Body and Object

Jade Perry

Body Idea/concept

For the body unit I was started by looking at the elderly and the type of social clubs and help there was available for them, as my nan at home is fully disabled and when my granddad died she needed a full time career but refused to go into a home. She needed somewhere to just to be able to make friends and talk to people. So as not to become isolated and lonely. - I went to Age concern in Chatham and the place and people there were really inspiring . My idea become about the people who go to this place and the idea of the elderly being venerable but come to a place to feel independent and gain a social life that they might have not had before. Its about showing the fun, youthful side of the elderly. Although with getting older they are not able to do as many things as they used to they are still young at heart.

These articles show how important it is for the elderly to be able to get to places such as the Hopewell center,

The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings KayLynn Deveney

These photographs really show the personal life of Albert, a man living on his own and caring for himslef. They show a sentimental sympathy, although you can tell his happy in his own little world caring out his day to day routines. The shallow depth of field and muted tones really add to the sentimental feeling of the photographs.

Visual References

I looked at Rineke Dijkstra as her photographs showed this transaction from childhood to woman hood, you can see a slight awkwardness and vulnerability about them. Im looking to show this transaction from adult hood to almost back to childhood as when you get older you may need looking after again for certain reasons and there is a vulnerability that re appears as you get older

Contextual Research The Hopewell Centre is closing down due to there not being enough funding to keep the center running as they rely on charity funding and a small admission fee from the people who come to the center. I looked into the amount of money that goes into charities and charities for the elderly is amongst the lowest with only 8% charities with only 3% of the total amount of money going into charities.

Mark Storys photographs are fascinating as each person he photographs has a story of there own. This photograph has a very shallow depth of field, with the main focus being on the eyes, although they are quite dark. He also makes his subjects look quite sculptural by showing just there head and having a really dark background, this also highlights all the wrinkles on the subjects face hinting at all they have lived through.

Contact sheets Task 1 Shoot 1 Rochester high street

Task one - shoot 2 Age concern centre

Task 1 Age concern shoot 2

Task 1 Age concern shoot 3

I wanted these photographs to be my final images for task one as they really showed the character of this man. As his memory, hearing and ability was detereating he looked a bit lost and confused but was always looking to his wife for what to do. I didnt use them because I shot them at quite a low aperture and I didnt quite manage to focus on his face they was slightly out of focus so I had to re-shoot.

Task 1 Age shoot 4

Task 2 Environment shoot 1

evaluation

Studio Shoot

I prefered the black and white studio shoot as she was a lot more relaxed and they looked a lot more softer

Final Images Task 1

These photographs were, slightly more personal as they where done at there home and they was in there pyjamas. Although the lighting was really bad as it cast really odd shadows under her neck.

Final Image Task 2

I this photograph I wanted to focus on the one person but have the rest of the people in the room gentally fall out of focus, I included the arm of the wheelchair that the lady is sitting in to show her disability but I also choose this lady as she was so happy to just be there and be with people despite her unfortunate broken leg. Also in the room you can see the buntings and entertainer for the day setting up as they was celebrating someone's birthday.

Final Image task 3 I chose this image as its really soft and gentle and shows her in more of a soft caring side.

Object Idea/concept
Looking at teenage alcoholism and underage drinking. - A realization of how young people are starting to drink from - Binge drinking - Drinking culture - School children/teenagers drinking - Damaging effects - Parental influences The amount of teenage binge drinkers there are is shocking and is a social issue that needs to be tackled, through research it seems that parents are not to blame but can be most influential on there children and need to realize that there children could be drinking dangerous amounts.

Object Contextual Research

My idea had narrowed down to teenage girls binge drinking being the highest in the western world, I thought about showing the effects of these and how venerable it can make girls. Then I started thinking about the reasons young girls/teenagers drink and why there is such a big problem in the uk. I started thinking that the audience would be parents to show the young age that there children may start drinking as I think a lot of parents are in denial about there children and what they get up to when out with friends.

Lauren Greenfeild

Lauren Greenfeilds work focuses on girl culture and how girls act due to todays culture, a lot of there influences are celebrity culture and wanting to be like celebrities, older than there age and there parents let them. It also about them wanting to grow up faster and be older than they are which poses the question if children actually get a childhood and who are the main influences on children.

This photograph links to my idea as it shows how the parents are actually giving into there children's wants, although this is only a top it shows how parents can be to soft on there children.

Visual References Richard Billingham

Bullingham photographed his father who had a drinking problem, they was very much documentary photographs. I was looking at these to get an idea of the type of lifestyle they live and I was looking at the furniture and the state of the house. As this shows a lot about how they care for the house and the effect that the alcohol has them as a family and there living conditions. What I found from these photographs is that is a very destructive problem and the photographs show a feeling of not caring and being discarded forgotten about.

Visual References

Advert for binge drinking, aimed at girls. Uses shock factor and shows the effects of alcohol in reverse. Show how self destructive alcohol abuse is.

Wolfgang Tillmans

I like how Tillmans uses photographs as an object themselves and the actual photograph becomes this object, also his use of darkroom techniques where he paints with light in that he creates abstract images by only using light and the photographic paper in the darkroom. I would like to use my photograph as more of the object itself and destroy the photograph showing the destructive effects that alcohol has on school children.

Andre Kertesz

Uses mirrors to distort the image. Links with my idea of distorting my images.

Contact sheets

The black and white photographs where test shoots to check the composition and lighting in the first one there was a strong shadow being cast that distracted from the object, where I wanted the photograph the desk to be more in blackness almost in complete darkness, with just the desk in the light, to emphasise the empty space around the desk.

I was aiming to destroy one of the negatives of this image and keep a normal one for a contrasting print, but I didnt leave myself enough time to destroy the negative and get it printed but I wanted to create a really destructed image of the school desk showing the destructivness of alcohol on school children. Although this could have bordered on looking to much like its just about schooling.

Photographed through glass

These photographs I took through a beer glass, I tested other alcoholic items such as vodka bottles and beer bottles but these just become completely abstracted and you couldnt work out what the object was. So I used the beer glass to slightly distort and blur the image. I really wanted a more destructive image photograph so I could have had a battered up desk to show more of the destructive side.

Doubled the negatives together

I sandwiched the negatives to create a more blurred and distorted image, this works better as you get the idea of alcohol being a problem and the desk relates to school and school children.

Final Images
This photograph was of two of the negatives sandwiched together, one normal and the other taken through the glass, I felt that there wasn't enough blur or destruction in the photograph. So then experimented with sandwiching 3 negative together.

I feel that this image works best as you can clearly see the blur, but can also still make out the object.

I experimented with using just the two blurred photographs taken through the glass. I think this works well in showing the alcoholism but makes it quite difficult to she the object and become a bit to much abstracted from the idea.