In this project I want to observe how we perceive beauty, what makes something inherently beautiful? – and what can be classified as beautiful? I want to look at how Beauty standards warp our ideals and how unobtainable they are – I intend to do this through focusing on the mundane and aesthetic values in daily life that are not necessarily always believed to be beautiful.

Observe– How do we as a society classify something as being ‘beautiful’? Seek– What do I find an aesthetic value in that is unconventional? Challenge– Create images based off this. I want to focus on abstraction and close up photos of objects – Photographing still life to capture patterns in objects and nature, exploring the general aesthetics of the mundane. I also want to incorporate portraiture into this project looking at how we look at ourselves and our bodies, using Photomanipulation to obscure the images through either thread, writing or collage.

I want the final outcome of this project to be presented as a Zine. I think having a linear order to which the photos should be viewed may help in communicating my themes and ideas. Within the zine I want to have the images presented on their own without any accompanying text – as I feel text would take away from both the abstraction, I want the book to be purely visual to keep with the theme of recognising beauty. I also want to create a short mixed media Video possibly on the theme of denial of beauty standards or comparison? – I want to use collage and photomanipulation techniques to make a video out of photographs I take – I plan on mainly using portraiture for this section.

Photoshoot 1

Whilst editing my first set of image i wanted to experiment with different colours but also black and white, but overall focusing on allowing shadows and reflections to be the main focal point in each image.

when editing this first image you can see I used a black and white style, enhancing the shadows and black areas in the image by dropping the shadows and increasing the contrast, however I didn’t want the white to be too grey so i used the black and white mix to enhance the white through the use of blue and yellow.

i also added a slight vignette to add a dramatic feel to the image.

With this second image i experimented with the use of colour and black and white, firstly though i cropped the image as i did not like the environment around the main focus point as it was messy and made it unclear on what the viewer should be looking at.

Personally I prefer the black and white image as it creates a more dramatic feel that I am looking for in my work.

Contact Sheet

Image Selection – Narrowed down to a series of strongest outcomes

Editing Process

Spot Removal Tool – Glare/Blemishes/Water Droplets

Before/After – Tonal Adjustments

For the second photoshoot, I produced 210 images.

Some of my favourite images:

Photoshoot 1

For this photoshoot i explored areas around where i live during the last hour before sunset to try capture shadows forming on the street and the buildings, overall im not very happy with my outcomes as i believe the lighting just want right and the photos just dont match the aesthetic i was hoping to achieve.

However as you can see in the above screenshot I marked my images with a star rating, you can see some images I really liked however others were test or just very weak.

My first photoshoot started out with 442 images, after narrowing that down to 104 images, I began to edit them.

Most of the images that were of the same person were edited the same or in similar manners.

The images I have put in this post are my personal favourites from each person’s different shoots.

For my first photoshoot, I produced 442 images.

Some of my favourites:

With these photographs I have layered other mages on top to get a double exposed look in inspiration from Tamara Lichtenstein I have done this by using photoshop and creating layers and then turning down the opacity to make the top later opaque.

Selection for Editing

green- will edit, yellow- might decide to edit (if more edits are needed), red- won’t edit

Editing in Lightroom

I made every picture black and white, lowered the temperature and exposure, creating a gloomier mood. I enhanced the contrast of the images by changing the contrast, highlights and shadows as well as increasing the texture and clarity of the photographs.

Final Edits

I think the editing was very effective, since it improved the quality of the images as well as made them much more similar to my inspiration, Francesca Woodman. The increasing of the contrast made the details stand out even more which caused the pictures to gain more grain and texture.

I only ended up with three images from this camera that I felt were good enough to be used in my photobook. I want to make sure I have the best image selection, so I will use most of my images from my digital camera. However I like these images, and the depth they have, as well as the look it gives, relating to my archives. They aren’t the highest quality either, but I don’t think this matters too much because I am attempting to make a nostalgic book, that tells a story and seeks into my grandparents relationship.