Portraits Reflection

So, in comparison to my last blog post researching portraits my ideas, and concepts changed when I decided to stick with my first concept which was capturing vulnerability through making myself perform in front of my window in my most vulnerable state that I don't normally allow an unknown crowd to be aware of, and to look at which was the main concept of the entire project to make it a performance between myself, and people outside the window.

The entire project was in inspiration of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Maria whom also performed for the sake of her concept. I also did test shots on 35mm, and digital before carrying out the final shoot which was shot in the evening because I felt like that also was a vulnerable time for people in general.

I was also inspired by a British photographer Nadia Lee Cohen who shoot self portraits in different characters and played around with that idea of capturing different states of self. I was also inspired by Dear Strangers photographic series which inspired the windows concept.

Test shots shot in the daytime:

I didn't like how these test shots turned out because of the reflections in the window, so we decided to shoot in the night time and use my led lights to be used as a multiple meaning and shot completely portrait as I preferred it. I also made Savina from third year my photographer as I told her my concept and she understood it, and got excited about how to capture it conceptually which made me twice as comfortable shooting whilst performing.

The night time test shots:

The final shots (edited on Photoshop):
- These are in order of the exhibition.

Out The Window - Self Portraits Series 

For the final photos I picked four because I felt like they were the best suited for the concept itself instead of having six photos which was originally my first idea because I wanted to show the whole performance, but I felt like that was too much. I only edited these slightly on photoshop to give it an effect like a 35mm film photo which was my original plan, and turned up the exposure and whiteness in the photos to balance them all out. I think if I overly edited the exposure without keeping the reflections of the led lights, it wouldn't have the same paranoid effect. 

I feel like my 4 photos portray my entire concept, so I'm happy with the overall concept as a whole.