Research from Formative Feedback
Finding the line between too descriptive and too metaphorical will take a lot of trial and error and it's okay to get it wrong in the start. I agree with this as it is so easy to assume the viewer knows exactly what I want them to see in the photographs I produce. On the other hand, it is hard to know when to stop describing the topic to the viewer.
Artist Models Research
Laurie Simmons
The Love Doll
This series is really odd because I couldn't decide if the people in the photos were real or actual dolls. I keep making my mind up and then I would flick to the next image and it would put me off balance again. I'm still not 100% sure but I would guess the people are real and that the skin and face have been manipulated in Photoshop.
I think the doll idea definitely comes across strongly here because of the smooth skin and edited face. I could incorporate this into my images to make my idea more obvious and easy to understand without spelling so much out. I also really like the image of the doll in the box. I could do something to do with unboxing.
Laurie Simmons. The Love Doll/Day 8 (Lying on Bed), 2010.
Laurie Simmons. The Love Doll/Day 27/Day 1 (New in Box), 2010.
Early Color Interiors
It is so nice to see the advance in Simmon's work, from this early series and The Love Doll which still feature the same themes, but the photographs are very different. This series is probably closer to what I imagined my photographs would look like; it is definitely more humble. I particularly like the bathroom photo, I think because of the sunshine shining through the windows of the walls, and the shapes it makes. I also like that you can see that the wall has an end, it breaks the illusion but it seems to work somehow.
Laurie Simmons. First Bathroom/Woman Standing, 1978.
David Levinthal
David Levinthal's work is very interesting. From first glance, I didn't like a lot of it because of the very narrow focus, and often blurred backgrounds. I think I do have a lot to learn from someone like Levinthal though. The way he makes his motionless toys come to life is a talent. I particularly enjoyed the Baseball series, as well as Bad Barbie.
David Levinthal. Untitled, from the series Baseball, 20 x 24 Polaroid Polacolor ER Land Film, 1998-2004.
Stop Motion Video
Our task over the break was to take images to put together to make a stop motion clip. This was my first time doing this, and I had a preconceived idea that all stop motion was do to with either clay or lego. Searching google for stop motion videos brought up both of these things, without much variation. Since I had neither clay nor lego to work with, I was feeling pretty stuck so I headed over to Pinterest for inspiration. This was actually the biggest help to me because I saw designers and photographers who work with stop motion in different, more colourful ways than I had ever seen.
Evan Hilton is the first stop motion animator I came across and his videos are captivating because they are so colourful and they break the laws of reality.
Another thing that hindered me with this project was the pressure I put on myself to make it look like Evan Hilton's beautiful videos. I wanted to have a really clean looking background as well as stable images. Unfortunately both of these things did not happen because I do not own a tripod, and I tried making the background with a sheet but it actually was more distracting because of all the wrinkles in the fabric. I ended up using the carpet as my backdrop.
I think it would be a lot of fun to have a go at stop motion with all the right equipment. Done well it looks very very effective.
Stills
Here are a couple of still frames from the video. As you can see, I decided to go with the black rectangles method rather than cropping to size as I was afraid of losing some of the information from the top and bottom.
Project
At this stage I am scheduled in to visit the Mirimar toy library next Tuesday to take some photos of a dolls house. I am hoping that I can further my project after this as I seem to not be able to come up with any new directions when I haven't completed the one I'm currently working on.
I am also still deciding if I want to look into fixing complexions to make my model look more like a doll.
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