"Missing Piece"
Photography series November 2022 |
Exhibition Text This project was created using a phone camera and some yarn. My intentions for this photography series was to represent the feeling of losing or going through a struggle with a long term friend. I was inspired by a photography artist that I discovered on Instagram named Lo who created a series similar to mine using purple yarn rather than blue. I wanted to be able to use her technique to create a series that could show the emotions that I felt about being distanced from long term friendships.
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Critical Investigation
"Untitled", Lo
Inspiration
Lo is an American artist who can be recognized by her presence on social media websites like TikTok and Instagram and specializes in photography. Her art usually consists of self portraits and photographs of her friends however she also has many unnamed photos of animals and nature. Her most popular pieces however are her yarn tear photo series where she glued yarn under her eyes and took portrait photos of herself. She is also really big on body positivity and posts lost of photos of her in her underwear and dresses which really encourages confidence for both her and viewers of her art. I took a lot of inspiration from her photos because I loved the intense emotions that were being portrayed. You could tell that she was sad about something by the obvious representation of tears however as a viewer, we can't understand what she can be sad about. I wanted to be able to incorporate those yarn tears into my own series because I loved how elegant they were and I wanted to be able to express my own feelings of sadness that would come along with losing a friend and dealing with those emotions. I was really drawn to these photographs because of the way that they were taken. The lighting, the elegance, and the emotion on her face are all elements that inspired me to takes photos that were similar. I was also drawn to how the image was very much imperfect. Lo's black nail polish is chipped, the purple strings hanging under her eyes have been tangled and swirled around without a particular pattern being shown, and her hair isn't perfectly placed in a particular hairstyle. Aside from some makeup, she is in her natural form and isn't trying to hide who she really is in her art which is really inspiring.
Planning
To being the planning sketches, I started off by figuring out what I wanted the topic or my project to be. I already knew that I wanted to focus on self portrait photography because I haven't done much with photography and I thought that it would be something new that I could try. I ended up deciding that I wanted to decide between creating a project that was about being stressed out by school or the loss of a friendship because those have been some big factors in my life right now. Eventually I decided that I wanted to focus on creating a project that was focused on the loss of a friendship. After I decided what I wanted my topic to be, I had to do some research on a few artists to figure out which one I wanted to take inspiration from. I was scrolling through TikTok while I was looking for artists on social media and I happened to stumble upon a photographer named Lo who specializes in self portrait photography. I loved the way that she used a physical object to represent her own tears and feelings. I found this technique very unique as she seemed to combine digital with physical art. After I decided who I wanted my artist to be, the last thing I needed to do was figure out how I would take the pictures. At the time, I didn't have access to a professional camera so I just decided that I would take picture with my Samsung S20 phone. After I was completed with that section, I moved on to collecting my materials. I first decided that I wanted to some how incorporate friendship necklaces into the final piece because they are made for children and the friend that I lost had been my friend since we were in kindergarten. Next, I moved onto figuring out which yarn I wanted to use. Out of red, orange, green, and blue yarn, I decided that I wanted to use blue yarn because it was closest to water and I wanted the yarn to represent tears. i then decided that I wanted to be able to find a way to glue the yarn under my eyes and I found that eyelash glue was the best option available to achieve the look that I was going for. Finally, I went over what kind of poses I wanted to do whether it was me leaning up against something, holding my heard or facing the steps and keeping my eyes on the wall in front of me.
Process
To begin, I started off by gathering up all of the materials that I would have needed for this project. I used some clear dry eyelash glue to apply even length pieces of yarn under my eyes to match my inspiration photos. This part was a bit challenging as the blue yarn would get into my eyes at times but after a few tries I was able to place my yarn in areas where it wouldn't bother my eyes. I then put on both of my friendship necklaces that I previously discussed to complete the accessories portion of the look. I already had a white tank top on and I didn't want my clothes to distract from the rest of the elements of the photo so i decided to keep that shirt on.
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When starting up the picture taking process, I sat on the floor and placed the camera on a shelf in front of me and took a few practice pictures using the front facing camera with no flash. After I reviewed the practice photos I had taken, I decided that I didn't like the lighting, the background, and the quality of the front facing camera. I wanted the background to be a bit more blank and I didn't necessarily like the bold yellow tone of the photo. I decided that I wanted to relocate so I moved to the stairs and I propped my phone up onto a candle. I also used the back camera for better quality along with the camera flash.
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The back camera was difficult to work by myself so I decided that I would place a mirror behind my phone so that I would be able to see my phone screen. Not only did this help me know where the button was on my screen to take the picture, but I was also able to see how I looked in the picture which helped me determine if I was in frame or in focus. This mirror was extremely helpful and think that in the end it was the reason why I ended up with a result that I love.
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One of the biggest struggles that I had to deal with when attempting to take these pictures was making sure that the necklaces were showing in the picture because they are one of the most important elements. In one of the best pictures I took, I realized that one of the charms on my necklace wasn't showing. Rather than scraping the entire picture, I used a mixture of Canva and a photo editor app on my phone to edit in the missing charm so that I would be able to use that picture in the finished product.
After I was finished taking over 100 pictures, I found my top three favorite photos and inserted them into Canva. I then lined them up with each other so they were level and then I cropped out the rest of the background. After all of that, I finally came to a product that I was happy with and I am really proud of how the series came out.
