300 word critical appraisal

Critical Appraisal

My original idea when starting this 'waste' project was looking at a combination of decomposition and nuclear waste. I looked at various artists such as Bart & Hess and Ausra Osipaviciute. My intention was to eventually do a fashion shoot making my own prosthetics, then considered manipulating postcard images but after my tutorial decided that this topic could be seen as too offensive and was not an idea that I wished to develop further. 

                                                     Bart & Hess                                          Ausra Osipaviciute 

For my final idea my chosen concept was the waste of tax payers money during the expenses claim scandal in 2011. I chose 3 politicians, Jacqui Smith, Sir peter Viggers and Shahid Malik. Ida Taavitsainen and a few other artists and advertisements gave me the idea to explore using clothing to symbolise characters. I used suits to represent the politicians and tried to recreate their stories on a location shoot but was not happy to use these for my final images.

 I then decided to create collaged portraits of each politician. Linder Sterling inspired me to use objects and images related to the individuals story as replacements for body parts. I wanted to use the actual faces of the politicians but without using actual photographs of them. After looking at Peter walkers stencil work that he has combines with collages I used the same technique and created stencils of their faces and another set of stencils for the bodies.

 Ida Taavitsainen

Linder Sterling

Peter Walker

Above is my contact sheet. I wanted the photographs to look as similar to my original collages as possible so took them from straight on like they would be seen if they were simply collages hung on a wall. I placed one light above the collages pointing downwards to create deep shadows on the receipts. I did this to emphasise the texture. I decided to use images without the head in and attached the original collaged head to the prints. By doing this I am still keeping the 3D element of my collages but the main image is still a photographic print. 

I am pleased with my final idea as I feel it has a clear and interesting concept but have managed to translate it in an abstract form combining both photographic prints and collage. This was something that I really struggled with when it came to deciding on how to present my final images. I was so happy with my original collages I did not want to loose the textures and dimensions. This is why I photographed my collage in many different ways as I had not yet decided on the best way to compose it but managed to remedy this by combining the collaged heads with the prints of the background and stencilled bodies. 

I think that the best output for my prints is and exhibition. I am going to try and collaborate with others that have either looked at collage and working onto their prints or have based their project on political matters.

Waste

Waste ideas:

For this project we are comissioned to create a body of photographic images based on the theme of waste. We can interpret the word waste in any way that we choose and can use either portraiture, environment or still life as our photographic genre. My first step will be to look at different ideas and interpretations of waste.

-Food waste

-Nuclear waste

. If i were to use this idea I could look at radioactive nuclear waste. I like the idea of mutation even if this is not so much of a current issue it is an interesting subject and one that could be expressed through portraiture and fashion photography. I could use some sort of make up or prosthetics within this shoot 

-Rubbish 

-Landfills 

-Clothing waste

.ethical fashion, globalisation 

-Throw away society 

-Recycling 

.Recycling is, i feel, the most positive approach to take when the brief is waste as it shows a development in waste control and could be shown in different ways and could construct objects but with rubbish.

-Prevention

. Looking at the prevention of waste could be interesting as the angle in which i would take this would be that there wouldn't be so much waste if people stopped needlessly buying things and disposing of things that could be reused or sold. 

-Natural waste

. Natural waste would be looking more at decomposition of both plants and animals. I think that still life would not be suitable for this as I would find decomposing plant dull to photograph and animals too repulsive. This could however work through portraiture and fashion as I could engolf a model in soils and make them appear to be decomposing in the ground for example. 

-Waste of Money

-Waste of time 

-Waste of water

-Waste of electricity

.This could be represented by having a model in the studio and surrounding them in electrical appliances such as lots of lamps. There would need to be at least 20 odd lamps to really make the point being made obvious. 

-Waste of life

. If it were to look at a waste of life I could look at how people could be seen to be wasting their lives by not living to their potential, suicide and death. Also war could be relevant to this idea as many innocent people needlessly die. 

Recycled Art/Fashion

Gary Harvey

Recycling has been a topic that many designers and atists have explored including Gary Harvey. He started designing eco friendly clothing during a freelance fashion campaign and went on to design a collection for Estethica at London fashion week. Here he has created two dresses, one out of newspaper and the other made of denim. I found the newspaper dress particually interesting as unlike the other dress, the material used origunally has a completely different purpose. Also harvey has managed to manipulate the paper in such away that it appears dramatic but feminine. The denim dress is made up of 42 pairs of levi's. I could use this idea of re-using and recycling clothes within my project. Although I do find this idea interesting I am not sure if it is one that I wish to develop for two reasons. Firstly I feel like this concept has been used alot and I should maybe explore and idea that I could make more original. Secondly I would have to create the outfits which I dont think I have the time or skill to do.

Vik Muniz

On first apperance Vik Muniz's series seems to just be images of figures made of rubbish but after further research and watching the film 'Waste Land' yo discover that there is a deeper stpry behind his work. He spent two years in Brazil at a land fill and the project was based around the recyclable material pickers that worked there. They are payed to go through the rubbishand gather what can be recycled. Although this is an unpleasant and unsafe job, this is a possitive organisation when looking at it as a development in waste disposal. Muniz takes portraits of some of the workers and with the film you are told the stories of these individuals. These portraits were projected onto the flood in a studio on a large scale and then built up upon with the recyclable rubbish found at the land fill. These art works were then photographed by Muniz and auctioned. The profits made were all fed back into the community which is the part that I personally felt was the most important part of this project. It is easy for atists to show their opinion on a topic and maybe hope to raise awareness to their viewers but Vik Muniz used his artwork to not only raise awareness but to help make a change directly.I originally did not find myself that excited by the idea of recycling when starting this project but after looking into Muniz'z work I think otherwise. I am still unsure if recycling is an idea that I wish to develop but even if I don't, the actual style of these images could inspire my work. I am very interested in the way the the portraits have been created and have been almost collaged but on a large scale. I think that this could be a possible idea to explore in my work but on a much smaller scale.

