Saatchi Selfie

We have been given a brief to do with the Saatchi Selfie, In which we have to submit a selfie of ourselves for a competition for the Saatchi Gallery. Which will be followed by research 

Here are what I got from the website directly to what the competition is asking for us to do.

Saatchi Gallery -copied from the website

Saatchi Gallery and Huawei have joined forces to offer artists, photographers, and enthusiasts around the globe a chance to show their most creative selfies internationally, and have their work exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery as part of the #SaatchiSelfie competition.

This international competition offers a chance to be part of a worldwide cultural phenomenon and for entrants to express themselves, by exploring and advancing the creative potential of the selfie today.
Entries must take the form of a photographic selfie. We encourage entries that are experimental and innovative that take the selfie in exciting new directions.

Here are the rules and regulations for submitting images that I have put together in my own words from the Saatchi website

Rules and Regulations for the competiton

 Submissions must be submitted by the 12th March 2017 at 11:59pm, All Entries are free and able to submit up to 6 images but have to be over 16 to submit the images. 

Images need to be 300 pixels but below the 5mb size 

To submit them, you need to register then submit them online on http://www.saatchigallery.com/selfie

Images will be disqualified if team entries have been submitted or entries that have material or elements from a third party. previously submitted for a competition and include offensive, threatening ,inappropriate, sexual content. 

Judging 

The images will be based on three areas which includes

• How original the selfies are 
• How creative the selfies are 
• How well the selfies fit the aim of the competition 

Out of all the entries it gets chosen to the best 60 images which received the highest votes, they are classed as the semi finalists then the rest get voted on by judges which picks out the finalists, and get it down to the best 10 images. 

If you are a finalist you  have to be in London on the 30 March 2017 incase you win to pick up the prize.

Prizes 

10 finalists will receive an invitation to exhibit their work in the Saatchi Gallery in London.

• Their work exhibited in the gallery 
• Private viewing of the gallery 
• Smartphone
• Trip to London all travel fairs and hotels covers 
• 3 nights in London
• Meals cost up to £100 a day 
• Photographic experience 

 What is a portrait?

“A painting, drawing, photograph or engraving of a person especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders”

What is a selfie? 

“A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social Media”

Photographers 

Cindy Sherman

The first artist that came into mind when I thought about self portrait was Cindy Sherman.

An american photographer and film director that uses herself within different characters and film roles. Uses herself but dresses up as different people, (male and female) in a way that looks nothing like her. Throughout her images she considers the lighting for the right mode and atmosphere.  She is best known for her conceptual portraits of herself.

I have chosen to look at Cindy Sherman for the use of identity and looking at different perspectives of ones character, which links in within my idea, which I have mentioned above. I find her work interesting, to how she takes on different personas within her work and all her images tell a completely different story with a different character. Not one image in the same. 

Lighting 

Throughout Sherman’s images they feel like cinematic photos and give that old film affect to the images. Which reminds me of Gregory Crewdson film set imagery. 

Her images feel like they are lit with soft light (soft boxes ) either side of her as the light is disfused and has a even spread of light on her faces, but no clear direction where the light is coming from which is clear it is soft lighting used within her portraits. Within some images, she has uses harsh lighting to get the outline of the jaw line in some of her images , where she plays a different character. This is evident through the defined line around the face and jaw line.

The images she produces are high key set up, as not only her face is lit but also the backgrounds within her images are also evenly lit. With the way she applies her make up the images appear like they are paintings giving that old traditional feel to the images. 

In terms of composition Sherman using the rule of thirds and never in the centre, but this drives the eye into the main focus of the image. Which I feels work with the use of colour within her images, it draws 

Marcel Duchamp

While doing the Fountain 17 brief last semester We came across Marcel Duchamp and his self portraits, of which he took himself and other photographers took. Using multiple exposures. Which I found fascinating while doing them and wanted to include within my research. I found them fascinating as they were a different way to approach self portrait and show identity,in the way Duchamp did. 

With my idea of showing different views of me I wanted to include him within my research, specially in his 

 Within these portraits I like the way he has approached self portraiture through the use of multiple exposures, that allows the viewer to see different identities of Duchamp, rather then just the one image. 

I feel the use of monochrome enhances the mood within the image and brings out the purity within the images, showing the true identity of Duchamp. 

