Zindzi Williams
Foundation Diploma - Art and Design
Planning, Production and Presentation
Week 1
Photo Shoot
Contact Sheet
In this shoot I just took images of myself looking at my face and my skin. Images will be both landscape and portrait and will feature my normal surrounding, this will most likely be my room or somewhere in my house as that's the most natural setting for me.
The aim for this shoot is to show me clearly, showing my features and how I look normally.
When editing these images I will stick to corrective editing and think about changing the images too black and white.
In the first image we have a black and white image of myself, the images has very little background and focusses on my face only. If I were to take another photo shoot similar to this I would think more about the backgrounds and make them be seen in order to add a sense of place to the image.
Within the first week I spent most of my time planning and looking Artist and documentaries that may link to my theme of Identity.
Week 2
I wanted to look at younger images of myself and see how I have changed through the 19 years of my life. Looking at the clothes I used to wear and the people I used to see.
When looking at these images when can see the change of clothing. We can also clearing see ageing within myself and my family. Reflecting on these images made me think about the development of a person and the changes in family, friends, and fashion.
Photo shoot
Contact Sheet
For my first shoot I took photos of the stuff in my bag. I poured all my stuff out onto a white background and photographed it.
I took these images hoping to find a particular thing that represents myself. Looking at the images I realised that not just one thing in my bag represents me. It all does from the pencils and Stanley knife to the bottle cap.
When editing this image I will be warming the colours to make the image softer and calmer as I feel the image looks quite harsh. I think I will also experiment with different colours for the items.
I found the first image quite boring to look at, nothing particularly pops out at me and there are a load of bright colours in the middle of the image causing my eyes to gaze to the centre rather than looking at the whole image. After editing this image I then looked to crop and change the colours of the objects in the hope of making the audience look at the whole image. I believe the brightly coloured images are more successful as they make you look at the image more. I plan to move away from taking images of my things as I don't believe it shows me that well and the images would just become repetitive and uninteresting.
I began this project thinking about myself specifically and the images I could take of myself and my own things but as the projects moves along I find myself loosing interest in such a specific area that no one else would be able to relate to. I plan to look more into my own friends and family, and think about wear I go and what I do in order to make my audience relate to me more and think about the experiences they have with the people around them.
Within this week I spent a lot of time really thinking about where I wanted to go with this project, realising that I no longer wanted focus just on myself but wanted to look at the people around me and those I see on a day to day basis.
Week 3
Photo shoot
Contact Sheet
In this shoot I used two models and put them in an outdoor setting. I took images of the models separately and together and had them look directly at the camera as to create a connection with the audience.
I like the idea of showing what's I get up to, who I see and where I go and by taking images of my friends for this shoot I think I am beginning to execute this idea. I want to continue with this idea. Most of the artist I have looked at such as Garrod Kirkwood, MarIa Clara Macrì and Wolfgang Tillsman to name a few have this similar concept.
When editing these images I plan on warming the tones and cropping some of the images as well as experimenting with colours and overlapping images.
In the first three images I warmed the colours, adding an orange hue to the image in Photoshop. I selected these three images specifically and believe they work as a trio of images. The images simply show friends at a park. I made sure to have the models looking at the camera when taking the photos as to create a connection with the audience.
In the second group of images I experimented with overlapping allowing certain areas of the images to be sen more. I like the middle one of those images most as it stands out compared to the others as its brighter making the models more visible.
Looking at Garrod Kirkwood's wall image made me think about creating an installation in a similar way. By taking family like photographs of my friends and family and framing the images to look slightly older. I would also place the images on a wall like Garrod Kirkwood.
I took a photograph of a wall at my Nan's house which is covered in old photos with all of my family in it. I think this shows a lot about my family and shows an ageing process which I think can sometimes tell you a lot about people through the things they wore, the people they are with, and the places they used to go.
I started thinking about my journeys and where I go and have started photographing daily to show more about what I do and where I go.
Within Garrod Kirkwood and Wolfgang Tillsman's work they often capture people as well as the places they're in. By taking these images I am able to almost diary where I go and who I see.
This week was spent doing a photoshoot editing and thinking about how I want to present my work.
Week 4
My personal life really got the better of me after the first few weeks of the start project and stopped me in my tracks when it came to producing work consistently. The loss of a family member made me loose the motivation to work. But there's no rest for the wicked and I've gotta keep going just need to figure out what I'm going to do next.
I spent most of this week looking at more Artists to look as such as MarIa Clara Macrì and Nan Goldin and thinking about how they add to my area of work and help develop it. As well as planning photo shoots that will take place the following week.