Guerra de la Paz

'Guerra de la paz' is a collaboration of two artists, Alain Guerra and Neraldo dela paz. Their favourite art medium is said to be clothing and this collection of art workcombines both sculpture and clothing. The items used in these pieces have been sorced from rubbish bins and second hand shipping companies. They recycle the clothing and make it into art to put across the message of the importance of recycling. The clothes have been dyed bold colours which emphasises the fact that all of the figures that have been made are all linked holding hands. The mass amount of clothes used are symbolic of our mass produced lifestyles that we have in western society.

Tate Modern

I found Michelangelo Pistoletto's sculpture 'Venus of Rags' 1967 whilst walking around Tate Modern. The piece looks at the place that art has In modern society and Italy's past. The text alongside his work said that 'The dialogue between oppositions continues through the play between hard/soft, formed/unformed, precious/worthless, fixed/moveable, monochrome/coloured, unique/common, and culture and the everyday'. Although the main point that he is making is the collision between the historical and the contempory I was more interested in the idea of the 'precious' and the 'worthless'. That is what I first saw when looking at this peice and this could be a really good concept to base my work on because clothes and fashion can be an interesting topic when looking at them from a waste point of view. We constantly change  and throw away our clothes because there are always changes in fashion and style. Is does make you question weather it is wasteful to discard items that are in perfectly good condition just because its not longer 'in' this season. 

Decomposition

I have narrowed down the list I made of 'waste' ideas to just two. The first is natural waste. I could look at how we dispose of natural waste since recycling has developed over the years and how it can be recycled into compost and put back into the land. I am not sure if i am interested in the way that natural waste is used or if i am drawn to the the way it actually looks when it is rotting. I could not base my images on just the look of natural waste as there is no concept but could combine it with another topic to give it some substance but still play with this sort of look. 

'Decomposition of memory' Colin Harbut

I found myself attracted toColin Harbut's images from the series 'Decomposition of Memory'. I was researching decomposition from the angle of recyling of natural waste but Harbut has approached the topic in a completly different ways. He has focused on aging and how the mind can be affected during this processdifferent techniques have been used to represent the subjects mental state. In this first image an elderly nam is shown looking gaunt and sad. His eyes are directed straight at the viewer which engages them into his emotive state. The loss of memory is shown by the melting from the top of the head. Harbut has chosen to have the top of the head melting as it is the area that is most commonly associated with the brain and mind. The melting itself is symbolic of the decomposition of his memory which I feel is subtle but the message has still been effectively put across.

The second image is more abstract. The face not only looks as if it is made up of different parts like a puzzle but also seems to be peeling. This shows the memory in a way the makes it seem as if it is decomposing layer by layer. I find these images quite dark because of the black and white and meloncoly expressions but it is suited to the topic. It is fascinating to me that Harbut has used decomposition to describe this process as this could be used in many ways when the brief is waste. Am example of this could be the rotting of the soul. 

Nuclear Waste

My second idea that I have chosen to focus on for my waste project is nuclear waste. I feel that it could be one of the most interesting of all of the areas that i looked at because of the effects when nuclear waste is released into the atmosphere. When I think of nuclear waste my thoughts directly turn to cartoons and films where they over exaggerate and base stores on mutation. By developing this idea I could play with prosthetics and styling as it is likely that I would want to follow this on with a fashion shoot. I should also look at the realistic affects that nuclear waste can have and has had on humans by looking at disasters in the past and photographers that documented/ produced work on this subject.

Ausra Osipaviciute

This collection of image titled 'Fantplastique' was taken of Indre Grigaliunaite by Ausra Asipaviciute. The images are inspired by animals and also reference tribal patterns and culture. These influences have both inspired the shapes created by the model. Grigaluinaite was used as she has a long and thin body which is perfect for creating an animalistic look and works well with the edited features like the elongated neck and body. Although the theme is different I still feel that these images are a good reference when looking at a combination of fashion photography and mutation. The model has been made to look both awkward and deformed in comparison to the regular human form and yet the curved, slender shapes created make her look graceful like a swan. I am not allowed to edit on photoshop as we have to use analog for this project but I could make body parts look abnormal using camera angle for example. If I were to take the image but from the floor looking up at the model it would make the body appear unproportionate. Another way to achieve this deformed idea would be to create my own interpretation of prostetic limbs and body parts. This could look tacky or too comical if done wrong so maybe the collaging of two sets of images like in Juan Nas's image would work better. 

Juca Nas

When looking for mutation art I came across this callage image by juan Nas This could be a different approach when looking at the idea of mutationas I could colaborate several images Nas's image looks as if it could be either edited this way on the computer or physically ct out and collaged together. Seeing as it is a requirement to use analog for this project I would have to collage parts of different images that I had taken after initially printing them in the dark room. This could be quite a long process seeing as I need to create three images but is doable. Another way to combine different imaes would be to overlap my negatives. This would be a challenge with proportion and positioning but the results could be interesting. There are two elements of this image that stand out to me. This first is the use of both human and animal body parts. This adds a comical value to the image. Secondly I was intruiged by the fact that the animal parts are in colour but the uman is black and white. This could be said to be making the comment that abnormality should be embraced.

Lucy McRae and Bart Hess

When I started thinking about how to represent mutation I began by looking at prostetics. Doing this properly would not be cheapand would also not look proffesional if it was a task that I was to take on myself. The way that Lucy McRae and Bart Hess have approached mutation inspired me straight away. instead of using prosthetics they have almost created their own homemade version out of easily accessable materials. This is an idea that I could developmyself and would be more within my budgit. As I want to look at nuclear radiation mutaion I want to create some sort of green repulsive features on the model. Texture is a key element when trying to make something appear repulsive so I shall have to experiment with materials. In this imageballoons are squeezed into tights making them seem bulbus as if they areabout to burst. This is along with the stretched seems on the tights looking like veins are the elements that really enhance the reaction to this image. 

The most interesting factor within these two images is the way that McRae and Hesshave used colour. White foam on its own would not trigger the same emotion in the viewer that these bold colours do. This may not be the intention but the image to the right automatically to me shows crystalisation which appears to be submerging the model. The image on the left is more alarming in my opinion as the red foam is seen to be speuing from the models mouth. Red is symbolic of danger and also the colour of blood so the impression is given that his internal organs/ blood have now become external causing the viewer to be disturbed. 

