Archive of ‘FMP’ category
Looking back to my statement of intent, I’ve developed and grew into my concept a lot more than I ever anticipated, I think the previous foundations and research I had done for my dissertation.
Unfortunately I was unable to go to Amsterdam in the end as of work commitments, I feel this would have allowed me to see first hand how women feel working in the sex industry and take interviews away from that experience to build a stronger basis incorporating it into my final concept of the Female Gaze.
On the surface this project doesn’t relate however I came up with the idea of looking into the Female Gaze when looking through Glamour magazines rebranded first issue and it occurred to me that we judge and look at other women the way men do. Scrutinising over lumps, bumps, spots who wears what the best and looks the ‘hottest’ when in reality we should be encouraging each others flaws and imperfections. As more times than not other women struggle with the same issues making them more normal and natural than ‘unsightly’.
I found that when looking closer at the Fashion industry women are continually portrayed through the Male Gaze, especially in retail advertising and marketing. Encouraging women to buy into a life where men find them attractive and they fulfil the female beauty ideal.
This is where I got my start point from combining that with my interest in Playboy magazine that I focused on for my dissertation I felt I had a strong starting point.
The exhibitions I discussed in my statement of intent I did visit however didn’t necessarily feel once I had developed my idea beyond the statement of intent, they seemed not irrelevant but to be going down a different scientific path than the one I was looking at with gender studies.
With my gant chart I checked back to it to reference and make sure I hadn’t missed anything/was keeping on track however I did not meet the majority of deadlines and in the end ignored the time like all together. I found it was mostly unrealistic time deadlines which just weren’t attainable.
I feel there are definitely areas of my project that I could improve on and have gone more in depth, doing more photoshoots and incorporating a larger variety of illustrations in my final.
I am however extremely pleased with my exhibition board as I wanted to create a minimalist artist wall as if in someones living room, adding an additional plant to give it more depth and aesthetically pleasing look.
I found this project challenging at times however I think I handled all that it had to throw at me creating a consistent, coherent brand identity along with work that I’m proud of.
Well boy has this been long overdue but I have final come to a decision for how I’m going to present my ‘magazine’ dun dun dunnn..
*drum roll*
Coffee Table Book!
Well I don’t know what else to call it, but I’m going for a hardback image wrap book.
I’m going to get it printed with blurb as it’s a really reliable company and I’ve printed with them before and the result was brilliant.
As I’ve FINALLY decided how I’m going to present my work, I don’t have a lot of time to put it together.
I’ve been looking at what I could use as my front page, as I’m following this project on from my first project I really like the original front page design but I do need to have other options so I’ve done four options that I would happily use as the front cover.
I really really like this illustration and think with the juxtaposition of the pink background and feminine lips with the harsh bold ‘FEMME’ I think this is a strong option for my front cover, with using the pink background this will mean the entire book will be this pink and could clash/limit my options for the back cover which could be an issue.
I love love love this option, I really like the way the illustration intertwines with the letters. I also like the way the title isn’t at the top of the page but the centre drawing the eye in with the illustration above it. The issue with using this again is that it was the title page of my brief 1 project and with this project being a lot more developed and advanced I don’t want it to hold reminders of the previous project.
I really like how shocking and in your face this option is, with the colours all complimenting each other and the bold outline of the illustration reinforcing the harsh text is really quite satisfying. This main issue with this option is the explicit nature of the illustration but part of me likes the fact it could be deemed inappropriate.
This is the most abstract option for the front cover with the use of shape and colour being very different to the other options. I like the addition of the illustration to this option and the grey colour scheme I think would work really well as a wrap around colour for the book. The title is aesthetically pleasing in its arrangement with the off centre positioning and alignment with the darker box. With the monochrome colours of this cover I don’t think it’s bold enough or as eye catching as the other options.
I decided to go with..
*drum roll please*
I chose this one as I really like the bold eye catching nature of the illustration and the three dimensional effect of the layering of the text. The options to use this illustration as business card designs/postcard designs or even portfolio to create a consistency and brand identity.
