Inspiration for Final Outcome

My final idea for the exam theme of Inside, Outside and Inbetween, is going to be the development of depression and the symptoms of OCD. The reason why I have chosen to pursue this subject is because of the inner turmoil that goes on in someones mind that you may no specifically see when you meet them. I feel this topic of depression and OCD will show a side to what people do with a particular disorder, for example counting or repeating words silently. Two main influences for the this was the film 'One Hour Photo' and 'The Beautiful Mind'. 

 One Hour Photo is about an employee of a one-hour photo lab becomes obsessed with a young suburban family. As you can see the arrangement that he has made by his obsession with the family is plastered over a wall. The neatness of the photos are in straight rows and columns that suggests that the character has a obsessive compulsive disorder. Also if you look carefully at the images you can see they are almost in a colour-chronological order, seeing groups of the same colours in the photographs in a certain section.        

The Beautiful Mind After a brilliant but asocial mathematician accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn to the nightmarish. This image above shows a wall covered in notes, photos of his cryptography work. I like the way that it has been presented because it shows not just a range of photograph, also text that connect with the pictures.

I feel that both One Hour Photo and The Beautiful Mind are good story examples of people that have either OCD or become unstable or obsessed with certain people or things. I think that these two films have really inspired me in a way that I can present my work. I like they way that a whole wall has been covered with lots of photos in a symmetrical way or with text and notes. My presentation that I will create with my photos will be with incorporating text, different techniques such as double exposure, selective development, handmade negatives, and also maybe stitching into the photos with certain words that may represent with that particular photo.

There is not a particular photographer that has really inspired me as such, but Cluine Reid is one artist that has used text and handwritten words in her images to basically describing what is in her photographs.  Also as I have been researching more into OCD that can affect people, and that has really inspired me to go outside the boxes of OCD and focus a little more on depression. Depression can be caused by so many things and I feel that the photographs that I have taken using the SLR camera will really compensate with the presentation outcome and also the theme of the exam. The images that I have taken is like a cycle of how people can be effected by depression how what people are think can really effect their actions or even how they treat people.     

OCD Digital Photographs

After taking black and white images of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptoms, I decided to take some digital photographs of some of the symptoms

• Washers are afraid of contamination. They usually have cleaning or hand-washing compulsions.

Here are some examples of someone washing their hands repeatedly to ensure that their hands are clean. The camera that I used was a digital SLR where I focus into the hand really close so that main focal point was really in focus and really shone out from the rest of the image. You can also see a lot of definition that is shown through the bubbles of the washing up liquid/ soap, also the definition of the hands is very precise and very much the centre of attention. This draws you into the selection of images.      

• Counters and arrangers are obsessed with order and symmetry. They may have superstitions about certain numbers, colours, or arrangements.

Here is an selection of images that are of nail polishes, in similar colours and hight order. I like this arrangement because it clearly depicts the selections of colours from quite natural colours to the bold colours. i like the lighting that has been used as it you can clearly see what is happening the background of colours and how neatly the bottles have been arranged.  As more bottles are added you can see the back bottles become more out of focus and the bottles in front become the main focal point. 

• Checkers repeatedly check things (oven turned off, door locked, etc.) that they associate with harm or danger.

Here are two images of someone turning on and off a light switch. People do this to ensure that they are secure that the light is definitely off. I have captured these images by zooming fully into the hand on the light switch, fully in focus. I turned the flash on for this so that you would get more of a contrast between all of the wall and the hand.  

HERE ARE SOME MORE DIGITAL OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER PHOTOGRAPHS.

UNLOCKING/LOCKING

ARRANGMENT

HOARDING

Clunie Reid

Clunie Reid is a photographer and artist that works with collage techniques to create abstract pieces of work such as these three pieces of work below. By adding text to the photos bring a sense of personal issues to image and some how makes it stand out more. In the first image you can see a picture of actress Nicole Kidman in black and white, with a phrase written over it, making it seem that the model has actually wrote the words herself. Also the words looks childlike and hand written so it becomes more abstract. To the right of that image is the same picture and words written over it, but have had black-marker pen covered up most of the photo, making the image more dark and mysterious. The next picture is a similar style to the first photo, with text covering the whole background image of the model. However this text is quite bold and noticeable and looks stencil like, rather than handwritten. I quite like the similarities of colours and effect between the fore and background; because the background is quite dominate in the way that the model is looking hurt and depressed, whereas the foreground with the words 'Gon An Dunna Runna' is very much bold and the centre of attention in this piece. I like the way that the words can relate to the crying girl and it all links together. The final image by Reid that I quite like is this photograph of a girl that is piratically laying on the floor in an empty room. The text that have been added to the image are handwritten indications to what you can actually see in the photograph. I like the concept of this layout design because it gets straight to the point and you dont need to be worrying about what the actual photograph is about.             

