Debbie Harry - first shoot

I struggled with this shoot also. I found it really difficult to get my facial expressions right. I guess looking bored on purpose is actually pretty hard.
These are the few I liked from the shoot.

I think I shall use the second one out of the three to show in my formative review tomorrow.
Only two left to shoot now! Patti Smith and Cyndi Lauper 

Alis Pelleschi

I found this work the other evening as I follow the artist on a micro blog site called Tumblr. I absolute adore it. It's very close to what I've been doing myself so it immediately resonates.
The series of work is titled 'Lonely hearts' and it's based around the idea of lonely heart videos that were popular in the late eighties and nineties. Pelleschi herself is her only model and the characters go by different names. Her portraits are stylized and beautifully comedic that the whole project gives me inspiration to further this project.

 I also love that you can just about identify her own strong features in the portraits and also the amount of make up she's used to become the different identities.
This set of portraits go along side a video piece where Pelleschi forms a 'real' dating tape out of her characters.

It's given me an idea that I could make a video of me miming to the characters main hit song that I'm portraying... I may try it when I do my final shoot tonight before the formative deadline. Cyndi Lauper. Should be fun!

Annie Lenox - Test Shoot

This was by far the hardest 'transformations' I've done, and I think it'll stay the hardest. My body, bone structure, hair, eyes and expressions are absolutely unlike Annie Lennox's. I did my best but I am unsure people will actually recognise who this is.

I couldn't get her expressions right at all. It was quite frustrating really. I do, how ever, think the set up of the shots are successful.

Siouxsie Sioux test shoot

I loved doing the make up for this test shoot, it was so much fun to recreate. I really like how these photos came out, only thing is there is so many different angles and backgrounds to choose from the set.

Janis Joplin test shoots

Again I found this particularly hard as the make up and props didn't feel convincing enough. Especially the hair, that woman had some big hair... Anyway, I tried the method of listening and miming along to her songs like I did for the Madonna shoot and this is what came of it:

I chose to position myself by my window because my curtains are the fabric version of the 60's and 70's... I think they've turned out okay but I might re-do them if I have time.

Madonna test shoot

So after I recorded the video I did a test shoot and here are the results:

These are the edit I made from 30 photos. This was a fun shoot but really difficult. I ended up miming to 'like a virgin' about eight times but eventually got into it.

Filming - becoming Madonna

I found filming this short film hilarious fun and would do it again in an instant! I really enjoy watching it back and it's a very strange experience watching yourself become someone else, especially someone so iconic.
You can watch the video here
I'm thinking of showing this as well as my prints on the wall. I think this would really tie the whole concept together.
I'm really excited by this project and can't wait to film more transformations!

Gwen Stefani test shoot

For this test shoot I took reference from a film still of a music video that 'No Doubt' did for 'Don't Speak'. Gwen Stefani came to fame from fronting the famous nineties pop band. I feel like the video is what a lot of people visualise when they think of Gwen Stefani in No Doubt.
This is the image I've referenced in my test shoot:

This is me channeling Gwen Stefani in No Doubt:

I feel that this was the most successful shoot so far. I felt far more comfortable and confident dressed and made up as Gwen Stefani than anyone else I've portrayed so far. I used my hairbrush in replacement of a microphone as it enhances the reality of the situation. I am just having fun in my bedroom like a teenager would but I am taking it further and turning it into a document, proof that women can easily choose who they want to be in the morning.

Bjork test shoot

After the Shirley Manson test shoot I thought I'd take more influence in the pose and props of the image I'm using as reference instead of getting bogged down with the make up and hair. For this image I took reference from this portrait of Bjork from her album 'Debut' as when I was in tutorial, it was the one most people remembered of her.

My first attempt to channel Bjork;

I feel like the first one is so much more successful than the latter two. With the first one I concentrated more on the pose and how accurately I can reference it in using the space I was in. The last two are more me AS Bjork as a character. I feel comfortable with using the first one at my formative review but can always re-shoot at a later date once I've finished the other images.

Shirley Manson test shoot

Played around with dressing up as Shirley Manson from the nineties grunge band Garbage. I used this image as reference as when I Googled her name, it was the most recurring image on the results.

Here's me channeling Shirley Manson:

I'm not sure a lot of people will make the connection. I will definitely try this again, maybe with a different image. I think the fact that I've changed it to black and white doesn't help and also I've lost all background detail that ties the series together.

Tutorial with David Rule

The tutorial went better than I thought it would go despite me not having a tutorial for this project yet due to illness. I was quite nervous to show the group my images since I hadn't shown anyone the images before and I was worried people might get the wrong idea such as that I think I look like these people or that I look like who I am in the photographs etc. But they didn't!
I had some good ideas put forward by everyone:

• To portray the icons like the media images that people remember of them, like Bjork attacking a photographer or Courtney Love looking haggard and coked up coming off the red carpet. 
• To film the transformations I undertake to look like the icons, like the make up I wear or the props/ accessories that trigger the memory of those people. 
• To just concentrate on Madonnas transformations during her career.
• To look at what makes people realise and think about who I am in the photos - the make up, costume, pose, props and accessories. 

I'm sticking with shooting in my room since it has the ability to ground the images to reality. As if it's saying 'this is what is actually happening'. To make it clear I am just dressing up as these people, not recreating the images to precision.
Overall I'm really excited to get stuck in to this project.

List of iconic female musicians

Managed to form a list of ten female musicians I think people will easily recognise despite being portrayed by me.

• Madonna
• Courtney Love
• Shirley Manson
• Gwen Steffani
• Siouxie Sioux
• Patti Smith
• Janis Joplin
• Bjork
• Annie Lennox
• Cyndi Lauper

 I feel like this is do-able within the time constraints till the formative review on the 22nd of March as long as I stick to using digital and the style I've been shooting.

