go out right now on a night out, wants to relive that, wants to reminisce
she's trapped inside
cosmopolitan is a new form of government
magazine is a relic from the past
woman at the end thinks its the new magazine
self reflection of herself as a woman
being in a different world, being in present looking forward, being in future looking back,

future is a smarthouse
undergone some sort of surgery
can't speak
his struggle to access this smart house
smart house doesnt speak, just produces words, having wall of holes, LED panel, combine cinematography and set design
man could interact with these holes without speaking to it
smart house could register him as an intruder
struggle just to turn this alarm off 

MAPS AND NETWORKS: Inspiration

John Akomfrah's 'Purple'

In the summer, I went on holiday to Boston for 2 weeks and I got the chance to visit the ICA in Boston (Institute of Contemporary Art). There was an exhibition going on at ICA Watershed led by a piece called 'Purple', an immersive six-channel video installation. It was drawn from hundreds of hours of archival footage, combined with newly shot film and a hypnotic sound score to address themes related to the implications of climate change across the planet and its effects on human communities, biodiversity and the wilderness. I really loved it. I loved the entire vibe and mood the piece created atmospherically and emotionally. It created a somewhat fearful, guilty, cold and melancholic, nostalgic vibe, a somewhat contradictory combination. The sounds are what brought the cold, fearful, guilty feel to the experience and the slow motion, colourful somewhat warm visuals brought the melancholic, nostalgic, blissful, emotional feel to the entire thing. It was interesting

Ryoji Ikeda - Test Pattern at Store X
This piece 'Purple' somehow links to this piece by having a collection of shots of landscapes (in this case space atmospheric views) playing one after the other extremely fast. It makes you feel in awe and inspired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y7WZk_IVqI

MAPS AND NETWORKS: Brainstorm

As I was sitting in the lecture today a few ideas sprung to mind. Firstly, after watching
I thought of the idea of including the sound of voices alongside my video, of people saying irrelevant but relevant things, alongside music also. I definitely would like to include music into my video, interweaving diegetic sounds and music with the visuals.

I also had the idea in this lecture today of going big size wise with my installation piece, having multiple big screens or projecting over a building or something big i.e. a big object alongside, as I have said before, atmospheric or dynamic music and sounds. These ideas beckoned me after watching this studio demo reel video by Light Harvest:

https://vimeo.com/246203328

In terms of concepts, I was thinking of potentially looking at a person's perception of the world, by showing their point of view as if they're existence is merely used to be a watcher and aider of others. For example, showing the perspective of someone working in a supermarket, who is meeting and greeting people all the time, or in a bar where the bartender has to attend to every customer's needs and in some ways forget about theirselves in order to fulfil everyone's needs. I would be interested to show how this can affect someone's mental worth and view of themselves. This idea's legs also began from looking at Marc Isaac's 'Lift' where people start talking to him telling him about their lives. This is the same sort of way people treat shop assistants and workers who are there to primarily aid customers and make customers' day better. I find it interesting that people like to confide and discuss about themselves with strangers just to get things off their chest and to make other's days feel even just a bit better. This then branches out into the concept of human communication and connection.

A way in which this communication aspect would interlink well with the overlay of diegetic sounds of voices is by recording people speaking about normal things they would speak about to strangers like a shop assistant. These voices could play and linger around while the video plays on screen, this could even portray how these strangers stories linger in a bartender's/shop assistant's mind long or short afterwards. This relates to my own experience as working as a bartender and shop assistant, I speak to people every day, even if I don't start the conversation, others speak to me, confide in me, retell stories etc. I think, in general, I am a person who prefers to watch people interact around me than actually partake in conversation and interaction. I don't like to interfere or interrupt with it. Therefore I let others entertain and fill a part of who I am as a person.

Those who take the time out their life or day to ask or be interested about me fascinates me. It's interesting how connections form with others. This, you could say, connects to the maps and networks idea through how connections form and take place through interaction and intimacy. How one person could potentially interact with others in certain ways in order to feel something better within themselves.