Week 5
These images are all portrait images, when doing this again I would like to add some landscape images as well and also think about angles. The images are able to tell the audience what's going on and the views I see. In order to tell a better story I think I would need to take an image every hour to show exactly what was happening, because otherwise where I am and what I'm doing is only known by me and not the audience looking.
Photo Shoot
Contact Sheet
This was a small shoot taken in college. I didn't make the model do anything specific just took photos while she was doing her work to try and make the images more natural.
By taking an image like this I wanted to create a natural and simple story which shows where I am, what's going on, and who I'm with, which I believe is successful in these images.
When editing my images in Photoshop I will experiment with different filter and look at both an orange hue over the image and a blue hue over my image to see what I like more.
I chose to only edit one of the images because I found the rest of the images quite similar. This image stood out to me most as there is a lot of emotion show from the model, she seems frustrated and annoyed. Placing the blue hue over this image helps emote that clearer.
The image that I draw my eyes to out of all those images would have to be the second one due to the colour. its vibrancy draws in the audience. This edit was just an experimentation and although I enjoy looking at the image I don't believe it will fit in the direction that my work aims to go in.
Week 6
Photo Shoot
Contact Sheet
For this shoot I will take photos on a trip out with friends. I kept my models in the photos natural, except for the one model that I had look directly at the camera.
I did this to show my life away from college and family. In doing this I will give more of an insight into myself.
When editing these image I want to warm the tone and think about presenting the images, whether I want the same sized images or different sized images together, and thinking about how many images I want to have in the series.
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PHOTO SHOOT
CONTACT SHEET
This was another shoot taken in my college class room. I took photos of two of my friends in class. The images were taken both landscape and portrait and the images were taken at a lower angle. Some of the images were taken with the model was doing something while in others I had the model look directly into the camera creating a direct audience address.
The main purpose of these images is to work on my editing and look at whether I want to create more creative edits or corrective edits.
When editing I will think about changing colours as well as making creative edits.
When editing this photo shoot I chose to only edit one of the images. In the first image I made the background black and white while keeping the model in colour. In doing so we loose the distraction of the background and make the model the soul focus of the image.
Week 7
The plan was to take an image every hour of the day to show where I was who I saw and what I did. it almost created a diary of the day as it shows what I get up to normally. I believe by doing this I can tell my audience a lot about myself and hope that it is reflected in my work.
The images show an average day in my life, going to college and back. When taking the images hourly the audience is able to learn a lot more of what goes in. We are able to capture movement, going to different places and we are able to see the people I interact with in a normal setting.
PHOTO SHOOT
CONTACT SHEET
In this shoot I took images of my family at home in a natural setting. I took both portrait and landscape images. the images will be taken around the house creating a calm setting to be in showing how life normally is with them.
I chose to do this shoot in order to look closer at my family as all I have previously done is look at my friends. Family is very important and without showing that part of my life I don't believe I am truly showing myself.
When editing this collection of images I will edit correctively and think about cropping and changing the colour of the image making the tones warmer.
In the first image I took a landscape photograph of my mum dad and sister all siting together on the sofa.
I also took a video of my family doing normal things. I did this to find characteristics
Week 8
Here is another collection of images taken everyday over the past week. I chose to take landscape images and portrait images and experimented with different heights.
These images again simply show my life, showing the people I see but also just the places I'm in. The bright colours really draw me to these images.
At this point in time my aim is to collect a large number of images and think about how I want to present them . I will need to collect a few more images
Final Outcome Ideas
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Wall of framed images
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Collection of 10 images
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Collage of images
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Installation
Week 9
For this shoot I plan to take pictures of my parents at home.
I chose simple editing for these images correctively
Week 10
Photo Shoot
Contact Sheet
I plan on taking images of my trip to Portsmouth with my friends. The aim is to show what I see and the people I see. Similar to Wolfgang Tillmans recent work I want to find a collection of images.
In doing this I want to be able to show a journey and hope to represent what my life is really like. I want to be able to show myself without taking any pictures of myself.
When editing these images I chose to do very minimal editing, I just brightened a few of the images while still keeping them as natural as possible. The darker images stand out to me more as I feel they make you really look at the image as it is more all that clear at first glance.
Week 11
After collecting all these images I decided to stop and think about what images I want to display and how I want to display them.
These collection of images that I have taken by simply going out has been the most fun to do and I will be looking and thinking about adding them into the final piece of work.
This week was spent thinking about presenting my work, and choosing which images I wanted to show.
I also thought about whether I wanted to show my images with or without frames, as well as thinking about the sizes I wanted my images. In the end I decided that I wanted a variety of different sized images similar to how Wolfgang Tillsman presented his work. I will also have no frames for the images like his work too.