Personal Statement

I am currently studying a BTEC Extended Diploma in Photography, where I have maintained distinction grade. Following successful completion of this course, I have decided to extend my education further at degree level. I have always been interested in creative subjects, completing GCSE and AS level Art, with grades B and C respectively. This background has given me a creative, multimedia influence to photography and has enabled me to produce exciting, eye-catching work as demonstrated in my portfolio.
I have enjoyed working in both film and digital formats. I am confident using darkrooms for film processing and printing images, as well as mixing chemicals to the required ratios. Experimenting with alternative darkroom techniques has allowed me to be more creative in my work. I have used several film cameras including medium and large format, displaying my interest in exploring different methods of image capture. I have a good knowledge of the vast array of tools available in Photoshop and have used them to enhance and manipulate my digital images.
Alongside this course I have completed some work experience with a professional wedding photographer, which built my confidence in working with large groups and unfamiliar people. This led to undertaking some wedding photography projects myself, taking responsibility for planning which photographs were to be taken and also designing the album. These involved adapting quickly to changes in weather and other problems as they arose, which shows that I am capable of working under pressure. I was also recommended to a play director by my tutor who asked me to take some images, as well as design and produce a poster using some of those images, to advertise a Buxton Fringe Festival play. This gave me experience of producing high-quality work, working to deadlines and fulfilling client requirements.
My photography work has been particularly inspired by Sally Mankus' work with mixed media. As a result I experimented with printing on materials, both digitally and in the darkroom, which encouraged my interest in alternative photography techniques. Research into the work of Sally Mann has led me, in more recent projects, to challenge myself to make my images contain more context along with hidden meaning, as is found in her work. As part of my course I have visited art galleries in London as well as in my local area and these have shown me the many different ways that work can be shown to the public. My own work has been displayed in a local exhibition, giving me the opportunity to experience public opinion towards my work.
Earlier this year, I entered a photography competition and won membership to the Derby Photographic Society. This has increased my confidence in displaying my work to other photographers. The society's competitions have given me the experience of having my work critiqued by independent judges; their constructive comments have allowed me to improve my subsequent entries and work. I have been working part-time as a Retail Assistant at Birds the Confectioners for three years. I have always been on time and never had an unplanned absence, showing commitment and punctuality. It has also taught me skills in interacting with members of the public in a professional manner. I was a member of Derby Cathedral Girls' Choir between the ages of 10 and 18, singing three times a week at rehearsals and services. I have travelled all over Europe with the choir, without parents, demonstrating greater independence from a young age. I believe that I also demonstrate this independence in my photography work.
I have worked well on the BTEC course and I feel I have pushed myself to reach my true potential. I am confident that I can produce interesting and technically sound images; however, I am interested in widening my knowledge, particularly in image manipulation and unexplored techniques. I am excited about the prospect of starting the degree-level course where I am confident I can excel.

FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Evaluation

I am very pleased with the final images that I have produced. My final images were manipulated digitally, I think if I had more time I would have liked to do all of the post production in the darkroom, however I had to be realistic with the deadline and it wasn't possible. My main inspiration for the flower images was Imogen Cunningham, who has produced some very beautiful and delicate, detailed images of still life, this is exactly what I wanted to produce. I didn't achieve the same detail as Cunningham, mainly because she uses a large format camera, I used a 35mm camera on the time basis. If I had a longer time with this project I would have liked to experiment again with the large format camera, achieving a higher quality starting image. It was then the likes of Watson, Greenfield and Mikkinen that made me think about the way in which the body can be displayed and changed. After realising I couldn't achieve what I wanted with the body alone, I decided to look at ways of presenting the images. I found the work of Ellen Rogers who inspired me to use both images in my work, creating the same idea in a different way. I think this style of layering also fits well with the extreme brief as it is an extreme form of printing.
I believe I have worked really well on this project, I took the brief of extreme, which didn't inspire me as much as some, and tried to do something that was interesting to me, looking at extreme body positions and then extreme printing methods. I will enter my image into the Fuji competition and see how far it goes.

FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Experimenting with layers, Digital.

After having trouble with the darkroom techniques I decided to try doing the same thing but using digital aid. This was much easier, I scanned the images into the computer and altered each separately, as I did in the darkroom to create two separate, technically sound images. I then began by layering the body image ontop of the flower image and resized so that it was where I wanted it. I then lowed the opacity of the body layer to make it less obvious and blend in more to the original flower image. I made the edge of the body layer even softer by gently erasing the edges.
I am really pleased with this final image, it is exactly how I imagined the images to be and it is much more effective than the prints I did in the darkroom. The digital print was also much easier and quicker to produce.

I decided to produce two of these images for my final collection, I think they work really well together, the flower is very delicate which works well with the layering technique. The body fits well in the depths of the flower, It is almost hard to make the body out in the second image. This is exactly how I imagined the images, I wanted them to fit together perfectly, looking as if they were made that way.

FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Experiments with layering techniques

wIn the darkroom I began by getting two separate images, a flower one and a body one to the right exposure, using the same aperture.

This is a test strip of the flower images, looking at 5,10,15,20 and 25 seconds left to right, I decided that the 20-25 seconds were the best and if anything it could do with a little longer, I repeated the test strip at intervals of 2, beginning at 20. the last two were the best, 28 and 30 seconds so I decided to do a confirmation strip at 29.

On my initial full print I noticed so marks on and around the flower, I cleaned the negative up and did another print, which was much better, this image was now ready for print.

I then followed the same procedure with the second (body) image, this image took much less time to expose correctly, with the best being just 4 seconds. I found this difference of time strange, as I used the same type of film for both shoots, however I have realised that this could be due to the lighting I used in the second shoot.

I now had both images that I had exposed correctly, but separately. Now came the challenge of putting the images together.

I started by measuring where I wanted the body to go, in relation to the flower image. I made a paper cut out template to roughly guide me of size and position of the flower head in relation to the page. Firstly I prepared the body image to the size it needed to be and set the enlarger board into it's position, I then exposed the paper to the body image. I then took this paper and put it in a light-proof packet that I had saved from an old box of light-sensitive paper. Once this was secured I could turn the light back on without it affecting the process. I then needed to swap the negatives and re-size the enlarger so that it fit the whole page of the board. Once sized and focused I turned the light back out and got my paper back onto the board. Making sure the paper was in the same place, using the masking tape markers I had put down, I then exposed the paper again, this time with the flower image, I used this home-made dodging tool to dodge around the head of the flower, hopefully revealing the body.

Unfortunately this did not happen how I thought it would, as you can see, the part of the page that has been doubly exposed is obviously much darker than the rest of the image. I needed another way of making the image.

I decided to swap the exposures around, so that the body could be projected onto the existing flower. I made a template out of card that could be placed onto the paper, so not to expose the flower more than wanted. Into this I cut a small shape in the position of the head of the flower, so that the body could be let to shine through this area. Using the same technique with the dark bag method, I exposed the paper in this new way. The image in the middle is very obviously different in tone, it is much darker and the line between the two is very harsh, I wanted it to blend in more with the flower.

I then did the same process using  the same template but this time I decided to dodge the edges to make the line less obvious. Although this helped the line it didnt get the effect that I wanted.

I decided to change the template back to the larger rectangle which uncovers all of the head of the flower. I then set it up in the same way and exposed a new sheet of paper whilst doging around the edge of the page. Making the body image bigger, matching the body of the flower made it blend in more however it was still not how I wanted, I needed to dodge the edges more to create a softer blend.

I tried this same technique but dodging the edges again, I tried this many more times and this was the best image that I made.

This is an example of where I mixed the paper around in the bag, and when putting it back on the board to re-expose it went on the wrong way.