I also thought of the concept of filming abstract movements or actions of things personified as feelings and thoughts.

mental state -
depression
anxiety
cold
water
blue
fragile
thin
ice
skin
naked body
beige
flowing
waves
current
connection

Another idea which has sprung to mind also is the idea of disconnection, which is the opposite of the other ideas I have mentioned. The route I would take is how people can disconnect themselves from the earth around them. People disconnect themselves in many different ways and for many different reasons. I could still use the diegetic sounds of peoples voices and warp them in ways i.e. how the voices in these sound like -

I want to include music, potentially warped and experimental, around these voices too. Visually I still want to incorporate multiple screens (minimum 3 screens), inspired by John Akromfrah's 6 screen 'Purple'. Another thing I liked about this piece is how some titles were included in between the landscape shots that had an entire purple background with just a tiny little white title in the middle. I liked how since the screens were so big and there were multiple of them, the purple lit the entire room. This got me thinking about lighting and how I want to incorporate it into my piece. I would say my piece would be a sound video installation. Another option is to make it interactive by asking questions to the viewer through titles or deciding to take the opposite route of sending a message and vibe to the viewer through aesthetics, visuals and sound.

PORTRAIT SERIES: Final Images

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The final 6 images of my portrait series mounted on the wall

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To present and explain my final portrait series I have decided to make a powerpoint presentation - 
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PORTRAIT SERIES: Final Concept

For my final concept I have decided to explore voyeurism on fantasised women in anime and sci-fi/cyber/futuristic/fantasy media which could be in the form of video games, manga, porn, films, comics or TV shows. I want to portray how this ongoing sexualisation of women in these forms of media makes real life women feel. These forms of media are targeted at predominantly males aged 15-25 (also males younger and older than this too). Since they are targeted at mainly men, many women (referring heavily to myself) view these and question themselves on whether they are good enough or living up to this standard. The portrayal isn't a correct one because real life women do not look the same. They are glamorised and dolled up to look like something to eat or take a bite out of, with perfect shiny flawless skin, legs, breasts, body shape and hair. 

EXP VID: Personal and Political Task Video

Here is mine and Elisa's personal and political task video - exploring the issues of social media, sexualisation of women, sexualisation/glamorisation of violence and torture of the female body and mental health issues.

Referring to the sexualisation of violence and torture of the female body, female bodily fluid and blood, on show, gets related to the period and birthing only the female body can perform. This then constitutes motherhood as something society is taught to be disgusted with, feeding into this patriarchal world. 

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EXP SOUND: Image Chosen

I have chosen this image to use for my experimental sound piece:

'Cold Dark Matter'

I chose this because I could immediately picture the kinds of sounds that would resonate well with it. I immediately thought, metallic industrial sounds. I also imaged echoing, hollow, dark sounds that are drawn out. Obviously also, I thought of there being an explosion sound since the installation art in the photo mimics an explosion of items (mainly metallic industrial and wooden items). 





Words describing this photo:
cold
hollow
dark
chaos
trapped
vacuum
clinical
white
bare
echo
shadows
industrial
metallic
void
nothingness
matter
sharp
disorder

Recording + Editing days:
25th February 
26th February
27th February
28th February

POST-RECORDING:
I have recorded most of my sounds in my house, focusing on sounds which have a metallic, industrial like quality to them such as, pots/pans hitting each other, oven door being slammed shut, microwave door being slammed shut, the sound of the hob turning on, the sound of extractor fan, a dryer on strong power, vacuum cleaner on different settings, scraping of chairs and tables on the floor etc. I imported them all into a media folder within a folder called EVIE EXPERIMENTAL SOUND, and listened to all of them back, so that I could rename them into things I could easily find editing and creating in Adobe Audition. 

