Self-Evaluation

The most significant contribution i made to this assignment I personally believe involve the usage of myself as the model for the majority of the shoots as I was able to obey and correctly portray the emotional side of someone with mental health issues. I was also able to aid in terms of shoot by providing my own bathroom as a location for a shoot and one of the images ended up being used in the final exhibition.

The most important thing based on photography from this project involves making sure that the areas of interest for the project is accessible for not just myself but my potential partners as well otherwise it will just end up becoming a mix match of solo projects rather than one combined collab.

The most important thing I learned about collaboration from this project is on how collaboration projects require a heavy hand of scheduling and careful planning and that everyone needs to make their mark on the work be it through editing, shooting, providing ideas and locations.

The hardest part of this project for me is the scheduling of meetings with partners as not everyone will be available for specific dates and I will need to learn to adapt to working around these pop ups that happen throughput the project.

I would certainly make sure our group is finalised and that we expand our schedules to make the most possible time available for the project so that the maximum amount of photos and editing can be done for the project.

Overall this project was an interesting one as this was my first collaboration project in photography and I feel that I will need to learn what happened with this project in order to be ready for the next.

Final images

For our final images we decided to go with three images double printed into a selection of six to place throughout the campus for our exhibition. Here are the three final images.

Image 1 finished Image 2 finished Image 4 finished

Each of these images were edited with text and graphics by Amy and once that process was finished the images were finally complete. The images that have been selected to represent our collaborative project each do a great job portraying the effects of mental health issues and also provide the means of potential help from officials in the field. The way each of them have been taken and edited complete the theme we were going with.

We placed the images throughout the campus as established here.

My Artist Statement

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Editing Process

After the shoots were completed we needed to perform some editing for the specific photos we were going to include in the exhibition. I was responsible for the editing of two of the chosen images that were possible inclusions to the exhibition.

Image 1

For this image I needed to transform this image into a more dark and sinister to fit the mental health issue theme that the exhibition is going for.

Original photo

So the first thing i did was insert it into Photoshop so that I could begin the editing process of the image.

Saturation Edit

I then added an hue/saturation adjustment layer and proceeded to remove all of the saturation from the image to give it the black and white colour scheme.

Brightness Contrast Edit

I proceeded to add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer to the image to darken the image even more.

Brightness Contrast Brush Edit

I then followed through with adding another brightness/contrast adjustment layer to increase the amount of darkness to a good enough level to make it look very dark. To avoid this effect consuming the model as well I used the paint brush tool to remove the masking off the person in the photo.

DSC_6449 edit

This is the final image.

Image 2

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For the next image I tired to go for a more creative route and decided to remove the background excluding the toilet and placing a more pleasant background to add some contrast into the image.

Original Photo

I first imported the image into photoshop so I could proceed the editing process.

Magnetic lasso tool use

I used the magnetic lasso tool to highlight the person and the toilet in order to separate them from the image.

Masking Layer

I then clicked on the masking tool to remove the background all together.

Inserting new background

Following this I added a new background into the file.

Modifying background layer

And then used the moving tool to reposition and resize the image so it covered the background fully.

Repostioning Layer

I then repositioned the original layer of the person on the toilet seat into a more suitable position.

Removing saturation

I followed up by adding a hue/saturation layer and removing all of the saturation.

Saturation Paint tool

Lastly I utilised the paint brush tool to remove the adjustment layer effect from most of the image apart from the person on toilet and bit of the surrounding area.

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The final image.

Shoot: Personal Bathroom

For the shooting process, our group has split up the work amount in terms of shoots, I am featured in Kerry’s disabled toilet shoot as the depressed person. This shoot is my contribution to the photo obtaining element of this project.

ContactSheet-001 chosen copy

Shoot Analysis

This shoot went well for me as I was able to utilise the bathroom to obtain a great variety of different poses and expressions in each image that captured the elements of depression. Mix that in with a dreary bland bathroom to act as background and I’ve got a potentially good set of images to contribute to the final exhibition.

