"Skin"
Photography December,2022 |
Exhibition Text This project was created using a phone camera and various props. My intentions for this photo were to be able to represent a childhood fear of mine while also being able to express my love for horror and horror based photography. I was inspired by a photographer named Joshua Hoffine who specializes in horror photography and is known for his disturbing photos. I wanted to be able to take inspiration from his childhood fears series and create a photo that could represent my own irrational fears.
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Critical Investigation
Inspiration
Joshua Hoffine is a well known photographer who specializes in horror photography. Also known as the "father of modern, horror, photography", Hoffine is said to stage his photos to look like small horror movie sets by using sets, props, costumes, fox machines, and practical SPFX. Although all or most of his photography is horror based, I wanted to focus on his childhood fears series because I wanted to represent my own fears that I had as a child living with severe anxiety. The first image that I took inspiration from was titled "Bed" and depicted a child sitting on top of their bed with a pair of large "monster" hands peaking out from under the bed which is based off of the very common fear of having monsters under the bed. The style of the image is also interesting in particular because although it was taken in the early 200'0's, it appears as though the image could have been taken in the 1970's because of the clothing the child is wearing, the decorations in the child's room and the choice of toys that they child has been playing with. The next image I took inspiration from was titled "Refrigerator" which shows a small child open up her refrigerator and seeing it filled with body parts. Additionally, in the background of the picture, there is a "monster" shown with no face and pale skin who is presumably responsible for the body parts inside the fridge. Similarly to "Bed", the photo is interesting because the style seems as though it was taken in the mid to late 1900's rather than the early 2000's. The final inspiration photo I chose was called "Snake". This image hits close to home for me because my biggest fear is snakes and although my image isn't going to consist of any snakes, I thought that it would be interesting to include. Additionally, just like the other two images, the style of the bedroom and the lighting is reminiscent of the late 1900's. I wanted to try and attempt to incorporate that same 1960's/ 1970's style into my photograph and capture that same "indie horror film" vibe because although you can tell the production budget was decent, some of the images have poor quality which I think is a very interesting artistic choice that I wanted to place into my own image. I also wanted to incorporate that same creepy and "uncanny valley" vibe into my own work.
Planning
To begin the planning sketches, I started off by researching my artist. I knew I wanted to work with horror again and Joshua Hoffine was the first artist I stumbled upon. I feel in love with his style and the way that he made some of his images look like a cartoon or low quality as an artistic choice of expression. After I decided on who I wanted my artist inspiration to be, I started looking at some inspiration photos (which I eventually changed later). At the time, I chose the photos titled "Basement", "Balloons", "After Dark", and "Refrigerator" because I loved how they actually represent fears that I had throughout my childhood and I appreciated how they looked like they were taken in the 1960's or 1970's. After I established my inspiration images, I moved on to coming up with an idea for my image. I decided that I wanted to incorporate an extreme irrational fear that I had as a child because of my anxiety. When I was around 5 or 6, I would cry and beg my parents to not take the garbage outside because I used to believe that a monster would kill them, wear their skin, and pretend to be my parents so that they could get to my sister and I easier. Looking back now, that obviously would never happen, however, at the time, that fear was extremely traumatizing for me and I truly believed that would actually happen. That is why I wanted to incorporate that idea into the childhood fears series because although they may seem irrational, to a child's imagination, those fears are very much real. Next, I planned who I wanted to incorporate into my photo and I decided that I wanted to have my mom along with my sister to play me and my other sister to play the monster. Moving on, for the next planning page, I figured out where I wanted my next location to be for the picture because the weather is difficult and extreme but I wanted to take the picture near the trash because that was the main topic of the photograph. Eventually however, I decided that I would take the photo outside. In the final planning page, I just figured out what things I would need to take the photo like actor and what I was going to use to take the picture.
Process
To begin, I started off by figuring out the position I wanted my mom and my sister to stand in in the photo. I wanted my sister to grab my mom on the top of her head. Due to this, I had to position her directly behind my mom so that her head wouldn't pop out in the background. After I figured out the positioning, I had to figure out the lighting. The lighting on the side of my house changes color but I wanted the light to just be basic and white because I didn't want it to differ too much from Hoffine's images. I also made sure that there wasn't any additional lighting coming from anywhere but the light seen in the picture because I didn't want the image to be too bright.
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After I was finished with taking around 40 images, I sifted through all of them so that I would be able to decide which image I liked the best. After I picked an image that I was fond of, I moved onto cropping the photo that I could cut out unnecessary elements in the photo like the flower pot in the lower left hand corner and the bottom of my mom's feet because I didn't like the shoes that she was wearing. I also decided that I would crop out half of the light because it was causing a weird glare. I wanted to be completely sure that all of the useless elements in the background of the photo were cropped out.
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After I was finished with cropping the image that I chose, I moved on to the editing portion of the photo. I really enjoy using Capcut as a video editing software however it is possible to edit photos on Capcut so I inserted my image and then I began looking through the filters listed. I wanted the background to be very dark because I wanted it to look very mysterious and spooky so I chose a filter that would bring out the dark and blue lighting. I also upped the saturation so that the darkness would deeper and hide some things in the background. I also made sure to go in with the contrast and bring that up because I was trying my hardest to make sure that the shadow was as dark as I could possibly make it.