PORTRAIT SERIES: Initial Concept

My first initial concept is looking at the dynamics of a toxic, intense love between two people. I would have a male with long hair and a female with long black hair. I want to set it outside, firstly, because, for my single portrait project, I decided to shoot in a studio where it was fairly easy to achieve the correct exposure, therefore, I would like to challenge myself by trying to shoot in natural light. Secondly, because I envisage the couple together in touch with nature in a grassy field or by a stream in a forest. I know a place in mind which has all of these different nature forms - Farnham Park. The aesthetics I want to create involve making the people look extremely cold, with blotchy cold purple/blue skin. As in the photos below, the people look emasculated, vulnerable, delicate and weak. 

As for one of the images of the couple, I was thinking of a shot like this, which symbolises how they are intertwined with each other, blinded and entangled together. Visually, I think this image is stunning, with the cold icy colours contrasting with the darkness of the hair. Also with the fact that they are both naked, therefore in their most helpless, vulnerable, exposed states. 

Here is a link to my pinterest board which explores my concept for the portrait series through images which either aesthetically or symbolically portray in a way that is relevant to my concept:

https://pin.it/6eam4276zpyhgd

DOC: Production Pack

Since Ravinn was the producer of this documentary, she produced the entire production pack which includes primarily risk assessments, actor release forms, permission to film on location forms, call sheets etc. 

DOC: Animation

Here is the animation which will be in the documentary, made by Heather in our group. It has taken quite a while to get this animation and finally the night before the screening, I have got it from her. Initially we wanted it to last a minute long and to be in the colours of red and blue (therefore the title says 'version one') but since it has taken Heather this long to create this (right up until the night before the final screening), we have decided it's good enough as it is and we will keep it like this. 
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DOC: Final Cut

Here is a link to the final documentary which we titled ‘We Are Consumed’ -

DOC: Music Permissions

Since I am the editor and sound editor for this documentary, I have found a lot of music that I really like and think would really go well with some of the scenes. I am really influenced by the TV shows 'The Clique', 'Kiss Me First' and 'Skins', they are all created by the same people, and the music composer is the same for all of them, Segal (Matthew Simpson). 

After going to a concert 2 months ago, there is also another artist who I would really like to use music from, they are called Kllo. I got the chance to meet and speak to them after the concert and also with their manager so that night I asked whether I would be able to use Kllo's music, they said send me an email and that we could arrange something. So to follow up on what was said I emailed the manager asking about this but they never got back to me. 

Kllo - Dissolve
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Kllo - Candid 
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Kiasmos - Burnt
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Segal - Lake Control
(from Skins Season 3 Episode 2 'Cook')
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Segal - Skins Rise OST 
(from Skins Rise)
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Segal - Kiss Me First Theme
(from Kiss Me First)
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Since Kllo's manager never got back to me, I decided to just stick with the idea of using Kiasmos' and Segal's music in the documentary, so I emailed each of their managers with this email template:
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Kllo's manager never emailed me back. However, Segal emailed back surprisingly soon and short notice with this:
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Kiasmos' manager said I should get in contact with the record label directly so I sent another email to the record label and they responded back quite quickly saying they are willing to issue a gratis license for the usage if it was for educational purposes only but if I ever wanted to publish the documentary to film festivals or online I will need to pay a license fee. 
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DOC: Shooting Schedule

Wednesday 28/11/18
Location: UCA B32
Interview scenes with:

Sally-Anne Boult
Elena Eracleous
Carrie Boult
Elisha Fall
Madeline Abrook

Thursday 29/11/18
Location: UCA B32
Lesbian Intimate Scene with:

Elisha Fall 
Madeline Abrook

Friday 07/12/18
Location: UCA G29 
Interview Scenes with:
Emily 
Nosa 
Karen

Location: 40 Long Garden Walk, Farnham, Surrey, GU97HX (My house)
1st Intimate 'Sex' Scene with:

Katie Elmore
Luc Ineson

PORTRAIT: Final Portrait

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To present and explain my final portrait piece I have made a powerpoint - 
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FINAL PORTRAIT

I decided to make a powerpoint presentation to illustrate and explain my final portrait and the process/journey of making it:
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PORTRAITS: Photographer 2 Research

Another photographer I came across, after asking other class members which photographers they had found, was Torbjørn Rødland, born in Stavanger, Norway but now living and working in Los Angeles and Oslo. 