I felt that this image would be perfect to inspire me if I wished to explore the idea of decomposition and natural waste. The stance is still what you could expect to see in a fashion shoot however the rolls of grass are not what you'd expect to see. It almost seems as if fashion photography is being mocked within this image. I love fashion photography however am intruiged by the combination of it with the abnormal and experimental. The grass itself makes the model appear as if he is hairy like a monster but it is the rolls that imitate fat roles that make the image repugnant. I definately want to develop this idea of combining fashion and beauty with the mutated and repulsive.

This is my favourite image from the series. The actual pose of the model, lighting and bckground are very simplistic however this contrasts with the area of mutation. Again bold colour has been used to make the mutation the main focul point of the image. By using a mass amount of foam balls of different sizes they have created a highly unusual and disgusting texture on the face. I think that portraiture is most effective when looking at mutation. This is becausethe first thing that you look at when seeing a person is normally their face and I think that it is the main focal pointof the body. This means that when the viewer is forced to see the face in a way that is abnormal they find themselves even more shocked and sickened. I shall deffinately experiment with portrait shots for my collection of images for this reason. Also it allows you to manipulate the viewers amotion by the expression on the models face. Within this series the models are not very expressive through their faces at all. This is interesting as it is as if the characters within the photographs are uneffected by their mutation. This could be a message about not fearing the abnormal or maybe McRae and Hesswish to present the viewers with human's in a way that they are not used to or expecting and don't want to influence how the images will make them feel but want them to react in thier own way.

Test shoot

Props and Experimentation

My model has quite a few piercings so I decided that I would make accessories that attach from one piercing to another. We are going to link the nose right to her earring, her nipple bars to her tongue bars and another that links both nipple bars together. I want to try and slightly repulse the viewer in the same way that McRae & Hess do and feel that this would be a good way to do it. Artist sponges seemed to have a texture that could resemble mould or growths and is also lightweight so would not tug on the piercings when used to make the accessories. The model and myself ripped the sponges into small chunks and painted them a two different shades of green.   

To make the accessories we fed the pieces of sponge onto invisible string and measured the string to the length between each piercing. 

I was unsure of the kind of affect that I want to create on the models skin so experimented on my hand with  acrylic paint. where i had mixed it with water it gathered in certain areas which looked quite good however this paint would be unsafe to use on the models skin so I would have to think of an alternative like face paint.

I wanted to make my own kind of prosthetics like McRae & Hess do in their series. I researched various ways to do this and found that you can use materials such as paper machae but decided on using porridge. I mixed it the oats with water, PVA glue and black and green paint. This made a thick substance that would hopefully look as if it was growing on the model. This is another repulsive texture that i thought would be appropriate.   

Hair and make up

To make the model look mouldy and mutant like I painted her green using face paint from the waistline up. I have chosen green as my main colour as nuclear waste classically glows green and i was also looking at the element of mould and decomposition. So that the model did not look clean and too bright green I dabbed her with black face paint using an artist sponge. The texture of the sponge created the blotched pattern and I was very pleased with it.

To make the model look even more mutated and unusual I had her put in just one turquoise eye contact. I think that this really added to the whole look and the fact that you could still see sue on the original eye colour t times made it look even more strange. Here eyes watered after she had put the contact in and i thought that this actually created a nice effect on the face as the tears show up so well through the paint. Sadness however was not the emotion that I wished to convey in my shoot so we fixed the make up back to how i was before.

The model had bright red hair as you can see in the image above so there was an amazing contrast against the green however I think that it looked too much like a was just recreating a mystique character but using different colours which is not what I wanted. Also the model still looked too pretty with her hair natural and down when I wanted her looking more like a creature of some sort.

I fixed the issue of the hair by using a lot of gel to slick it back. By doing this we managed to make the hair colour seem a lot darker but also gave the model a slicked wet look which is for more suitable for this project. I also had the model blacken around her eyes as they looked for to plain when they were just green and it also draws attention to the models eyes. You can also see the first accessory in this image that had been attached from the nose ring up to the earring at the top of her ear. 

Digital Images

I knew that  wanted to do a portrait shot and some body shots but was unsure of exactly how it would look and what positions would be best so I did a test shoot first in digital. 

This is one of the portrait shots from the test shoot. The nose to ear accessory was the obvious choice for the portrait shots so i built up areas of the mixed porridge and paint around the neck and down the face in a way the would balance out the accessory. This worked really well but i discovered that for my final shot I should not take them at this angle or on this side as the accessory can not be seen as well as it could be and it is not obvious as to what it is. 

I didn't want all three of my images to just be portraits of the face as i felt they would be too similar so i decided that i wanted one of them to just be a body shot. for the body shot it made sense to use the accessories that attach from the two tongue bars to the nipple bars.

I experimentes with the idea of using the tongue piercings by having shots with the mouth both open and closed. We painted her tongue black using food die as I felt it looked too normal when pick and dre attention away from the other elements of the image.

Although I did only want to have this image as a body shot I took this image to see if it would look better with the face in as well. I could always use the accessory below the just goes from one nipple bar to the other for my body shot because then the mouth would not need to be featured at all but i personally feel that it is too simple for the body shot and there is a lot more going on in the image above. 

Film images

 Although these images are far from what I wanted I scanned them in anyway. I had to adjust the brightness, contrast and colour slightly but the images sillohettes that have come out are actually quite interesting. The green glow appearing around the model was the part that most intrigued me as it is very in keeping with a nuclear waste theme. The shadowing also gives the image a sense of danger which i love. I am going to attempt to get my model back and re shoot my original idea but I don't think that I should discard the idea of considering these nuclear sillohettes for my final images as I feel they are mysterious and dangerous but also clearly show my theme. Also the adjustments that I made to the images when scanning them could hopefully be just as easily done in the dark room.

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Research Exchange:

(Below is the research done by Harry Scott but for my project as part of the research exchange task)

The title for Maries project was Radiation and Mutation. When i heard this i thought of artist such as Julie Cockburn, and Edward Muibridge and such disasters like Chernobyl and Hiroshima.  I'll explore the theme on my own and where i might have gone with this heading, this then look at Maries blog and see what else i could add, this way new ideas and perspectives are thrown into the work and maybe give it a new direction or shead some light onto different ideas within the theme.