 I found it interesting they way these portraits were captured as they don’t look staged like the majority of images, Too me it looks like a moment captured in time, rather then staged portraits. Which has captured the true identity of a person then asking them to pose. 

Lighting

Throughout Duchamps portraits, these are lit with hard light, this is evident through the contrast in the images and the defined shapes and lines that make up his face, specially within the monochrome double exposure image. Not only is it the lines around his face but also the detail within his face and facial expressions have definition.

with in the face specially within the jawline there is a clear definition, making his facial features standout, specially in the bottom let image Becoming the main focus of the images. Also within these portraits there is evident of some natural lighting on the image, from the window light. Which falls nicely on his face and fits nicely within the double exposure technique, but also leads you into the image but also around the image.

 Linda Blacker 

Linda Blacker is one of my favourite photographers, who looks at the idea of fantasy and fairytales within fashion, and  creating mini stories throughout her images. Recently she has started doing her own self portrait images and expressing her characteristics, through fantasy images. Using fashion and props to help bring her images to life and become more then just images. All her images come with a story which she has carefully thought about. 

I am intrigued by her work, through the use of colour and how it is colour poping and leading your eye around her whole images. I also like the style of her images and how they appear in a fantasy atmosphere, even when she is exploring self Portraiture her style doesn’t change throughout her images. I love how she adds a story to each image and gives the meaning to the audience with a mini story. The reason why I love her work so much is because of the style of her work, of how she combines fantasy and fashion, but using a high key lighting setup. She also considers contrast within her images that compliments the clothing and the backgrounds within her images. Making the clothing used within her images standout. These images are a high key lighting set up this is evident through the large spread of light not only on her but also used in the background. They are both evenly lit . Throughout her images she works on the set design, clothing and then retouches them all herself. 

My idea

As we have to produce a selfie of ourselves I wanted to develop an Idea I have had for a personal project, in which I wanted to create a photo book of my life and let the photos tell my story. My first image for this was going to be a self portrait, to express myself. 

I wanted to start with a simple portrait of my self and then build up myself through images and show different personalities throughout the use of different hairstyles, make up and clothing, and how I look in different events within my life that connect to me. 

So I wanted to create a four piece image to start of with, picking an area of my life and portraying it through images that tell a story. 

So like me in my gym mode, me during college, me at home ready for bed, and then just showing different versions of me. 

This idea comes from the image of different Johny Depp characters blended together into images to create a full faced image, using different strips from a different film. 

David Hockney

David Hockney was a painter then moved onto photo montages and working with joiners in which he uses layers that overlap each other to create an image. But all the images being different sizes to make the image appear abstract or to show distortion.

David Hockney has done many joiners throughout his career with his swimming pool being his most famous one. The purpose of his joiners was to show the perspective of different views and angles within one images. So looking at the place in more than one perspective and then joined them all together into one image.

As well as places, he also looked at portraits with the use of different facial expressions and movement throughout the day.

I used the previous photographers to look at self portrait and wanted to include David Hockney and Hannah Hoch within my research as part of my layout for my images and the use of looking at photo montage rather then an actual self portrait image.

When I came across the idea of self portrait I wanted to do something different rather then just a straight self portrait of myself, I wanted to show either my different personalities or my identity that comes with my character. 

The joiners are a different way to approach a subject in a way that makes you look into the image from different perspectives, it is successful when used with portraits as it captures different angles of the facial expressions. When joined together it creates an interesting concept of the different views that merges into one image. 

Hannah Hoch

Hannah Hoch is an artist I looked at during the fountain 17 project who, used photomontage throughout the Dada art movement. Throughout her artwork she layers,imagery together to create one photo montage. 

Dada brought in an judgement towards artwork that included the transformation of all art and the argument of limitation of objects and making it an acceptable piece of art within the traditional form of art work.

Crucial art period as it changed art history

Was a movement of art, that allowed replacement, of work and objects. Wanted to be an art form that would be moveable.

She looked at Dadaism from a political point of view, to which she incorporated into her work.

My Own Work

Friday 3rd March 2017

Lighting diagram

Contact sheet

Here I have done one experiment using the David Hockney style joiners, as one of my images I am going to submit, this idea come from the images above with the different Johnny Depp characters joined into one image.