He went to art school in Bergen where he experimented with long lenses, creating the voyeuristic effect of his breakthrough series 'In a Norwegian Landscape'. He is now well known for his portraits of characters including beautiful models, old men, cute animals, memorably Paris Hilton, in bizarre and banal settings. What those works share in common is that Rødland himself is at their centre. “(I wanted) to make sure it didn’t turn into reportage,” he says of the decision to put himself in the frame. “(To show) how a photograph can come from a subjective place (and) show a psychological, emotional reality, rather than just a dry description of what’s in front of the camera.”

Rødland is excited at the prospect of shocking the uninitiated. “It feels great,” he says. “I like that process of seeing how the photographs find new neighbours and how their content starts to bleed into each other – how (works) that have been made many years apart can come together and influence one another.”

http://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/37570/1/torbjorn-rodland-serpentine-exhibition-photographer

Over the last two decades, Torbjørn Rødland has created a body of images in which precision and critical rigor are finely laced with an improvisational and tactile intensity. Evading the reach of language, his subtly double-edged allegories make visible a broad spectrum of sensory experience, as well as physical and emotional exchange, coalescing at his work’s center the unpredictable physicality of our world.

https://www.presenhuber.com/home/exhibitions/2017/Torbj%C3%B8rn-R%C3%B8dland/Press-Release.html
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PORTRAITS: Photographer 1 Research

After using the library catalogue on myUCA and through browsing in the library, I found a photography book called 'Photobox' (by Roberto Koch). In this book there were many well known photographers that I came across, one being Antoine D'Agata. 

The photographer I decided to choose for this project was Antoine D'Agata. I have picked out a few of his photos that stand out to me and inspire me:
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Antoine D'Agata was born in Marseilles in 1961. He decided to leave France, however, in 1983 then go to New York in 1990 to pursue his interest in photography. He attended courses at the International Center of Photography in New York. In 1993 he returned to France but didn't do any photography for 4 years. 

"Antoine D'Agata approaches the night as a man, not as a photographer. He loses himself there; it is a journey into darkness, where both words and thoughts unravel and identity becomes atomized. D'Agata's obsession is flesh, the physicality of bodies withered by addiction to pleasure and pain. His scenes are based on emotion rather than narrative, on the contact between reality and the observer; D'Agata's does not seek to document the world, but rather to explain the photographer's role in it. 

'In my photographs, in my daily practice of artifice, I cannot pretend to describe anything other than my very own situation - my daily state of mind, my own personal fluctuations.' Solitude, orgasms, eroticism, pain, change, danger, desire - his anxieties reflect those of the broken characters ravaged by alcohol, drugs and vice who appear in his work; and in the cracks and crevices of their used and abandoned bodies he explores the essence of their being. 

D'Agata's experiences occur in moments of intense sexual and existential tension: the camera scrutinizes the physical and emotional intimacy of writhing bodies, seen on the very limits of a reality that has been stripped of its false boundaries. There is no joy; life is brutal. Desire and pleasure are intersected by death and peril. His photography is one of violence and despair. 

D'Agata's interest in exploring the unconscious, in unearthing the intense sensations that come from underground lifestyles and that defy the bourgeois social order. As there is no place for deviance in that order, his photography is one of protest: 'The pornographic gesture, paradoxically, becomes an explicit alternative to the monstrosity of social interactions that revolve around unfulfilled desire, frustration and paralysis'."

Koch, R. (2009). Photobox. Thames & Hudson.