After the disaster which struck Chernobyl, the radiation caused a much longer problem to the initial crisis of the nuclear power melt down. For generations to come would see this affect in the children born after the crisis. Paul Fusco takes a photographic documentary of the afetr math of the children affected. The images are challenging to look at but powerful too. In the link below is his narrated documentary with his images of the different children affected and statistics of the after math.
I thought this could give some basis, facts or back ground to the idea of waste directly or indirectly affecting humankind in the ways of mutation, disease or disfiguring the form. Taking points from real life and real events which caused such things to happen.

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl

Julie Cockburn

Julis Cockburn didnt really intend on looking into mutation at all, however the images she created by crafting on top of the photos gave a very interesting aesthetic. There is an interesting article below from a photography magazine i follow online called SEESAW. I'm not sure if this would give any help but maybe it bring an idea of collarge, technique or compossion to your images and maybe have a contemporary spin on what it is your looking at. 

http://www.seesawmagazine.com/contentsissue13.html

Eadward Muybridge

Eadward Muybridge, prehaps greater known for is running horse set of images, was a pioneer of time laps photography . He was fasinated with the ways of deformed people oftyern using them for his subjects. Maybe one of the most famous sets from this particular series is the child walking on all fours. 

I looked at Muybridge really because its stook with me ever since seeing him at the Tate Britain exhibition in 2010.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

From a different photography magazine i follow online FACTION MAGAZINE i found Ralp E Meatyard and his set of work called Dolls and Masks which give a very creepy aesthetic and one of certain unease. I thought this might be useful in ways of giving ideas to create such unease or ambiance in the images. 

http://fractionmagazine.com/reviews/coburnmeatyard#.T0CpTrEaOVo

I especially like this image above as the focus lies on the massive hand, then you notice the face then the toy doll poking out of the pocket, its an eary image all out of proportions and scale, give a sense of unknown narrative and confusion for the viewer maybe something to play off when thinking of mutation. 

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idea

I decided not to reshoot my test shoot as I no longer felt very inspired by the ide. It was more about the way nuclear waste glowed and looked but with no actual statement being made. I wanted to look further into how nuclear waste had affected people which I had also asked harry to look at above.  The nuclear disaster in Chernobyl was a good source of research as it effected so many and the effects were horrific. It was also documented by various photographers which i am going to look at below.

Chernobyl

One of the worlds worst nuclear disasters occurred in the Ukraine on the 26th April 1986. This was a result of a failed reactor test in the nuclear power plant in Belarus, Chernobyl. The unusable radioactive elements where spread by the carrying of dust particles but was also deposited in the earth by rainfall and entered food through plants and animals. This had a huge impact on the health of those in Belarus. 


- The disaster lead to the displacing of 200,000 people


- Instantly 53 residents and emergency workers died


-'Chernobyl Children's Project International' have said the 3-4 million children were affected by the disaster


- It has been predicted that 50,000 children will develop thyroid cancer within the region using their lifetime


-Leukaemia has increased by 50% in adults and children


-5 years after the disaster it was reported that there were 3 times the normal rate of deformities and developmental abnormalities in newborn children as well as an increased number of miscarriages, premature births and still births.  


- Hereditary defect in Belarusian newborns also increased after the disaster

Vintage Images

I had the idea of maybe finding old portraits of babies and children and collaging the images in some way to show small forms of deformity. When discussing this at my tutorial I realised how sensitive the topic is and could be seen and very offensive in if i developed this idea as it was not my intention to make the children look comical in any way. Also there was the issue that the images that I had been looking at were not specific to any one time so had no direct relevance apart from the fact that i was looking at children. I discarded this idea and no longer felt that I wanted to carry on with this topic as it could be highly controversial. 

New idea

I have decided to start from scratch and come up with a completely new idea. I am going to look at the claim expenses scandal from 2011 and the 'waste' of tax payers money. 

-After a team of reporters had worked in secrecy examining a leaked computer disk containing more than 1.5 million individual receipts, the expose began with the publication of the Cabinet's expenses  on May 8.

-The news that Cabinet members had flipped houses, avoided capital gains tax and bought chocolate bars with taxpayers' money was quickly followed up with the shadow cabinet's expenses.

List of claims I found interesting:

Quentin Davies:

-£10,000 of taxpayers money for repairs to window frame for second home (an 18th century mansion) 

James Arbuthnot:

-Swimming pool maintenance

Bill Cash:

-claimed 15,000 to give to his daughter for a new flat

Dawn Butler:

-Jacuzzi style bath fitted in second home

Phil Woolas:

-Ladies clothing, comics and nappies

Jacqui Smith:

- Bath plaug costing 88p/ 2 Porn movies

Shaun Woodward:

38p crunch corner yoghurt

Julia Goldsworthy:

- pink rocking chair costing £912 swell as matchin footstool costing £291

Sir Peter Viggers:

-Floating duck house costing £1,645

Shahid Malik

 -The Telegraph revealed that Malik had a flat in London that he had designated as his second home. This allowed him to claim more than £60,000 on the property over three years. His main home is a three bedroom house in Dewsbury which he rents for £100 pounds a week .

 -Apparently he claimed £2,100 for a 40in flatscreen television, although the Commons authorities only agreed to pay him for half the sum. He insisted that he was 'as straight as they come' and had done everything by the book however offered to donate half of the cost of the TV to local causes as he still insisted it was his own money.

-The Telegraph also reported that Malik had run up the highest expenses claims of any MP , claiming second home allowances of £66,827 on his house in London over three years.

-A downing street spokesman explained that "Because that allegation would represent a potential financial benefit and that potential and alleged financial benefit was not declared as part of his ministerial declaration, this could represent a breach of the ministerial code."

