Proposal for Photography Project 3

Harveen Bahia, 1144657, 17/10/2013

Proposed Topic:

My initial idea for my Third Year project, I plan to explore my own personality qualities through the study of my current practice. My current practice of being an animator and photographer, with a keen interest in stop motion photography.

In this project, I plan to explore a self-discovering journey into my personality and emotions, and attempt to capture them to evoke feelings in others, as well as myself.

My aim is to capture the various emotions that I explore through a course of a day, from feeling glum, to feeling happy. This will enable myself for once to express my inner self, and explore my identity, rather than being hidden behind the camera that I normally use to shoot with.

This will encourage me to engage head on into the project, rather than being the shy photographer that I am.

Furthermore, I’m always told that I don’t express much, because I use it as a defense as inside I’m a very emotionally fragile individual, but with a tough face on. This opportunity, will allow others to see the various emotions that I convey inside, which I tend to hide within my day-to-day life

Notwithstanding this, I may take pictures of my possessions that trigger memories, within the cutaways of my various stop motion emotions, to illustrate the thought provoking subject matter, which made me sad. This would enable me to expose my life on a personal matter, to let the emotions exposed to all, and set myself free from them emotions. It’s like if I was speaking to somebody about my problems, however, my friend that I’m speaking to is you, and everybody else.

Cultural/ Historical Narrative:

I plan to get influence from early experimental cinema, as they often dealt with the cinema aesthetical techniques, that I shall consider within my body of work.

Man Ray – La Retour A La Raison (1923)

Le Ballet mechanique

Dziga Vertov – Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Edward Muybridge

Methodologies:

I plan to shoot with Black and White photography, to get the slight imperfections, which make the slight imperfections that I reflect within my own personality.

In addition, I shall also use black and white to emphasize two basic colours, and to enhance the fact that my personality is all part of one object. (Myself)

Conversely, most documentary work deals with black and white, to enhance the attention to detail, rather than aesthetically blurring the image, with the distraction of colour. A sense of realism, which won’t also clash with the various transitional objects that I feel attached to.

Furthermore, I may include a musical emotive narrative, therefore creating more of a dynamic. I’m considering possibly a tune that I can relate to, which is always thought provoking to me personally, to engage you in an all senses experience, whilst viewing my body of work.

I’m not quite yet decided, however, I may take the objects in a still life manner, possibly distorting the items to evoke the fact that the objects are personal to me, and I would like display them in a surreal manner. Distorting some of my memories that are entirely personally, as memories aren’t always one hundred percent accurate. Sometimes we change them for our own inconvenience, to help cope with them.

Another consideration, Is that I personally would love to shoot on super 8, however to edit such a task could be monstrous task to take on. Therefore, I may just take the photos, and scan them.  

Health And Safety:

Test all equipment before use.

If I use outdoor lighting, I shall consider the impact of the equipment used, especially when shooting objects. Some of the outdoor lighting bulbs can explode. Therefore I shall consider the voltage I use for the equipment.

Furthermore, as I shall tape all the wires down in the studio

Collaborations:

I don’t expect at this current moment to collaborate with anybody, as it’s a project that is personal to me.

However, for the exhibition, I may collaborate with somebody who’s exploring his or her identity.

Outcome:

I plan for my piece to be a stop motion animation, however I shall include stills of the relevant work, so it can be seen frame by frame. Obviously, from it’s key aspects.

Bibliography

Man Ray Text by Katherine Ware

·       Publisher: Taschen (October 30, 2012)

Edward Muybridge

The Human Figure in Motion

·       Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1955)

Maya Deren: Experimental Films

Black & White, Collector's Edition, Full Screen, NTSC

·

Timetable:

I shall shoot as soon as possible, and plan to have a tester by next week. Possibly digitally, just due to my time constraints.