"It's not how a photographer looks at the world that is important. It's their intimate relationship with it." - Antoine D'Agata

"He has traveled the world's darkest corners collecting images of characters from the night's furthest edges: prostitutes, addicts, war-torn communities, and the homeless, published in a book in 1998".

Magnum Photos. (2018). Antoine D'Agata • Photographer Profile • Magnum Photos. https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/antoine-dagata/

The 4 photos I will be looking at in further detail are:
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I really like the tiling effect used here to convey the woman's emotions during a clearly painful sexual intercourse. D'Agata uses extreme pale lighting and pale colour tones on the woman to expose her and make her skin look pale, clammy and fleshy, highlighting her bones and veins. This physically makes the viewer (in this case, me) feel isolated, exposed, disgusted and sickly. It is scary because the woman looks somewhat monstrous, ghostly and zombified, but yet at the same time is erotic because of the woman's sexual orgasmic body positions and posture. Therefore D'Agata intersects and intensifies the feelings of pleasure with pain. 

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D'Agata here uses a very low shutter speed to create a somewhat ghosting, alien, zombie, monster effect. This effect is mainly only being used on the man on top of the exposed woman. The viewer can insinuate that the man here is about to have sexual intercourse with the woman. Her lifeless, weak body posture (also with her hair covering her face) alongside the super slow shutter speed effect on the man, connotes to us that she is in an unsafe, scary situation and does not want this to happen. The extreme pale lighting which isolates them in the frame also helps to portray this well. My emotional response to this image is fear, dread, sickness, disgust, sadness and pain. It is a truly horrifying and disturbing image to look at. 
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I really like how the woman in the image looks almost barbie like, made of plastic. Her body is exposed through being naked and the use of extreme pale lighting on her skin. Her writhing body posture connotes that she is scared, vulnerable and exposed. This image makes me feel grotesque and sickly, as do the other images above. I also like how there is a harsh contrast between her icy pale skin and the black mattress she is lying on. I can sense there to be no connection between the woman and the photographer, she is huddled out of sight appearing to not want her photo taken. I empathise with the woman's fear and vulnerability. I am inspired for my portraits to focus on the human body and all it's skin, blood, bones and emotions. I like the idea of exposing the human body and focusing deeply on it's vulnerability and weakness. 



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The tiling effect can be seen again here. D'Agata illustrates a series of images here which all connect through black and white colour, yellow/brown lighting, harsh tones, slow shutter speed and graininess. I am inspired by the exposed naked bodies used in these images and the body postures/positions used by the people within the images, for example in the central brown tonal image, a male is grabbing a woman forcefully around the neck from behind. I also like how D'Agata evenly dispersed the images with brown tones around the images in black and white. Unlike with the other photos above that I looked at, this series of images portrays erotica and sex more so due to the use of warmer yellow colours, harsher contrasts and lighting, extreme graininess and seductive, suggestive, alluring looks and postures given out from the people in the images. Alongside those aspects, there seems to be more of a connection between the photographer and the people in these images, this is why I feel more safe, connected, warm and stimulated when looking at them, compared to the other 3 images that I looked at which left me feeling isolated, scared, vulnerable and cold. 

DOC: Haiku Exercise

I had never heard about Haikus before until hearing about them in today's lecture. A Haiku is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, consisting of three lines in a 5-7-5 structure, traditionally evoking images of the natural world. 

Here is my Haiku:

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INTRO: About Me

Full name:
Evie Gibbons

Age:
18

Favourite Colour:
Lilac

If you could add any song to a movie soundtrack what it would be?
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Favourite guilty pleasure film:
Scooby Doo 
Sharkboy and Lavagirl

Favourite film of the moment:

If your life could be a movie/TV series which one would you pick? Why?
Kiss Me First

Favourite artist or photographer or cinematographer or director?
Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049)

Favourite YouTube video?
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Somewhere Else - Move Together


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