- Gordan Brown ordered Malik to stand down from his post as Junior Justice Minister 

The reason I chose to look at Shahid Malik out of all of the politicians that had claimed on their second home is because he was reported to have the highest expenses claims out of all of the MP's. Also I found his reaction to the accusations fascinating. When I was looking at other cases such as Smith's and Vigger's they stood up for themselves but also seemed to show some sort of remorse however Malik was insistent even after it was reported that his claims on housing totalled to £66,827, that he had still done absolutely nothing wrong. Personally I felt that his 'gesture' to donate some of the money from the TV was nothing but a publicity stunt as whilst donating it he was still saying it was his money as if he was doing them a favour out of the goodness of his heart. 

Sir Peter Viggers

-Sir Peter Viggers was the Conservative MP for Gosport for 25 years and is a member of the Treasury select committee. His story became one of the best known of all the expenses claims after it was revealed that he had tried to buy a floating duck house costing £1,645 using his parliamentary allowances. This request was however rejected.

-He went on to spend a further £8,000 of tapayers money on his garden last year and is reported to have spend more than £30,000 on gardening services over the last 3 years. 

 - Viggers was forced to announce he would step down at the election after The Daily Telegraph disclosed his claim for the 5ft high “Stockholm” floating duck house.

-He later described himself as "ashamed and humiliated" by his claim, which was rejected by the Commons authorities.

-After Viggers was exposed he auctioned the duck house and gave the proceeds of the auction to Macmillan Cancer Support. £1,700 pounds was donated and a Macmillan spokesman said "some good" had to come from the expenses scandal and that they were grateful for the donation. 

This story was one of the most amusing for me. I am not surprised that it was one of the stories that got so much media attention because it is just ludicrous. People had been claiming on houses and every day things like their broadband etc but to find out that the MP that was a values member of parliament, had been give the title 'Sir' and had been in the job for 25 years had claimed over £30,000 just on his garden over the last 3 years is simply shocking. Even though the claim request was denied for the Duck house this was the part the the media focused on. I found it quite humorous but still angering that he felt it was justifiable to use £1,645 pounds of tax payers money for a duck house in his garden. It is simply mind blowing that someone responsible for public affairs and that is entrusted by the government could could even consider this as acceptable.    

Jacqui Smith

-Former home secretary Jacqui Smith claimed her broadband and televison package with taxpayer's money. She admitted that it was wrong but said she though she didn't deserve to be called a thief. 

-She designated her sisters home in London as her main residence. This allowed her to claim over 116,000 on he families Redditch home.

-Smith claimed for furnishing her homes and described this to be the 'nature of the job' and that she had to furnish and run two properties.

-The story that the media focused on was the one of Smiths husband, Richard Timney, claiming for two pornographic films on government expenses.

-Smith said that the focus on her was 'over the top' and a lot of pressure was put upon her and her family by all of the media attention. This eventually lead to her resignation.

. After Smith made a BBC radio documentary on pornography.

I had mixed feelings when researching Jacqui Smiths story. It is interesting how the media chose not to focus on her housing claims but the claiming of two pornographic films that cost far less. This has clearly been done to make Smith look more scandalous and perverse. The fact that this put so much pressure on her family does cause you to feel slightly sympathetic however why should she be exempt for being humiliated and reported on when so many others were. There is also the question of who to blame for the films. Although smith is ultimately responsible it was actually her husband that claimed for the films and caused her families humiliation.   

Cadbury dancing clothes

For my shoot i knew that I wanted the presence of people but didn't want to use actual models. When thinking about how to achieve this I thought back to the cadburys dancing clothes advert. In the advert the clothing on the rails comes to life and starts dancing. I specifically remembered the dancing suit and because I am looking at politicians and how they took advantage of the power that they had within their jobs I want to use suits to represent their characters.    

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 Ida Taavitsainen

Ida Taavitsainen was a photography student at UCA and came in and gave us a talk on the series of images that she made for her final project 'The Memory of My Wardrobe'. The series is about the relationship between clothes and memory and was inspired by the passing down of clothing within her family. She started looking at stories behind clothing by interviewing those that they belonged to. I felt that this project was linked to our project on waste as she does not see clothing as something to be thrown away and wasted but that they are precious items that resemble people and link back to memories of when they were worn. The props and location of the image link to the memory and relationship of the garment.  

Corrine May

I was thinking about doing a shoot in the studio similar to the one that I have planned for outside. At first I candied using models and making it appear to be more of a fashion shoot however I really liked the idea of having clothing as representation on the people that I am talking about so this would be too dissimilar to that original idea. I came across corrine Mays work as seen above and below. She has photographed little house hold scenes that she has created using doll furniture. This could be a good way for me to bring my shoot into the studio. It would give me the opportunity to create a more detailed and intricate scene as I could be able to create whole rooms and be able to afford more probe as they would e on a much smaller scale. The politicians that I am talking about were widely exported on and exposed to the public. By photographing in this way it is as if the viewer is being invasive by looking into their house which I feel has a good representation of their exposure to the public. In some of Mays images she has use dolls but I chose these two mages to look at specifically because they do not. If I was to use this idea of a small hills house studio shoot then I would just use tiny doll size suits in the same way that I plan to use suits in my outdoor shoot. This os not a finalised idea but one that I am considering depending on how I feel my outdoor shoot goes and if I feel the need to develop this. 

Shoot 1 (location)

Above are both of the contact sheets from my location shoot. This first sheet shows 4 of my images taken of two identical suits hanging outside 2 similar houses to represent the second house scandal and 11 shots of the male and female suit sitting together with a suitcase of porn to represent the porn scandal. All of the images taken from outside the house are similar apart from the last one that only has one suit and one house in it as I was experimenting with how it would look when taken closer. I did not feel that this images put across the story as there is no reference to a second house. I chose the second images down as it was the straightest and there is a black pole at the bottom of the images which was either too central (so distracting) or too invasive within the image.

The photos taken on the bench are mostly taken from straight on but I also took some from various angles. I also moved the suits around throughout the shoot as the different placements of the suits chanced the appearance of the couples relationship when the story came out. Some or taken of then sitting next to each other with his sleeve upon her leg to show how they stuck together and gave support but I also felt the need to take some with the briefcase of porn between them. The briefcase was symbolic of the exposure of the porn claiming story and by having in between them I was trying to show the strain that the ordeal had upon them and their family which was a big issue for Smith and lead to her resignation. Finally I took some of the womens suit on its own with the case. Although the claim  was actually done by her husband it was Jacqui Smith's career that was effected and her name that was dragged through the mud because she was the public figure. I felt the need to also look at showing this side to the story.