I don’t usually put my experimentation into my sketchbook which is weird because first and second year I always showed the full journey and process, but I think after my placement it made me work differently.
With brief one I didn’t show ANY experimentation and even in the project my sketchbook doesn’t have a lot of what I went through with processes and colours but I thought to make up for that I’d include and record it all through my blog!
So below I’ve included some of the experimentation I had for my illustrations but decided not to use in my final outcome, some of the reasons I decided not to use them was because I preferred the original unedited versions.
This shoot turned out somehow different to how imagined but not in a bad way, I always forget how difficult it is shooting in a bath while getting the correct poses and body shots without getting a bloody great tap in the corner!
I really liked how this shoot turned out however especially with the addition of the tulip petals. This is the most colour in any of the shoots I’ve done, and the block primary colours are normal shades I would use in my illustrations which I think provides fresh contrast.
The reflection of light against the water worked really well and created the ethereal vibe I was going for which I’m really pleased with. 
I tried to get more abstract style angles and close ups compared to Fleur as I wanted less predictable photographs of the female form included in my final outcome, highlighting troubled areas.
Well, this photoshoot was an absolute flop.
I had such high expectations of this one, I thought it would end up being the most featured in my book/magazine. But oh no, absolutely not it is not good.
The lighting, absolutely not.. the copper leaf, absolutely not..
It all just looks a little bit amateur, and the way the copper leaf appears when painted on skin is not what I wanted.
I think the brushstrokes were too thick and did need to be thinner looking back the photographs. The shimmer that the copper leaf created gave a delicate finish however everything else was just wrong.
This was the only photo in the end that I decided I would use as my final work as I did want to include at least something from this shoot as the concept I felt was quite strong for what I wanted to portray.
While taking photos with the copper leaf I did also take some general just nude photographs which were intended for illustration purposes however I ended up finding them stronger photographs than the actual planned photographs!
I’m really struggling with what kind of thing I’m going to do for my final outcome, I’ve looked at various different artists like Molly Soda, Petra Collins contrasted with Ayana V Jackson Zanele Muholi to try and get some inspiration as well as going to V&A, National Portrait Gallery and Serpentine Gallery to expand my research and look at completely different artists to my project and artist research.
The thing I’m worried about most is just what I’m gonna produce because I know it’s about quality not quantity but I feel I can’t just have a couple of printed out illustrations I need something bigger, a more solid piece of work.
Looking into presented work, especially looking the curation of Ian Cheng’s Emissaries I like simplistic minimalist presentation, I’m a sucker for a white frame and clean finish. I have looked into potentially printing in a magazine style with different types of binding, depending on the amount of pages I’ve looked at either a stab stitch bind, perfect bind and saddle stitch.
I have however been thinking about if I would want it printed as a magazine as I want my outcome to be more visual. I know that by making it visual I may lose part of my rationale and what I’m trying to portray to the viewer. However due to it being about the Female Gaze, I want it evoke thoughts and emotions which the viewer has come to on their own.
I don’t want to inform them of the Female Gaze and opinions that are already circulating with articles, I want them to interpret it for themselves.
I do think I need some writing though otherwise it’s going to make no sense, especially if it’s all visual.
I’m gonna look more into different printing techniques I’m just getting really stuck on how I’m going to present my work, I’ve not had an epiphany yet unfortunately.
I do want to have more than just a book for my final exhibition, so I’ve been thinking about framing a couple of images in addition to the book/magazine/zine whatever I end up deciding.
So I’m quite pleased with how this shoot came out, I think the lighting and angles of the body work really well.
I found editing these photos quite difficult to make them look like they have all came from the same shoot and not doing whacky exposure things on one compared to highly contrasted on another.
The noise on these photos are also a bit of problem, I’m worried with printing because of the natural lighting they’re going to appear grainy. I knew this could potentially be an issue and I do I actually prefer this aesthetic, in a way I feel it makes the photos look more natural and less edited, similar to a film camera.
