Tutorial with Paul fieldsend-danks
On Friday the 1st of May I had a tutorial with Paul Fieldsend-Danks at 12:20pm. During this tutorial we were looking at my most recent photo shoot that I had undertaken, around the topic of isolation and the effects that it can have on an individual through the use of self portraiture.
Paul began the tutorial by telling me that he thought my images were really powerful. He went on to discuss how he doesn't know me very well, but at the same time this didn't matter because when using images as a narrative the audience doesn't actually need to know the artist, instead the images should speak for themselves.
We also discussed ideas such as how open can and should the questions be that I am asking within the images - ambivalence.
Also the use of gaze within an image. If you as the model are to look directly at the camera as if you are looking straight at your audience then this almost has an affect of drawing the audience away, and can cause the audience to feel uncomfortable when looking at the image. Taking away that gaze will encourage individuals to look at the image, and are more likely to connect with the image more than they would if the model was to be looking straight at the camera.
Some technical areas that Paul gave me to think about was the idea of instead of using A4 pieces of paper, to instead just use scraps of paper and to hand write the question on each piece, similar to what Bob Dylan had done in his music video - 'subterranean homesick blues', and the same as Cindy Sherman did in her project 'Signs that say what you want them to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say'.
He also discussed the importance of placing within an image, including ideas such as the placement of the model or even the text, he then went on to discuss the idea of balancing within an image and also the possible use of a square format for the images, this links in to what Louise Fargo-Ruskin discussed in my tutorial with her about the use of cropping, in order to not showing everything within the image.
Paul then concluded by talking about the use of opening my project more to the audience, this can be as simple of rephrasing the question that I am asking within my images, so instead of it saying 'I don't know what I am doing anymore!', It could instead read as 'Do any of us know what we are doing anymore?'
Paul also gave me some artists to have a look at including:
Paul began the tutorial by telling me that he thought my images were really powerful. He went on to discuss how he doesn't know me very well, but at the same time this didn't matter because when using images as a narrative the audience doesn't actually need to know the artist, instead the images should speak for themselves.
We also discussed ideas such as how open can and should the questions be that I am asking within the images - ambivalence.
Also the use of gaze within an image. If you as the model are to look directly at the camera as if you are looking straight at your audience then this almost has an affect of drawing the audience away, and can cause the audience to feel uncomfortable when looking at the image. Taking away that gaze will encourage individuals to look at the image, and are more likely to connect with the image more than they would if the model was to be looking straight at the camera.
Some technical areas that Paul gave me to think about was the idea of instead of using A4 pieces of paper, to instead just use scraps of paper and to hand write the question on each piece, similar to what Bob Dylan had done in his music video - 'subterranean homesick blues', and the same as Cindy Sherman did in her project 'Signs that say what you want them to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say'.
He also discussed the importance of placing within an image, including ideas such as the placement of the model or even the text, he then went on to discuss the idea of balancing within an image and also the possible use of a square format for the images, this links in to what Louise Fargo-Ruskin discussed in my tutorial with her about the use of cropping, in order to not showing everything within the image.
Paul then concluded by talking about the use of opening my project more to the audience, this can be as simple of rephrasing the question that I am asking within my images, so instead of it saying 'I don't know what I am doing anymore!', It could instead read as 'Do any of us know what we are doing anymore?'
Paul also gave me some artists to have a look at including:
- Sam Taylor-Wood - His earlier work
- Francesca Woodman