Experimentation
For this project, I had never taken portrait photos of myself for submission purposes so there was lots of trial and error involved with making this series. I started off by figuring out what type of year I wanted to use. In the original, Lo used purple yarn however I decided that I wanted to use blue yarn so that it could best mimic the appearance of animated tears. I also had to experiment with figuring out how I should position my camera so that I would be in frame. To start, i placed my camera on a shelf that was low to the ground so that I would be able to sit on the ground and hold a comfortable pose. After reviewing these photos however, I decided that I didn't like the background in the photo as it was cluttered with lots of decor in the background. I also didn't like the lighting that was in this area because it was very yellow and it was dark outside so the image had lots of shadows. I then decided to relocate to my steps because I would still be able to sit on the ground comfortably while also having better lighting. After I found out that the steps were the best location to take these photos, I realized that I didn't like the quality of the photos because I was taking them with the front facing camera. I switched to the back facing camera because I knew that the quality would be better and that was when I was finally happy with how the photos were turning out. The usage of this back facing camera however came with some struggles as I was unable to see the button I needed to press to capture the picture and I couldn't tell if my camera was focused. Because of this, I decided to place a mirror in front of my camera so that I would be able to see my phone screen and this helped a lot. I then experimented with using the flash and I decided that I liked the pictures much better when I used the flash. When I finally came out with a series of photographs that I liked I decided that I wanted to experiment with using filters. I tried using a grey scale so that the pictures were in all black and white and then I attempted to increase and decrease the saturation however in the end I decided that I loved the way that the photos looked naturally and I didn't want to alter their appearance.
Critique
To begin, the first obvious similarity between the two pieces is the obvious use of yarn. Just like my artist inspiration, Lo, I also used yarn to represent tears streaming down the sides of my face. Just like Lo, I wanted to be able to express m y own feelings of sadness over something and I thought that the way she represented her own sadness was very inspirational. The next similarity between the two pieces is the imperfection aspect. In my images, it is very clear that they are nothing near perfect. My hair was messy and un-brushed, my skin hasn't been edited or blurred, and i'm wearing an old, off-colored, tank top. In Lo's images, her hair is also imperfect and a little bit messy and her nail polish is chipped. A difference between the two pieces is for one, the color of the strings of yarn that we used. Lo decided that she wanted to use purple yarn but didn't really speak about why she made that decision. I however, decided that I wanted to use blue yarn so that it was even more obvious that it represented tears. Another difference between the two photographs is the quality. In Lo's photos, she clearly uses a more advanced camera as the quality is much better and the colors are more vibrant. In my photos however, the quality isn't that great because I only used my phone and the colors aren't as saturated.
Reflection
My inspiration for this project was photographer, Lo who specializes in self portraits. I appreciated the way that the artist was able to represent the appearance of tears using a physical object and I loved how seemingly unedited the photo appeared as it shows that she was able to let her natural appearance take over the photo. I wanted to be able to take this appearance and emotion and put it into my own piece and also expand upon my own skills when working with photography. I loved the level of imperfection that was incorporated into her photograph and I wanted to be able to take that element and implement that into my own collection. Although I love my final product, I wish that I had access to a high quality camera because I would have liked to have the same level of quality as my inspiration. Lo's picture was very vivid, sharp, and visually appealing while mine was a little muted and the quality was not very high. I also wish that I had a different background because I don't really like the wall in the background even though it was better than all the clutter that was in the background in the first few photos I took. My biggest challenge for this project was trying to get the lighting just right because I found that the lights were either too yellow or too dim and it cause a lot of problems with shadows which threw off the entire image. Eventually I was able to find an area with adequate lighting but the process of finding the lighting was quite difficult. In the end, I like the way that the photos turned out and I am actually really proud of the final result because this was my first time doing portrait photography. I really enjoyed the process of figuring out which lighting was the best fit and if the flash would have been a good fit for particular photos. It was a great experience for me and I would love to work with photography again in the future.
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.
Lo's expression of deep emotion inspired me to create a photography series that consisted of photos that represented a moment in my life where I was experience those same deep emotions of the loss of a friendship.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Lo was very interested in making her photography very body and mind positive so I think that she would be very interested in a work similar to hers that represented a healthy and emotionally expressive outlet.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Some generalizations that I made about the artist in particular is that she was going through some emotional or physical pain at the time that made her decide to take those photos of herself.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my research was to create a photography series that would represent the loss of a friendship.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading, I made the inference that Lo was very interested in creating photos that were body positive.
Lo's expression of deep emotion inspired me to create a photography series that consisted of photos that represented a moment in my life where I was experience those same deep emotions of the loss of a friendship.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Lo was very interested in making her photography very body and mind positive so I think that she would be very interested in a work similar to hers that represented a healthy and emotionally expressive outlet.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Some generalizations that I made about the artist in particular is that she was going through some emotional or physical pain at the time that made her decide to take those photos of herself.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my research was to create a photography series that would represent the loss of a friendship.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading, I made the inference that Lo was very interested in creating photos that were body positive.
Bibliography
2022, Instagram. Available at: https://l.instagram.com/ (Accessed: December 10, 2022).