All in all I like the concept of all this design involving pieces of text that can make the photograph more dynamic and sometimes personal. I feel that I can possibly use Cluine Reid as inspiration for the techniques of wriging on top of my photos, connecting to the OCD and depression theme. 

One photographers work that I came across while looking for more research into the world of obsessive compulsive disorder was Andrew Warrender. He has described his collection of work as a 'Self initiated project visualising and communicating Obsessive Compulsive Disorders through repetitive rituals. Quotations and rhythmic images convey the confusion and emotional pain of the sufferers.' He has captured many things that people do that have OCD, for example washing hand repeatedly for a certain amount of time and arranging coins. Below is a selection of photos digitally enhanced with some colours added to the images to bring a more vibrant feel that really compensates well with each individual. Starting from left you can see a group of images of someone washing their hands repeatedly in different positions so you get the sense of the person washing their hands constantly. The next strip of images is of someone changing the time on an alarm clock multiple times, so they know they have definitely set the time correctly. The third set of pictures is of someone locking the door. People do this to many times over and over again because they believe that fell more secure and at peace with themselves if they lock the door more than once. As you can see the next selection of images is of coins being arranged in size order or even date order of when the count was made. Finally you can see a light switch being turned on and off. 

With all of this photographs are so precise in what they are in focused in. Also the colour that have been added to all of the selection of photos works really well and seems to make the images stand out more from the page. I like the concept of this particular idea because it is so different to what I have seen before. Andrew Warrender has really created something that has caught my eye in capturing the signs and symptoms of OCD and depression, which is really inspiring to see.       

Final Outcome Mindmap

Exam Review

The starting points that I started with were Movement and Light and The 5 Senses, for the exam theme of INDISE, OUTSIDE & INBETWEEN. I chose movement and light first of all because you can experience this particular theme in everything you do. To start of with is first point I took some digital photographs of different lighting areas, e.g. lamps. I also took some images of shadows linking both movement and light together in one image. After that topic, I chose the 5 senses because I believe you can create alot of  work with this. I firstly took a picture of all of my 5 senses and created a collage in the style of Linder Sterling. After taking digital images and researching into the two chosen topic, I took a black and white film of three different styles that related to the two starting points: OCD, Reflection and Food.   

For the two starting points and the experiments and film that I took, my ideas have slightly changed. Even though I did like the two starting points of Movement & Light and The Five Senses, I feel that if I want to push myself to get the higher marks I've to think alittle more creatively.    

 

I have created alot of experiments digitally and in the darkroom.  Here is the digital that I feel that has shown my best skills. 

This particular photos is from the Movement and Light theme because it express that some people can only see certain colours meaning they have colour blindness. I thought I would make the original photo black and white, then turn the roses back to red again. This means that the person looking at image is colour blind to green.

The black and white technique that I feel is the best is this double exposure image. I feel that the pictures that I used, two ducks on a lake and a scene in a park work really well together. I think this because of the busyness of the park in contrast to clear picture of the ducks. I really like this technique because it shows my ability to make more contrasting images and maybe more complicated.

I feel that I have been more successful in making darkroom techniques and experiments, because It is like trial and error and I like to think that in the darkroom you can take a bit of a risk and sometimes it works out for the best. So I think that most of my darkroom work is better in compression with my digital work. I would like to think that I can create more work in the darkroom better than I have ever done to hopefully get the best possible marks and more technical experiments.  

I defiantly think I would like to develop my selective masking photos, because I feel they are the most successful darkroom prints that I have created for the exam project. Also I believe they will work well with my final film idea. Also I like my test strips that I have done for every print just to test out the right timing and light. Even though they are just ripped pieces of photo paper with only a section of the negative on they really abstract and quirky that could work with something in my final piece.

I think that one artist/photographer that has really inspired me for most of this project or INSIDE, OUTSIDE and INBETWEEN has been Linder Sterling's work, from her quirky collages to her ripped photos. Here to the right is an example of her ripped pieces of work and the a person interpretation of her work. Even though some of the techniques that I have created haven't really related to her work as much, I feel that her collage work is really inspiring. Also the ripped technique is something that I would really like to try and recreate and development from her work.

My exam plan for the next two week before my exam is to have a final idea in mind that will hopefully get me the best possible marks I can. I also want to do some more digital photographs so that I can have a range of black and white and digital pictures. I want to also get my sketchbook filled with lots of different ideas of possible ways I could present my final outcome, something completely unusual that nobody has done before.