I think I could of gone further with this photoshoot, I kept underwear on as for this one I wanted a sense of modesty and concealment, this shoot is about embracing your femininity and owning what society deems unsightly. I think I should of got more poses and more zoomed in photographs, highlighting specific areas of the body and making them slightly abstract. I think having more like this would have worked really well and added additional depth.
Well the time has come, it’s shoot time.
I think I’m gonna do three shoots, from all my research I’ve come up with three themes.
Are you ready?
We’ve got a bedroom situation going in one, I’m going to add in the addition of a flower or multiple flowers. I want this to reinforce the femininity of the photographs. I want to have an array of photographs of various areas of the body that are deemed sexually arousing/erotic and take a natural photo showing their unfemininity if you will. The hair, the stretchmarks, the skin tags, the rolls of fat, the things deemed most unsightly. I want this photoshoot to have an ethereal almost feel to it.
For all of my photoshoots I’m going to use natural lighting, I want it to feel natural and personal.
The second I’m feeling water, also an inclusion of flowers in this one. Creating an opaque water to only show parts of the body that are protruding out. This should hopefully emphasise the figure, drawing attention to certain areas of the body. I’m hoping the water and light will reflect giving me a really nice effect across the body.
For my final idea, I thought of something quitter (quite literally) stretchmarks with my liquid copper leaf, painting over the mark on the skin leaving a beautiful copper shimmer. I want to do this to convey the message that imperfections are to be celebrated and that they are beautiful. It will be on selective parts of the body, having a zoomed in aesthetic.
I’m hoping these all work out well as I want to show a variation through the photography for my final project, so fingers crossed!
So Girl on Girl is so perfect for this project, the variation of artist’s featured alongside the depth and diversity of the work is just ideal for my research.
Can’t stop, won’t stop talking about it.
As this is just early days (she says 2 months in) for my project and I haven’t really found my feet yet in regards to my final outcome or even experimentation. Because I’ve looked a lot at photographers I am quite inspired to do a couple of photoshoots.
I like how intimate a lot of the work I’ve been researching is, not necessarily in a erotic way but an intimate personal connection. I want to take this forward and develop on this concept through some photography of my own.
I would like to use a film camera in an ideal world just as it adds another layer of intimacy. I don’t know why and I don’t know if it’s just me that feels that way, but having the photograph so raw and unedited gives it an element of vulnerability.
I’m not sure if I actually will use film, it’s been a while and I’ll have to brush up on EVERYTHING, but I would really like to include it.
In terms of my first photoshoot, I’m hoping to just experiment with the body and manipulate it into different shapes to create more abstract photos. With the editing I want to crop them down to make you have to look at the photo for longer to understand what it is, not know immediately by just a glance.
I hope to have my photography like this as I feel bodies especially women’s bodies deserve so much more appreciation for what they are.
I’m trying to get on it with research from quite early on so it gives me inspiration and ideas earlier so I can start piecing together my final outcome.
I want to look at books not just artists to give more depth to my project, for my dissertation I looked at Playboy which I’ve already started doing my research on, I want to continue looking at Playboy but incorporate more books. I think Naomi Wolfe The Beauty Myth will lend itself very well to this project, alongside Simone De Bouvoire the Second Sex, this is a more social studies literary book however I think it’s good to do varied and more academic research as well.
I’ve also looked into some other gender studies books including Gender, Nature and Nurture by Richard A. Lippa which discusses how nature informs societal roles and how each gender assumes their stereotypical role.
As I’m hoping to narrow down my focus onto The Female Gaze comparing that to the Male Gaze and looking into the fundamentals surrounding Female Gaze, theories, social studies, feminist writings but also writings that contradict and disagree.
I’ve began looking already into the Three Waves of Feminism, I think I need to study this and research this more, especially disagreements people have with the most current Third Wave. During my first project (Creative Research) I focused on the Woman’s Marches, I think this is very much relevant to this project.
This kind of research where I’m not just focusing on the creative side of my project but delving deeper into academic references will help round my project off and give me a better understanding of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.