Week 6

Research

I was a bit stuck after receiving feedback on my first shoots as I had no other ideas of where to go. I decided to read an academic article to see if I could gain some inspiration from some real life theory.

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"Self-monitoring and impression management involves attentiveness to social situations and the ability to monitor and manipulate one's own behaviour to create favourable impressions in a given situation (Snyder, 1974)" (Hellmann 18).

"Perfectionistic self-promoters might promote a version of themselves that is flawless and focused on the positive aspects of oneself when interacting with others. By displaying a version of the self that is flawless and competent, individuals attempt to gain admiration and respect from others. The perfectionistic self-promoter presents him or herself as capable, moral, socially competent, and absolutely successful in every aspect of life (Hellmann 18).

"In many of life's interactions, individual might try to control how they present themselves, but even those with highest levels of self-monitoring might not be able to control the circumstances of every in-person interaction. On social media, however, the ability to control how one presents the self is easily edited and highly controlled. Social media users can present themselves in a profile with personal information and photos (Valkenburg, Peter, Shouten, 2006)" (Hellmann 24).

"The struggle to decide which 'self' to display likely extends to other social media forums as well" (Hellmann 25).

Hellmann, Emily. "Keeping Up Appearances: Perfectionism and Perfectionistic Self-Presentation on Social Media." Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University, student work, 2016.

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From this article I had the idea to work with a dolls house of sorts, and instead of using dolls, using real people and photoshopping them into the photograph of the doll house. This would show how the majority of photos we see online are fake in some way, or 'plastic'.

Funnily enough dolls houses are really expensive so before I dropped money on one, I decided to just take photos of my model dressed up like a barbie/instagram influencer and will present these to the class. I am hoping that I will get feedback that lets me know if it is worth pursuing this idea or not.

Photoshoot

It was too late to book a studio in terms of having a time that suited me and my model, so I did this shoot in my flat against a white-ish wall. If I am to continue with this idea I will take the photos in the studio where I can get a good light on the model, to make it easier to cut out later.

Two unedited RAW files.

Photos edited in Camera RAW.

The two photos I will be showing on Thursday. Edited in photoshop. I put the pink behind them to give a little more of a spatial feel seeing as the model will be in a house.