This process, whilst exciting was very time consuming and I still didn't manage the deired effect. I have decided to try to make the image that I have imagined with the use of digital technology.

FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Ellen Rogers

I have decided to change my final images slightly by layering multiple images together to create the style I had initially thought of, making the body appear to be something else.
Ellen rogers is a famous fashion photographer who works solely with analogue photography, using various dark-room techniques to create a 'dreamworld' style to her images. One technique she uses is to layer more than one negative to create a single image. I feel this is the most appropriate technique to use in order to create the desired images.

This is an example of Rogers' work where the layering technique has been used. You can see definitely two separate images, one of the portrait and the other of trees. It is amazing that she has used darkroom techniques to create these images, meaning she must have dodged parts of the images to create this fabulous graduated layering technique. This can easily be done digitally however I understand this is much more challenging in the dark-room.





This is another example of her work which uses the same multi-print style. This image is more 50/50 it it's opacity levels between each image, there is a section on the left hand side where the trees are more visible than the portraits, however the rest of the image is pretty balanced between the two levels. I actually prefer the above image, where one layer is more prominent than the other in certain places as I think this looks much more subtle, making the viewer look twice. The opacity levels will depend upon the individual images, and which parts of the images I will prefer to accentuate and which I can leave faded.





Most of her images use this same technique of projecting two separate images however this image demonstrates a different technique of layering the two negative literally over each other, this gives the line on the page, where the edge of the negative has been projected. I must admit that I actually prefer the other style of image, where more work has to be done to create a more complete-looking image, with smooth graduations between the different opacity of each layer. In some ways it depends very much on the images being layer, how they will look most effective when using the different techniques.


I am going to experiment with different dark-room techniques with my images, however I realise that this is something that may require lots of time and practicing, which I haven't got, in which case I will have to digitally manipulate the images to get the desired look.

FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Evaluation of Body shoot

I was much more prepared for this photo-shoot having set up the back drop and lights before hand, however I did come across a couple of problems. I initially started with the model in a nude coloured underwear set, however when practising the images with the digital camera it became clear that the this underwear didn't fit with the image, it was very obviously different from the skin and drew unwanted attention. I discussed with the model if she minded taking the underwear off altogether, which she was initially unsure of however I made her feel more comfortable by explaining the type of image I wanted, that it was very tasteful and she agreed. I went to the shoot prepared with a few quick sketches of how I thought each image of a natural object could be replicated in some way. However when showing these to the model it soon became clear that my sketches were not possible as I hadn't been sympathetic to the body being rigid in certain areas, it also was also apparent that I hadn't used scale in my drawings and unfortunately some of the positions were just not possible. Instead I decided to try my best to just focus on lines within the body, looking at curling up the body as far as I could.

PLEASE SEE ME FOR THE IMAGES - Model didn't want the images on Blogger 

I am very happy with the images I have produced, some of the lines in particular are very elegant and twisted . This bottom right image is my favourite and I immediately paired it with one of the flower images, although I haven't managed to produce the body in an exact way of a natural object, I can see however that certain parts of the objects can be replicated with maybe multiple body images.

FUJIFILM STUDENT AWARDS-Photoshoot Plan (Body)

Photoshoot plan for the Body images:

Date: Tuesday 21st February
Time: 12.00
Place: Home (studio set-up)
Equipment:

• 35mm Film Camera
• Digital Camera-to refer to 
• FujiFilm
• Location lighting 
• Light meter 
• Backdrop 
• List of positions 
• Images of Natural objects to refer to 

Back-up Plan

Date: Wednesday 22nd February
Time: 09.00
Place: Home (studio set-up)
Equipment:

• 35mm Film Camera
• Digital Camera-to refer to 
• FujiFilm
• Location lighting 
• Light meter 
• Backdrop
• List of positions 
• Images of Natural objects to refer to 

For this shoot I will try and find a model that is comfortable to pose nude for my images, as explained previous, if this is not possible I will have to use myself as a model.