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After I was finished fixing the saturation and applying filters, I moved onto some more visual effects. I wanted to recreate that very obviously photo shopped appearance that Hoffine included in his photography so I decided that I wanted to incorporate some spooky red eyes into the background to mimic the appearance of a monster hiding in the shadows. To achieve this effect, I went into the editing section on Capcut and went into the free draw. I then selected the neon pen option and selected the color red. I added to small dots a few inches above my moms head to that the monster would look taller. After I was done edition, I came to a final product that I was happy with.
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Experimentation
For this project, I have never photographed another person at night before so I knew that it was going to be a struggle. I first had to make sure that I could find the right lighting for the image. My garage has color changing lights which might have looked cool for another project however I was trying to keep by image as similar to my artists inspiration pieces so I decided that after seeing what each color looked like on camera, a basic white light looked the best. I then had to figure out how I wanted my mom and my sister to be positioned in the frame so that my sister wouldn't be seen in the final shot. After moving her around in a few different locations, I put her directly behind my mom and told her to move herself down a little bit so that the top of her head wouldn't show as my mom and my sister are the same height. I also had my sister place her hand on the top of my mom's head because I wanted it to look like she was being snatched from the shadows. After I experimented with positioning, I had to experiment with using a photo editor. I am not very familiar with using photo editors so I found this part to be a bit of a struggle but I overlayed every single filter I had of the final image until I had one that I liked the best. I wanted to make sure that the background was as dark as possible so that the "monster" in the shadows could be well hidden so I chose a filter that deepened the dark areas and tinted the light areas with a blue hue. After I decided what filter I wanted, I experimented with playing with the saturation and the contrast until I was able to make the shadows as dark as possible. The last thing that I experimented with was figuring out how to make eyes in the background. I went into the free draw tool on my photo editor app and played around with the different brushes I would use. I ended up using a brush that looked like a neon light and colored it red so that the eyes appeared to be a glowing red. I then experimented with different brush sizes and I decided that I liked the medium size so that's what I ended up going with.
Critique
To begin, the first similarity between the two piece s is the obvious connection to horror and a spooky theme. In Hoffine's photo, a girl is seen standing in front of a refrigerator with body parts in it and a monster in the background. My image is of my mom being pulled into darkness by a mysterious monster. Another similarity would be the monster aspect of both of the images. Just like in every other one of Hoffine's images, he incorporates a creepy monster or human like figure so I decided that I would incorporate that element into my image by adding in two red eyes into the background. A difference between the two images for one, is the difference in color. In Hoffine's photo's the lighting that he uses is extremely yellow and bright as opposed to my lighting which was heavy on the blue and cool toned colors. Another difference between the two piece is that in my image, I didn't put a child into my image because my other younger sisters weren't available and I didn't want to put my 14 year old sister in it as she is too old for the effect I was attempting to accomplish.
Reflection
My inspiration for this project was a photographer named Joshua Hoffine, who specializes in spooky and unsettling photos and photography. I appreciated the way that the artist was able to take a concept that every child in the world is familiar with, monsters, and put it into a visual format so people can understand how children feel and that their fears are valid. I wanted to be able to take that concept and apply it to my art work using my own personal experiences with childhood fears because it was something that took me a long time to overcome and I wanted people to know that it's okay to be afraid. I also appreciated the fact that the photos appeared to be very photo shopped to show that the monsters aren't real. It really adds to the whole concept of the series. I really like how the final photo turned out however, I wish that I had access to a professional camera, better editing software, and a better lighting setup because I believe that if I had these things, the photo would have been incredible. I also wish that I would have taken the picture sooner because the harsh weather conditions made it extremely difficult to take a picture that was up to my own standards. My biggest challenge for this project was trying to take a photo with a very low quality camera because the images kept turning out blurry and out of focus and the quality of the photos were pretty bad. In the end, I liked the way that the final product turned out, I just wish that I had better equipment available to me so that the pictures were better quality and more crisp looking. I really enjoyed the process of making this idea that I had in my mind come to life and being able to tell a story through my art because a picture can be worth 1000 words.
ACT Questions
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Hoffine's expression of horror through photography inspired me to create an image that represented a fear that I had as a child because of my anxiety.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Hoffine was very interested in making his photography very creepy and disturbing so I think that he would be very interested in a work that was similar to my own take on the childhood fears series.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
One generalization that I made about the artist in particular is that he really enjoyed making horror based art.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my research was to create an image that could represent a memorable childhood fear of mine.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading, I made the inference that Hoffine was a well know horror based artist and was one of the original creators of horror based photography.
Hoffine's expression of horror through photography inspired me to create an image that represented a fear that I had as a child because of my anxiety.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Hoffine was very interested in making his photography very creepy and disturbing so I think that he would be very interested in a work that was similar to my own take on the childhood fears series.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
One generalization that I made about the artist in particular is that he really enjoyed making horror based art.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my research was to create an image that could represent a memorable childhood fear of mine.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading, I made the inference that Hoffine was a well know horror based artist and was one of the original creators of horror based photography.
Bibliography
1.) Joshua Hoffine. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://joshuahoffine.com/
2.) Ambrose, D. (2019, November 18). Joshua Hoffine's images will bring back your childhood nightmares. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.lightstalking.com/joshua-hoffine/
2.) Ambrose, D. (2019, November 18). Joshua Hoffine's images will bring back your childhood nightmares. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.lightstalking.com/joshua-hoffine/