The images that are highlighted are the ones that got I chose as my final choices as contributions to the exhibition.

Locations for Shoots

These are the locations utilised for the shoots that will involve me within the project.

Kingsway Campus Disabled Toilets

Good amount of room
Lights provide source of brightness for photo
Easily accessible
Toilet serves as centre point of shoots

My Bathroom

Easily accessible
Open window can provide light source as well as bathroom light
Small space
Toilet, sink, bath and mirror located on left side of entrance.

Exhibition Research: Liverpool Biennal

The exhibition that the group went to is the Liverpool Biennal in the Open Eye gallery. There were two photography works featured at the time of visit, the first one was a photo gallery based on Nigerian monarchs from the photographer George Osodi and a film and photo based exhibition featuring the change of Pakistan language from Urdu to English by Madiha Aijaz.

George Osadi

The way George Osodi’s work was showcased in two big rooms with a TV that played the documentary based on the work placed in the middle of the two rooms. The photos were displayed in large gold frames and were all placed on the walls that surrounded the room. The way this was shown allowed each of the monarch photos to stand out in their own way allowing onlookers to look closer at the details of each Monarch’s picture to differ them from the rest allowing the character and expression of the Monarch to be the main draw of the photos. The way the images are placed allow the cultural and ethnic diversity of the different Nigerian Monarchs to be the sole focus of the gallery, this is confirmed by the artist statement located in the 1st room of the gallery.

Madiha Aijaz

Madiha Aijaz’s gallery space is nowhere near as big as George Osadi’s as it is located in a small room up in the 1st floor. This gallery does not have much lighting and because of the black walls it has little to no light. There are some small photos located to the right of the room from the entrance perspective. The images are not in frames and are entirely focused on numerous Pakistani civilians in different areas either observing, reading or inspecting. At the very end of the room is a big screen which plays a documentary that focuses on the changing language of the Pakistani community from Urdu to English. The way this is displayed allows onlookers to be directly drawn to the documentary due to it’s size and brightness due to the dark room. The way the work is displayed shows to me a dark tension that is occurring due to the change of the community’s language, something agreed upon from the artist’s statement.

Photographer Research: Maureen Drennan

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The other photography I chose to research for this collaborative project is the photographer Maureen Drennan. The reason I chose Maureen Drennan as a subject of analysis is due to her past work where she took pictures of her husband who at the time was suffering mental depression. The way she showcases this subject in her photos is something I hope our group will take into consideration for our own project.

These four images of Maureen Drennan’s husband showcase numerous symptoms of mental depression which can shown by the expressions of his face and pose mixed in with a variety of minimal lighting and locations to show a mixture of how the effects of mental depression effect the husband.

The first image of Maureen Drennan’s depression series involves her husband lying on the bed starring blankly into the air. The way he’s just starring showing no emotion showcases the effects of depression as it looks like he feels nothing and that he wants to just do nothing while lying in bed. I like how Maureen was able to capture this look with minimal lighting as the darkness surrounding her husband really adds to the picture especially when she’s trying to show the effects of his depression.

The second image of Maureen Drennan’s depression photos involves Maureen Drennan and her husband in the bathroom. The Husband is brushing his teeth while Maureen is simply taking a picture. I like the way Maureen tries to use reflection in this photo as we can both herself and the husband from the mirror while still including the perspective of how the photo is viewing the husband in front of the mirror. Mirror’s are in most bathrooms so I hope we can utilise some of them for our project.

Next up we have the third photo from Maureen Drennan’s depression series involves the photo of her husband standing out in the open during a bright day. This is a simple but effective image as the way Maureen Drennan showcases the depression’s effects from her husband is by fully relying on the facial expression portrayed from him that show cases how down and beaten he is from the mental issue.

The last photo from Maureen Drennan’s photo series based on her husband’s depression is this image of the husband lying in bed, this time though from a different angle than the other one. I really like the minimal use of lighting in this image as only patches of bright light can be seen on the husband’s body implying how covered in the dark he is thanks to his depression.