Theme Directions
The Title of my project will be beneath the surface. I Will focus on ideas and issues with mental health problems. Digital Manipulation will be the genre of my photography as I will rely heavily on photoshop and post production effects to create my visual representations for ssue of mental health. This theme interests me as I am a young minds activist working on helping raising awareness for mental health issues It personally interests me as I want to be a councillor and psychologist when I am older and this can help me research and understand mental health more I Intend to make my work creative and imaginative as I will explore a range of different techniques to create my photographs as well as to avoid basic stereotypes of the genre while getting the basic ideologies forward. My main aims is to study and portray a split personality disorder. I am hoping to create powerful and beautiful photographs that amaze the viewer however I want it to hold powerful meaning and show true horror of how it feels and more looks to have these conditions I Will communicate my idea through composition. The position of my subject and the use of colour and light. Some photographs may have loads of visual detail to explain the narrative others may use help with text added in or is on the photo-graph.
Primary Sources
I can photograph my subject in different scenarios, different places most would take place in a empty blank Room. While other should involve a bed room setting a living room setting just to help show a narrative The imagery im hoping to be constantly changing helping my exploration into my theme to show different elements and different ways to view mental health. I have selected these primary sources as they will be the back bone of my research and planning and will contribute as the foundation of m photographs. I will masure my observations are high quality as I will check the camera controls are set up to the right f-stop / shutter speed / ISO. As well as making lighting is perfect as a lot of photographs will be dark I must make sure I capture my subjects. I Intend to construct scenes using realistic places to make photographs more realistic and relatable. The primary sources are quite easy to access and should be easily obtainable. Alot of the composition for the photographs are everyday scenes like bedrooms and other areas around a house. With post production effects been used to help tweek little inconsistencies. I Will research music/film/theatre/dance to draw inspiration from other media forms as to how they represent mental health. I will also need to read journal articles and interview to listen and understand what people go through. Documents could also help as I can see and view what I represent.
Artists/ Photographers
I intend to study the work of Lee Jeffries, Edward Honacker and Lauren Hospes these are reliable sources as their techniques and photography can help develop mine. Lee Jeffries creates powerful simplistic photographs that show so much emotions and detail in the subjects faces. This will inspire me as his process and technique to document homelessness and represent it can help me represent mental health using simple and powerful photographs.Lauren Hospes documents depression ,and mental health, her photographs show confined spaces and lakes and soil and sinister places to be caught in. This use of an isolated subject coping with inner feelings can inspire me to visually represent whats beneath the surface on a external process. Laura Hospes also shows in some photographs the inner battle with your mind and heart this can support me in displaying a split personality. Edward Honaker documents his depression he does this by using a black and white filter to portray the emotions of his silent still work. He also looks to make the subject of Mental Health known and raise awareness for it because he feels its a "Taboo" subject and so hopes to put it to peoples minds as a problem that needs to be fixed.
Techniques
Techniques I am interested in exploring is digital digital design and manipulation I am interested in shifting reality we see to show ones we really live in. To show things how they are. To show and express feeling. I Intend to improve upon this skill by practice. I hope to capture a photograph and dream of new inventive ways in which I can distort the reality of the photograph to give it new meaning and change its narrative and emotion. I am interested in experimenting with layers to create depth towards my photographs as well as experimenting with colours and lights to create certain atmospheres. I can use my artists methods , such as changing the colours of my photos and making them black and white. Alot of the techniques my artists and photographers use are self portraited photos all focused on their expressions.
Action Plan:
I am going to gather photographs on my topic and study them in depth finding new artists/ photographers to help and study. I will study current photographers I have as well as the media in films/reports to learn more about issues involving mental health. I Will describe my photographs once finished including photographs of its process to production. I will reference and annotate any and all work I come across that helps inspire my own work. As well as study online tutorials to help and teach me Photoshop elements 14.