Second try at Courtney Love

I had another go at channeling Courtney Love.

These definitely turned out better than the last shoot I think. Especially the second shot. I'm excited to try this method on a few iconic females now. I'm feeling I need to make a large series of them to get the story across. Five? Ten? Fifteen? I think I'll try and make a list of ten and see how that goes for now.

Courtney Love test shoot edits

These images are the edits I made from the Courtney Love test shoot. I tried out a couple of different ways and props for shooting and I think these worked the best:

I'm not completely happy with them but I think they're okay for a test shoot. I need to work to find that thing that people recognize as Courtney Love. More stylized images that reference the image I posted in the last post maybe?

First test shoot - exploration

So I played around with dressing up and how I would go about shooting the self-portraits. Here is the outcome:

I quite like how these have turned out. I feel comfortable shooting this way and also the backgrounds fit with the sub-theme of epics in the everyday. I'm going to try out make up next, most likely in the style of Courtney Love (pictured below).

First few ideas

Of course I failed to mention the 'sub theme' which is 'Epics of the everyday'. So these are ideas based around said sub-theme:

• Documenting all the images I see in a day. - Have been thinking about this project for a while. Everything is so visually focused these days with the internet flashing images on every window, I think it would be interesting to log all the images I see in a day and use them to make a piece of work.
• Recreating Frida Kahlo paintings. - Again, another project I've thought a lot of. I'm a huge Frida Kahlo fan and I'm very influenced by her work and her story. I'd love to recreate a few famous pieces of her work on a large scale. Her images work as a tableau of narrative but I'm unsure how this project would fit the epics of everyday theme.
• Story telling. - Writing a story then story-boarding it with images. Whimsical and deadpan, maybe with self-portraits. 
• Based on lyrics. - I find lyrics, poetry and literature heavily influential and would love to do a project loosely based on lyrics from a song. Then maybe play the song as the story unfolds.
• The influences. - Self portraits dressed up as feminist icons from pop culture formed into a timeline. Centering on female pop culture icons from the '50's to present day. Would tell a historical story but also reflect on the choices women have on a daily basis of who they would like to 'look like'. 
• Create. - I'd create a story from a set of found images I bought in a flea market in Berlin last year. I will do something with them in the future! 

I think out of all those ideas, I'll concentrate on exploring 'the influences' project but still keep my mind open to changes. 

Initial research - Films with interesting narrative

As I haven't particularly focused on narrative consciously in my work so far, I thought it would be a good idea to use some films as research into different types of narrative. Also a good excuse to watch some films I've never got round to viewing!

12 Monkeys Terry Gilliam
A perfect example of very fragmented narrative. Use of disturbing flashbacks and a double story enhances what the viewer is thinking whilst watching the film. The use of a 'grey area' or spatial device as the prison which may or may not be in the main characters head.

Iron Lady Phylida Lloyd
Mainly linear but uses flashbacks as to tell the main biographical storyline. Flashbacks are triggered by the main 'real time' story by linking to the current mental state of Margret Thatcher and also the on going relationship with her dead husband.

Initial research - Jessica Layton 'House sitting'

Again, this project resonated with me a lot. It's delightfully playful and also slightly cheeky with the way she takes over the home owners persona and even has images made of her as the homeowner.
Jessica Layton looks after homes whilst occupying them for people who are out of the country, she lived in each house no more than three weeks at a time but did house sit for a full 9 months. In every house she'd slowly take on the home owners persona, dressing up in their clothes, acting as the homeowner to strangers and interacting with their living space as the homeowner would. She also invites a photographer in and has a portrait made of her as the homeowner, in what would be her home.

The idea of taking on someone elses personality using their belongings and clues she would pick up by just living in the spaces they live in fascinates me. The images themselves are interesting and look to the viewer as a perfectly normal portrait of a women in her house with her belongings surounding her. But in the context of the prints all together, you start to question where this women belongs, where she actually lives. I'd love to see the prints in a gallery space.

A few for example :

Portrait as Susan taken by Doron Guild

Portrait as Katie by Stephen Wood. (I love how she looks so natural but stiff, as if she's actually invited this photographer into her own space and also how she uses the homeowners pet cat!)

I'd love to have the opportunity to house sit, let alone have the initiative to think of this project. The concept of becoming someone else by using the objects and belongings surrounding really interests me.

Initial research - Lilly McElroy 'I throw myself at men'

Lilly McElroy's series, 'I throw myself at men' was the main piece of work I connected with in the introduction talk. It made me laugh and also made me think of how apt the photographs look in coordination with the phrase 'throwing yourself at men'. It really stuck with me, especially the images where you're not sure whether this man is going to be able to catch her, a romantic decisive moment. It's such a powerful metaphor for relationships and also the fact that she initiated these blind dates online connects back with my previous project 'Online'.
She portrays so much confidence and trust in those she's never met that makes me really admire this work.
Here are a few examples:

I also love the atmosphere of the bars and how it is such a typical place to witness women and men figuratively 'throwing themselves' at each other! It's just perfect to me.

Narrative and Audience - Part 1; Narrative

Concentrating on work made around the idea of storytelling and that a photograph can have multiple meanings according to where it is displayed and who is looking at it.

What to consider:

• How the meaning of an image can be affected by another
• How the context in which images are seen affects their meaning
• How different types of narrative are constructed (linear, random, fragmented, flashback, meta-fictive)
• How the aesthetic of the image influences meaning (lighting, composition, format, point of view, viewpoint and use of colour)
• How the addition of text, audio, spatial devices or timed display can influence the meaning. 

Assessment requirements:
Final resolution with consist of one or two different visual 'stories' in two different formats with two different deadlines and forms of assessment.