In the second contact sheet are my photos of Sir Peter Viggers duck house story. I went to a farm where they had a small lake for the ducks. I hung the suit up on a fence but had a huge problem with the weather. The wind was really strong and constant on that day so the suit was moving and blowing in many of the pictures. I have managed to capture some of these in focus and it is interesting how it has managed to make the suit alive but now looking back I should have changed my shutter speed to make full advantage of this effect. I have taken some images of the floating duck house in the distance behind the suit and also had ducks in the images. I could not get as close to the duck house as I would have liked but I felt some of the images are composed in a way that tell the story quite clearly but others where i have had the large shed like duck houses in the background it is not as clear. I am a lot happier with the photographs of the other two sorries and feel that I could have taken these better so I shall see how they look after printing but may decide to go back and reshoot and possibly find a different location where i can include more the the duck house.    

Jacqui Smith Photo

I could not decide if i preferred the photos taken from an angle or straight on so I printed both. I was pleased with the colour and feel that I have managed to achieve good quality prints. Both of the prints were ones of the couple sitting together as i decided that I wanted to represent the couple supporting each other even under all the strain that they were under from the media. I also had the briefcase of porn on the side of the male because I personally think that although Jacqui Smith was the one who was ultimately responsible  as she was the politician, it was actually her husband that bought the porn and causes the embarrassment for the family. Out of the two prints I would choose the one below. When the image is taken from an angle the viewer can see the flatness of the suits and it takes away the illusion that they are a person. Also I just feel that the composition is more even and undistorted in the image taken from straight on.

To represent the claiming on a second house i got two identical suits and hung them on gates outside two houses that looked very similar. I made the suits identical to show that it was the same person that owned the both. I chose these houses as they reminded me slightly of 10 Downing Street with the black gates and windows above the door etc.

I feel that the image has come out well it can been seen that the image is intended to be quite symmetrical. A slight issue with the print could be that the colour is slightly faded at the top which was a minor issue but one that i was unsure how to fix and was probably just to do with the weather on the day and how there was more sun hitting the top of the building. This image was taken in Chatham near the university. 

Sir Peter Viggers Photo

This is the image that I chose to represent Sir Peter Viggers duck house story. I chose one of the images where the suit was not blowing in the wind and was directly facing the camera. I like the composition of this image with the suit large in the image and in the foreground with the ducks and duck house in the background. I am unhappy with how far away the duck house is though because it is not easily recognisable as a floating duck house and is too small in the distance. Because of the fencing I could not physically get closer so if I were to decided to keep developing these images and this idea I would re shoot this in a different location. I also struggled when printing this image and as you can see above is still quite blue. At first I thought that this might be a combination of the time of day that the image was taken and my accuracy in printing. I realised after printing some of the other images from this collection in my workshop that this was not the case and it is simply my printing. This means that if i decided that I did want to use this as a final print it would have to be re printed. 

New idea for studio shoot

Even when I was planning my location shoot I was still thinking of ways that I could translate this concept into a studio shoot. I considered just making a small doll house size version of something similar to what I have done on location however have had an idea to take it visually in a totally different direction. I started looking at collages and have decided to create three portraits of the Smith, Viggers and Malik using this technique. This would allow me to experiment with different art forms besides photography but once I have completed the collages they can be photographed and used for my final prints. I can explore a more abstract way of working compared to my location shoot which I took quite literally in relation to the politicians stories. 

            Collage research

            Karel Teige

My initial thought for this idea is to have a giant suit walking through a city in a way that suggests that they are superior to the city and its rules. I thought that maybe I could build up the city in each collage using different images depending on the story that I am trying to make a comment on. I started by looking at these photomontages by Karel Teige. To the left he has taken a photo of an ancient landscape, taken it out of its original context and rebuilt it into a dreamscape. He has made a series of these images where erotic body parts are seen to be rising out of the ground and a female landscape is created. I Was thinking that I could create this type of dreamscape scene but as a city so maybe overlapping the women's breasts or arranging than to look like houses and buildings for the politician to wade through. Breasts would only be suitable for the pornographic sort but I could also relate this idea to my other two stories by making the city into a pond type structure with ducks beaks coming out of the water to create the illusion of buildings. I could also consider doing something more similar to the image above on the right where the women's legs have been incorporated in with images of buildings. The only flaw in this idea is that for the second housing scandal it would not be making an obvious statement to just use images of houses as it would just look as if they were walking through a town. Houses could maybe be replaced with latter boxes, doors etc however I am still unsure if the point would be as clearly put across. 

I  was also playing with the idea of replacing the politicians body parts with items that are relevant to their story similar to the image above. Teige has used a house to replace the main body of the person which could inspire my collage of the second house being claimed. I could do with using a ducks wings for example for Sir Peter Viggers and some sort of sex related object or outfit for the Jacqui Smith headline. 

Adolf Hoffmeister 'landscape of the photographers'

Above Adolf Hoffmeister has created a landscape of female nudes which is exactly the type of collage that I was talking about to make the city below the politicians feet in. This close, overlapping collage technique could be used not only for my pornography scene but would also work with ducks and housing. I really like this idea of creating some sort of floor/city scape made of images relevant to the three stories that I have chosen for the political in my image to be stomping through. It could also appear as if they are wading through it because these items that they claimed became something that absorbed them and really effected their carriers.

Linder Sterling (tate modern)

I went to the Tate modern a second time as i now had a new idea and remembered having a particular interest in Linder sterlings work. around 1976/77 when Sterling was an art student she started looking at magazines and media prints. she saw that there were publications for men about cars, sport and pornography and women's on fashion and household but felt that style press just did not exist. In the book 'Collage, The Making of Modern Art' by Brandon Taylor it quoted Sterling saying 'I had two piles of magazines, trashy mens stuff and trashy women's stuff... I was fascinated by the fact that as a women I was supposed to be in both these worlds'. I found this very interesting that the idea behind her photo montages were driven by her reluctance to accept the relationship between women and print media and how women are meant to have an interest in one, yet be the interest of another. This lead to her combining images from both which can be seen in the image above. This is one of Sterlings most famous photo montages as it was used for the cover of the 'Buzzcocks' album 'Orgasm Addict'. I also feel that this image is one where it is most apparent that she is making a statement about the expectations of women through her combination of the fetishized female body and the domestic appliance. 

