อิสระ

This is an image of myself I have used on my facebook profile.
You could say its the image I use to portray myself, show my identity.
It's an image used to show people who I am/ what I look like.
I have, however, edited the contrast and manipulated the colour, making it seem less like me, thereby creating a mask to how I may truley appear.

Depiction of how people visualise us has grown massively especially through social media: how we come across in networking seems to be deemed highly important.

I have used graphics/different text on this image & edited it further using the thai word, 'อิสระ' meaning, 'freedom,' its significant as i have the same word tattooed on me. it also seems ironic in the sense that the image its hardly presenting the ideas of 'freedom.'

this is the second one i played with

Edie Sedgwick

"I was the girl of the year. Everything I did was really, underneath, I guess, motivated by psychological disturbances. I'd make a mask out of my face because I didn't realise I was quite beautiful. I'd freak out in a beautiful way. And it was all taken as a fashion trend"
Edie Sedgwick
(1943-1971)

Leigh Bowery

“Living his life as a work of art”

“ Leigh Bowery, peripheral in the notion of art practice by combining dandyism and body art, reconstructed his image while performing ...[he] uses the expression of the 'other' to create a form of cultural lip-syncing transvestism. ”


he was an australian performance artist, club promoter, actor, pop star, model & fashion designer based in london. Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the 1980s and 1990s London and New York art and fashion circles influencing a generation of artists and designers. His influence reached through the fashion, club and art worlds to impact, amongst others, Alexander McQueen, Lucian Freud, Vivienne Westwood, Boy George, Antony and the Johnsons, John Galliano, the Scissor Sisters, David LaChapelle, Lady Bunny plus numerous Nu-Rave bands and nightclubs in London and New York which arguably perpetuated his avant garde ideas.




these last three images are Leigh Bowery & Trojan
their life seemed so outrageous, their masking is incredible.
Nothing could shock Trojan's friends at Taboo. Nothing except his death. Trojan made a mask out of his alienation and wore it to nightclubs. He died in August of a drug overdose. With him died the new generation. Their lives measured in Pills, powder and flashbulbs...

reminds me of the film 'Party Monsters'

Mary Ellen Mark

‘Sometimes pictures happen as you’re leaving a shoot,’ Mark says. She had been photographing a family for a story on violent children and was about to leave when the girl pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke it. ‘The mother was there, and didn’t mind.’ – Mark

i love this image, its so contraversial but i feel it links with both my projects of identity and smoking.

contextual research:IDENTITY

Sophie Calle
'her work frequesntly depicts human vunerability & examines idetity & intamacy'
following individuals without knowledge, hoping to caputer emotions unnoticed
she also combines image & text- i like this idea & would like to include in my own work, perhaps using different languages like Calle herself.



Cindy Sherman
Sherman became known for taking pictures of herself. She was prolific in the late 70s and 80s. Her strong narrative based images were largely based on film stills. Occupying a space in time that only hints to past and future frames. Her use of of wider more anamorphic frames gave a real sense of the cinematic. leaving the audience to create there own story. Her influence on todays photographers are profound.



i like how sherman has used the make up on her subjects/ herslef, i feel this is similar to the work i was trying to produce using myself, but i used editing as another form of masking.

rewind

i wanted to look back on my smoking project whilst the others were ongoing.
i really enjoyed it & feel i could definately explore different paths into it, so... i tried to include myself, as i was doing my photographs on identity & look into passive smoking. As all 9 people in my house smoke, the passive smoking is inevitable and probably affecting me more than i think.
it was hard to photogrpah myself in this sense; deinately need to work on this, but this is my work so far.

identity

new project. myself. my identity

i began taking photos of myself with& without make up. It was hard to do considering i wear so much, felt i just wanted to hide. i found myself editing the images using different contrasts/ filters resulting in the photogrpahs not even looking like me thereby losing my identity completely.








say about me...

CJ

i have gone back to an old friend who helped me learn what i have within photogrpahy.
He trained me for 'Tillate.com; and has now furthered his career into freelance. Here is some of his work. He has inspired me massively and im sure we will work together again in the future.

inspire

http://www.advancedphotography.net/street-photography-45-enthralling-examples-street-photography/

this site has helped me massively.
i was trying to continue research into smoking photogrpahy & came across this website& image but there are so many other street photos i love.