My first inspiration is Natalia LL. She is a Swedish artist that was active in the 60s to present. She focuses on women's sexuality and freedom to express so. She contributed greatly to neo-avant-guard movement in Poland. I wanted a similar style. The aspect that I liked the most about this was the woman in the picture looks so innocent due to the pigtails and short blonde hair. This is something I used in my picture and ended up putting on a wig. However, my subject and hers are not very similar. Mine is about gender identity and finding the path to acceptance and hers is about sexuality and women having a voice.
My second inspiration is Roberta Breitmore. This is an alter ego created by the artist Lynn Hershman Leeson. She played this character for years and created a whole double life behind this pseudonym she created. Her photographs involve her describing who she sees this woman as and often times she colors it manually after printing. I thought it was interesting the makeup and how she totally manipulates how this person looks. I definitely wanted an element of that. It goes into my meaning of my piece due to it being similar as living this double life.
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My first sketch was a closeup of my face. At first I was planning to do just my face and focus on my makeup. However the problem is there was too much focus on my face and it didn't convey the message that I wanted it to. Therefore I decided I wanted something that showed more of my body and conveyed my message better.
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My second sketch was of me looking away. I thought that it would look nice if I was looking away, however it is not personal and doesn't engage the audience. I wanted something personal that has a connection with whoever is viewing it. Therefore I made myself look at the camera to make it seem like I'm looking at the person that is viewing my piece.
My third sketch was the best. It was whole body, it was personal and conveyed my message appropriately. Additionally, I liked the dramatic effect of the black and white so I kept it like that.
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I started off with choosing an area in my room to take the pictures. I wanted to do the corner by my bed because it's a small space and creates a close feeling in the picture. I closed my curtain so no light could come through and I cleaned around. I planned that my bed wouldn't be in the frame so I decided to do nothing about it.
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The second thing I did was put a lamp on my canvas and point it towards me. Lighting is super important in photos and when it's off they don't look right. I didn't want to be over exposed so I decided to use a lower watt light bulb. With this type of light it's easy to move and manipulate so I can get the perfect angle of light.
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Then I took the sheep rug I have to put under me. I like the texture it brings to certain pictures and therefore I chose that. I proceeded to set up the place where I was to photograph everything. The nice thing about using my easel was it was easy to change the height and prop my camera up while holding the light.
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I tried to get my hair to resemble as much as the girl in the picture. I was going to do pigtails, however when I separated the hair it was noticeable that I was wearing a wig. It looked cheap therefore I didn't continue with it. The sexual aspect of Natalia's work wasn't something I wanted in my photography. Also I did a full body to convey my message a bit better with struggling with gender identity.
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