I found her work to be relevant to my idea because she uses objects to replace certain parts of the body. In collages I have decided that a want to use the faces of the the politicians I am focusing on but have there body as something related to what they were reported to be claiming for. This brings me back to when i was looking at Karel Teige's image of the women with a house as her house a stomach area. 

Another reason i looked at Sterling is because I felt it could inspire collage of Jacqui Smith and her husbands expenses claim for pornography. Her use of sexualised female images gave me the idea to put Smith's head onto some sort of naked female. I could keep this quite subtle by just using a naked female body or make the image appear more comical by using an erotic image. This lead me to look at the image below. 

    

Sterling's piece above 'Untitled Photomontage' 1977 is from her series 'The Secret Public'. This shows a couple masterbating but their heads, nipples and genitals have been replaced item of technology. I have not yet decided how I want to approach the Jacqui Smith collage because although she is the one that was the politician and they expense was on her claims, it was actually her husband and not her that claimed for the movies. For this reason I am not sure if the image should show her, her husband or both of them. If i were to use the both of them I could create an erotic scene similar to Sterlings as this would also make it clear to the viewer that it is a pornographic related incident. A problem with this could be what it could also be seen as quite vulgar. If i was just doing a collage or image with no one specific being featured in the image I would not hesitate to create an image that could be contivercial or seen to be erotic but I am using the faces of   

Jiri Kolar

I want to create portraits of the politicians that I am looking at but still need to decide on a background. I have been considering maybe using a collage of clippings and shreds of text or writing. I started looking at Jiri Kolar's work . He has used both clippings of words and newspaper clippings in these two images that I have chosen. I have been considering using newspaper clippings from the scandal but this is going to be something that I shall have to research further as I am unsure how I would source articles from this time. In the images above Kolar has collaged individual words. I could create a similar type collage to this using words that relate to the scandal and the individual stories of the politicians.  I wanted the background to be textured however sticking clippings of words will be too flat. This could be remedied by using a similar technique to the image above. Kolar has create an embossed style by having a raised image within the collage. 

Tate Modern

I could not find who the artist that did this series in the Tate but this piece really caught my eye. He has written 'Santa claus is not evil there is no need to defend myself against him' repetitively. I thought that this could work as the background for my collage because they have been written in the style of 'lines' that are given to children at school when they have done something wrong. This would be appropriate form the politicians I am looking at because it would be as if you are treating them like they are a naughty child and would be in a patronising manor. Here are some of the lines that I thought that I may be able to use:

.I should not claim for porn

.I must not spunk away your money

.Homes are not buy one get one free

.I should not fuck up for my duck

.I should home people not pets

.I must not ponce for my apartment 

.I must pay for properties 

Hannah Hoch

One idea is that i could cut out images of the actual politicians involved and used there head within my collage. Here Hannah Hoch has incorporated an image of someones face but has stuck over it to alter it and give it a more animated look. I could play with this idea in my work as I was thinking that i could for example find and image of Sir Perter Viggers and stick a ducks beak where his mouth would be. I could also use this sort of technique for the other two story lines like using house windows for eyes etc.

When looking through Hoch's work I found that in some of her images she has forced interesting textures and colours for her backgrounds. I was considering maybe using the newspaper articles from the incident but I think that by having a background similar to this i could create more texture and covey more emotion through the image using colour. There is also the option of collaborating the two. it would be quite simple to rub on parts of an article onto a coloured paper. I could also achieve tho by putting newspaper in the neg holder in the enlarger and projecting the writing over image in a photogram style. If i felt that the newspaper was too thick and would be too overpowering in the image i could copy parts of the article onto acetate so only the writing would be visible and the rest would be clear.

Peter Walker 

When looking through artists that had experimented with collage online i came across Peter Walker. The first image that I came across was the one of Liz Taylor. Although this is not actually a collage piece like the rest of this collection it gave me the idea to use stencilling within my work. Drawing is not my strong point and neither is using different shades of paper to create the illusion of a person which are commonly used but I think that it would be very suitable for me to create a stencil and spray some of my work. This technique could be used to create either the face of my politicians, their bodies or both. Also in his piece 'Free as a bird' He has sprayed onto a collaged page but also created a white base of spray paint before actually using his stencil. I like this technique as it graduated the collage into the stencil but also by using a contrasting colour to the black it makes it stand out more. The drips of the paint are also an interesting feature that I may consider using. 

"Free as a bird", Other/ Multi disciplinary, mixed media, 2010

"Liz Taylor in 56", Painting, Spray paint stencil, 2011

Collage

I am going to do three collages as portraits of the politicians that I have been looking at. I did not want to use actual photographs of the politicians but wanted an image of their face that was recognisable. I achieved this by using a light box to trace the the basic shapes and features of the face. I was not 100% sure  what i wanted to be with the the bodies yet just that i wanted them to refer back to the scandal stories related to each person. I cut the heads out so that I could place them in different images for experimentation. I have decided to make the head oversized in comparison to the bodies so have copied A4 photographs of the politicians faces. By making them oversized I want them to appear not comical but to make them look slightly ridiculous. The fact that the scandal has been allowed to carry on for all this time is  ridiculous but also the fact that these politicians felt that it was acceptable when they are public figures who's jobs are to be representatives and have been entrusted in their positions by the public.       

 

For the pornographic story I thought that it would be suitable to put the head on the body of a naked women. I wasted to explore with different colours and textures so i started with paint.

My colour choice was directly inspired by Van Gogh's painting 'The night cafe'. When thinking about the combination of colours to use this instantly came to my mind. Gogh said "I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green". I found this to be very relevant to the expenses scandal as 'the terrible passions of humanity' in this case is greed that lead those to spend money that was not theirs to spend, for their own benefit. As i had been looking at stencils in my research i decided to try and mimic a stencil style by making quite abstract images using individual brush strokes and sectioning the body. I put the painted bodies with the heads that I had drawn out but they may be too abstract as they might not be easily recognisable as a womens or ducks body to my audience.   

