Motivate Monday

Themed Days continued......

I'm torn today on what to give you guys on this ‪#‎motivatemonday‬. A meeting last week really got me thinking about my creative self and the conceptual photography I used to do and love. With this in mind I think today is best suited to showing you Erwin Olaf. Olaf is a fashion photographer I discovered at uni who explores, very often, dark themes in his work. The juxtaposition of using the visuals of fashion (often vintage styling) in the storytelling of dark and often sadistic themes that involve the vices and crises of life in addition to power struggles is one, I feel, he does unnerving well. You should check out his portfolio:

http://www.erwinolaf.com/#/portfolio/

No Man's Land

Here are (a recap for those who have followed this blog for a while) some of my favourite conceptually motivated university projects. I blogged about most of these projects when they were in the early working stages and if you would like to see those early experiments please feel free to look back through the posts here.

www.sammisparke.com

No Man’s Land

No Man’s Land is a conceptual project that attempts to capture some of the isolation and confusion unique to the teenage years, which many people will have experienced and can relate to.

In the series I hoped to touch upon the confusion and loneliness associated with being neither a child nor adult and how this existence is a kin to a transient state with no real point of reference. The subject of the series is Natalia, a 13 year old teenager from Poland, living in the UK. She was a perfect subject due to her age and social circumstance. The difficult changes all teenagers go through can be seen as magnified in Natalia who is not only coping with emotional and physical changes of the teenage years but with the added confusion of identity; being a Polish girl in the UK.

The changeable and transient nature of teenage-hood, and Natalia’s personal experience, is emphasised by the use of visual devices including lighting and camera angle. The choice of backdrop or landscape was also very important to the series. Natalia’s playfulness, awkwardness and sometimes loneliness was reflected in these changeable backdrops, which included the sea and tides as well as the seasons and nature.

Taylor Wessing attempt 2012

I just found THAT email in my inbox telling me my portrait hadn't made it into the Taylor Wessing portrait prize this year. Arse.

Well this is the 3rd year I've tried and if I'm here and well I will try again next year I am sure.

May as well just show you the image now.

If anyone has any crit it would be welcomed but only if you are familiar with the Taylor Wessing portrait prize.

Caroline and Sarah

Concept:

Perspective points of view. 

The series aims to simultaneously investigate the relationship between twins, identical and non identical, and the way the world we live in views and engages with them. It attempts to look at the fascination our culture has with twins, particularly our obsession with 'difference' and 'similarity', which seems to be our favoured way of understanding and engaging with twins as subject.

Prelude to the final images is below:

Well, I have entered the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize yet again this year. Every time I do it I get very carried away in a little bubble of self-deception imaging ing I've picked out a theme from last year that will have the judges falling over themselves in admiration for my image. It is only after I have entered that sober up and consider how ridiculous it is to imagine even getting an image in the exhibition let alone winning!

This year however I was happy with the final image I submitted and this is how I got there:

This year I considered several subjects but it was a while until I realised I had the perfect one, one that has interested me for a long time, sitting right under my nose. My good friend Caroline is one half of a pair of identical twins.

What particularly interested me here is that Caroline and her sister Sarah, although considered identical twins, look quite different.....and this is where the context was born for this new project - 

'The series aims to simultaneously investigate the relationship between twins, identical and non identical, and the way the world we live in views and engages with them. It attempts to look at the fascination our culture has with twins, particularly our obsession with 'difference' and 'similarity', which seems to be our favoured way of understanding and engaging with twins as subject.'

Some of the images that go close to my objective are the following: 

Kornelia Shoot - No Man's Land Project

Again , this blog is for criticism and I would appreciate any after you have read what i'm trying to achieve (below).

The images here with Kornelia intend to show how teenage years can feel isolating and unsure, this goes two fold for Kornelai as she is Polish and came across here a few years ago with her family.

Kornelia is 15 (believe it or not) and I'm trying to bring out the serious side of her because she is a bit older than her sister and it shows in her behaviour - she is more introverted and serious, quite self aware, much more so than Natalia (not shown here). 

I am also trying to get a feel of  the whimsical, the ephemeral, a soft and hazy feel to show that teenage years are not real as such and full of uncertainty. In a way I want to show how teenage years are for trying things out, playing, moving from childhood to adulthood....that kind of thing.

Any crit very welcome from photography folk. (click on images to see them in detail)

Cheers.

Park shoot with the girls (No Man's Land Project)

This blog is actually to get some crit off my uni mates so I'm uploading a few of the same sort of images, which you wouldn't normally see.

I've decided to play on the different personalities and ages of the girls. For the younger one, Natalia, I'm focusing on her playfulness and with Kornelia, the older one, I'm going for a more serious feel.

My aesthetic is meant to bring out the whimsical, the ephemeral, a soft and hazy feel to show that teenage years are not real as such and full of uncertainty. They for trying things out, playing, moving from childhood to adulthood....that kind of thing.

Any crit very welcome.

Cheers.

Beach Shoot with Natalia and Kornelia

This is a shoot from a few weeks ago.

My flash wouldn't work, which I was gutted about as I think fill in flash is going to be the thing that makes these images look the way I want them to. Basically the only images I've been happy with so far is the shoot before this one with Natalia and her friends.

After a crit at uni, people liked the pared down background of the above shoot because it helped them focus on the subjects better.

With these images, I still really need to get more of a whimsical feel going......and there are a couple of shots that would get near if my sodding flash had worked (It would have gotten rid of the nasty shadows).

Any crit welcome. FYI reminder - the project looks at the teenage years as transient years where nothing is certain and things change quickly and often. I'm looking to get a whimsical feel, dreamy as such, and i've been trying to pick backgrounds that are also changeable like the sea (changes with the tide) and nature which changes with the seasons. Any suggestions of other appropriate settings would be appreciated. :)

     

  

.....nearer I get

This shoot is from the other day where I followed 3 teenagers along the coast trying to get some useful shots of them. I'd asked for the three of them to participate instead of just Natalia, but by the time the shoot came about I realised that photographs of the three of them weren't going to be useful to my project. I took quite a few pics of them non-the-less which they can keep, while stealing single shots of Natalia where I could. I actually think having her friend's along helped to relax her a bit so I'm not entirely unhappy with some of these shots. They are certainly more in keeping with how I want this project to progress. So, one memory card full and an injured knee and foot later here is an update on my project.

 

Natalia Shoot

Well I'm still largely off beam with the current lot of images I've shot. Finding it very hard to give my full concentration to this project with dissertation deadline looming. Unfortunately this project really does need my full attention. I guess this shoot could be considered a 'what not to do' with some, but few, images in line with how I want to proceed; the more whimsical images. A comprehensive style with which to tackle this project is still something I desperately need to work out. Here are some shots from the last shoot any how: