litellehands

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Into The Wild. 2021.

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Jennifer Sterling   -   Politics of Discontent Exhibit

http://www.jennifersterlingdesign.com/

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Work by Sam Winston   2006 - 2012

https://www.samwinston.com/

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H A P P Y  1 9  T H   B I R T H D A Y!

Forever dreaming of these shoes...

Stay Freaky! @  www.alternative-footwear.co.uk 

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LUPITA NYONG’O for AnOther Magazine (2019), ph. Willy Vanderperre.

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Some more graphic projects and water colour paintings made outside of study.

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A few more graphic pieces I made outside of study.

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Touch

Photoshoot from the final component; Sensory Experience (2018). Inspired by Ren Hangs work.

Image one - I placed my subject in a sitting position and focused on his shoulders incorporating random objects into the shoot to link with sensory experience (touch). The texture of the pearls in this stands out and looks similar to his eyes which I liked. I took this in portrait and used flash to create the overpowering lightness and shadow at the back to create a sense of intimacy. 

Image two - The composition of this photo was significant as I knew I wanted to infuse random objects/textures into the photo but still come across quite casual and ‘normal’. I purposely overexposed the image cutting out unimportant detail additionally I just prefer how my images look when I’ve edited these factors.

image 3 - I took it from above and used flash again and in Photoshop I edited contrast and brightness to bring out the hair and unclear water. I feel like this links to sensory experience and it hits multiple senses and brings light to things we can feel e.g. water, skin and body hair. Some of the images from this shoot made me think of the fashion, youth culture brand/company; i-D and their front covers, normally headshots of artists etc. the bathtub which my subject is in has played a part in the framing of the image and added to the portrait shot. The light is lit from above making the focal point to be his chest/ribs that stick out and add detail to the image. 

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Desire 

This shoot was inspired by Ernestine Ruben and the #mycalvins campaign by Harley weir. I knew that I wanted to have a sort of collage layout to the work, contrasting with the usual layout of my sketchbooks. Using my canon 600D I wanted a intimate, sensual and raw reflection of touch. 

Composition-wise this shoot was simple and didn't need much space as I purposely took close ups to focus on the body parts that play a role in our sensory experiences day to day. During editing the shoot in photoshop I changed all my images to black and white to emphasise body parts ignoring things like ethnicity, background etc. I then went on to editing the amount of reds and yellow in the image to bring out less visible textures and imperfections that added to the initial intention I had, after these steps I cropped my pictures to become squarer, emphasising my chosen topic. I didn't want the shoot to be completely unnatural so me and my subject had conversations about a few topics, including desire. We spoke about secret and personal desires and I asked him to imagine these things, I wanted his senses to be awoken through his imagination. The lip bite is my favourite stance as it says a mixture of things and is aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. I feel as though this shoot emitted feelings of eroticism, something i hope to explore more with visual art.

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bare

My 3rd component; Sensory Experience (2018) was a change from the portrait photography I was so used to. I experimented with weather and how temperature affects the composition and feel of photos. Using film definitely grew my confidence and attracted me to different types of subjects and locations. 

The first image of the hand in snow highlights the sense of touch and temperature. I stayed away from using flash in this shoot as I wanted the natural light to take control and capture falling snow, insects etc. When developing the negatives I knew that the right exposure time was key so as usual I created a test strip and a contact sheet, sticking with the 10 second exposure to keep colours balanced.

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Component One Conclusion - 

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Butterfly                

(From component 2 - Emotions in Film 10/2017)

This butterfly in particular I came across at the start of the farm and latched onto me immediately. Its wings were broken in many places and it appeared lifeless, similar to the way humans can be hurt and broken sometimes they feel the need to latch onto others around them for support and stability. Much like in relationships as we can have good ones and bad ones and most of the time after bad ones we search for other people we can connect to and heal with. In terms of technicalities, I took the photograph when the butterfly was latching onto the net seconds before it it flew in my direction, making sure the shutter speed was accurate creating a sharp, defined image. When looking over the image in photoshop I decided to crop it, changing the gradient and painting the back ground completely white to make the subject bold. In this shoot I also experimented with the cyanotype process which turned out better than expected.

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Identity            

Image from component 1, 2016 - Inside Outside and In-between

At the start of year 12 I chose a topic of identity. I wanted to express the concepts; Gender, Identity and sexuality through my images, focusing on the aperture as I wanted to make the face the center of focus, reflecting his emotional state. Using natural light from the window I placed him where this could be visible, highlighting specific body parts such as the eyes, lips, chest hair and shoulders.

I feel as though this topic has become more visible in mainstream art over the past few years, slowly eradicating negative connotations linked with queer visual art. Photographers are becoming less hesitant to showcase such tricky and convoluted emotions about the self.