From this I want to try different ways of putting them together so using the joiners as one way to merge different personalities of me together. I also want to try overlaying the images together, within Photoshop, using layers and blending modes. Then I want to take just a normal selfie using my phone and then compared the images togather of how they are all different and the different thought processes behind them, when I was taking the images or creating them using photoshop.

For my first attempt of creating a Hockney style piece I am pleased with the result of how it turned out, but if I was to do this again I would have had someone in the studio at the same time to help me focus the macro lens, so I could of got different angles and different facial expressions within them. To show it was multiple images rather then just one image cut out and copied and pasted on top of each other

Final Images I want to submit and why

When I first thought about the idea, I thought it would be easier to set it up and do the shots, but once I got into the studio and set up all the cameras. I found it quite difficult, specially working on my own, doing self-portrait.

I had two cameras set up taking two different shots at the same time. I had a 60d with a 24-70 lens on it, taking my full head to shoulders shot, and I managed to get focused throughout the shot, and all the images sharp, with the help of Nathan and Natalie helping me manual focusing. I then had another 60D set up which was closer to me with a macro lens. So I was able to get some different close up shots.

I moved this camera around into different placements so I could get different close of my face from all different angles. To which I would be able to join later in Photoshop to recreate a Hockney style image.

Using the macro lens meant I had to refocus it every time it moved or everything I took the shot as most of the time it would fade out of focus, if I wasn’t stood in the same spot as when I focused the lens.

This is where I struggled the most with focusing, I did ask Natalie a few times to help me out, but didn’t want to ask her all the time as she was already in the studio doing her own thing, so didn’t want to disturb her. So, I tried my best to focus as best I could. I then started moving the camera closer to me so I could stand and reach the lens to put me in focus without asking anyone to help me. But with this I wanted to see the different results I would get with the extreme close, using the macro lens, specially with the images when they would all be joined together later in Photoshop.

In terms of my image that I produced with all the different angles joined together in Photoshop, I was pleased with it and how I had put it all together and considered the placement of the different images and the colouration within the different images. I like how the different angles work and create a self-portrait image within the style of David Hockney. As for a first attempt of Hockney style image, I feel like I approach the task well and produced an image that I am proud off. Although If I was to do this again I would Probably do multiple shoots, So I had more images to play with and join them together, because I was focusing on my face I didn’t get much below my neck from different angles, it was mainly my facial features that I focused on. So, I would develop that further next time through multiple shoots and having someone in there with me to help me out.

Other shoots

Lighting Diagram 

For this shoots I used two large soft boxes in front of me 

Contact Sheet 

I took a photo of myself in different situations, So with make up on , no make up on, dressed for the gym and then dressed for bed, as these are the 4 main personalities to my character, as thats pretty much my identity as I don’t do much. 

I then merged the images together in photoshop to create this image

Other images I have submitted 

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I chose to submit these images as they all show a different side to me, so I’ve submitted just a simple self portrait of me within the studio. Then a David Hockney image, one where I have done different portrait of my self in different situations and then the cat image I produced for the city of culture challenge. To show of another part of me that brings out my inner cat lady.

Reflective Statement 

I have enjoyed working on this short tasks / assignment I like the challenege of been given it with two weeks to plan and produce ideas, in time for the deadline. The only thing I struggled with is having the time to develop the idea further, due to the task being short deadline and using most of the first week researching and coming up with ideas of what I could produce that wasn’t just a simple selfie of me. I wanted to allow the creativity within me to show through within the portrait. So wanted to put some effort into the final images. As I knew a range off different people would be seeing it. Rather then just the tutors or examiners marking the assingment. 

But I have enjoyed working towards a different audience and producing something for a competion. That is judged by varied of people and seen by everyone when posted online. It was good to see the different enries posted online and see what others had posted or interpreted the idea of a selfie. 

While doing this short competition it has made me think about my own work and what I produce for the assignments. As for this I made sure it was the best work I had produced as I didn’t want to submit anything that wasn’t up to a good standard, in terms of technically, creativally etc and made sure it was all up to a good standard before submitting it. But now its made me think differently to my own work and that I only want the best quality within my images, which has started to turn me into a perfectionist with all my images I submitt anywhere. Whether that be for a competition or a assignment. If it isn’t spot on then I will go back in and reshoot the images, as well as going back into and developing that idea. Which I have learnt from submitting images for different audiences. I will carry on using this within all work or images I create.