   

After discarding the idea of painting the bodies of the portraits in an abstract way i looked back to my research of Peter Walker and his graffiti stencil work. I found images on the internet of a house, naked woman and a duck. I traced these images and and then transferred them onto foam board. These were then made into stencils which i planned to transfer onto my image. 

To see how the stencil would come out here is a tester of the stencil of the naked women. I have deliberately made the heads oversized in comparison to the body. I am going to collage the heads and use coloured papers so I think that I should keep the stencil more simplistic. I know that I want to create a textured background so the stencil would not come out as clear as it has on the smooth card board shown above. I shall have to think of a way to remedy this problem.

I have decided to spray my stencils onto A3 sheets of acetate. By doing this I can layer the acetate onto of the textured background that I decide on. This way the stencil will come out clearly as it has been transferred onto a smooth surface, but as the acetate is see through the textured background will still be seen. I also felt that the fact the acetate was see through was symbolic of the exposure of the politicians. Once the scandal was revealed politicians (especially the three that I have chosen to focus on) were exposed to be judged by the public.

I bought 3 sheet large square patches of woven fabric in camden which can be seen on the left. I hung my acetate sheets with the stencils on in front of the fabric but the busyness of the pattern makes the stencil harder to see and distracts from it. I only chose the fabric to experiment with as I loved the texture however it has no relevance to my concept and is not in keeping with my image. I was looking at maybe using newspaper clippings for the background of my collage however they would have to be articles and headlines relevant to the scandal. I looked into this but could not find how to source them. I still liked the idea of creating a background collage of something that includes text like 

Jiri Kolar does. I then had the idea about maybe using receipts and they are white and therefore would not be distracting from the actual portraits of the politicians but could add texture and is relevant to my concept.

I have decided for my final idea that the background of the collages will be made up of overlapping receipts. I have chosen receipts as they represent the council tax money spend by the politicians. It is also a reference to all of the small claims for things such as food and just everyday items that were claimed for. I plan to cover A3 boards with the receipts so that no gaps can be seen and will then layer the rest of my collage on top of this. To add texture I am going to screw up them up before overlapping them and gluing them to the bored.

I have used the same stencil technique that I used for the bodies, for the politicians faces. I took the pencil drawings that I had already done of their faces, divided parts into lines and sections then transferred this to a stencil as I did before. By doing this the faces were still recognisable and was heavily inspired by Peter Walkers 'Liz Taylor' images. I decided that the head where where I was going to incorporate colour and my main collage. I chose 4 different sheets of coloured paper that I felt complimented each other and collaged shredded pieces of the different types of paper onto pieces of card that I had cut slightly lager than the face stencils. I felt that these papers looked quite historical which I felt was suitable to represent parliament as it is a body of representatives that has been in place throughout history.

Contact sheet

Here is my contact sheet from my final shoot. I was unsure if I wanted to just photograph the collage that I had created and do a full print of them or if I wanted to just photograph parts of what I had made and combine the print with some of my collage at the end. This is why I have taken pictures of the collage pieces in stages. I started by just taking a photo of the background made of receipts. I took one in focus and the other purposefully out of focus. I wanted to look at the soft texture created when the receipts where blurred together but after looking at the contact shed decided this was not a look that was relevant or in keeping with my work. 

As you can see I have also taken three images of just the receipt backgrounds with the spray painted acetate sheets over it. The heads would then be added to the prints after. Finally I did shots of the whole collage's when all of the pieces are together. After looking at the contact sheet I was still unsure as to how I wanted my final prints presented in relation to the collage so decided to print a variety as I could them compare both the flat images and those that included 3d elements.

Prints

I started by printing the background of collaged receipts. I started with this because if I decided to use this print I would simply need 3 of the image and would layer the rest of my collage on top of it. I felt that If I only used this as my print and worked onto it, it would look as if I had made no effort within my shoot and had taken the easy option. Although I like the idea of collaborating both printed photos of my collage and elements of my original collage I feel that is as a print is too simplistic and the quality of the print would be lost under the acetate sheets.

I used acetate as I was intrigued too see how it would look if a slight reflection of the lighting could be seen. I used the acetate originally to symbolise the exposure of the politicians involved in the scandal but this would not be able to be seen if there is no reflection. In the image above there is a reflection of the light but I did not actually like this within my image. It just looks like a white square and a mistake that I had made during the shoot so I decided against using this idea for my final image.

I felt that the receipt image alone was too plain and would be lost under the acetate but was still playing with the idea of incorporating my collage in some way. I think that the image above is the happy medium between the two. For my final prints I could use the three images that I have taken of just the stencil on acetate onto on the receipt background but physically attaching the collage heads to the prints afterwards. This would keep the texture and 3D elelment that I did not want to be lost in a flat print but still having the actual print as the main part of my image.

I have written above about how I did not want the 3D element and variety of textures (that were present in my original collage) to be lost within a flat print. It is hard to tell the difference when looking at the scans on here but above are three of the prints where the whole collage has been photographed and none of the original would be combined with it. I feel like it takes the character away from the images so have decided not use these as final prints. There is also the issue the the top left section of the face on the duck portrait is slightly out of focus where I have captured it at a point where the air con blew the paper. I do not want to use an image that is slightly out of focus for my final print as it would ruin the collection of images and I'm not happy to submit it.

When printing the flat prints of the collage I wanted to experiment by zooming in on the images so that the frame and edge of the receipts board could not be seen. I was not as keen on this as I was on the prints that included the black framing as it gave the white of the receipts more of a clear finishing point and contrasting edge. There is also the factor that the portrait of the house has the head hanging over the edge of the paper so this would mean having to cut of some of the head. This would look ridiculous especially in comparison to the other two images in the collection.

Final Prints

For my final prints I have chosen to use the original collage heads and attach them to the prints of the receipt background and stencil combo. I decided on thing so that I did not use the 3d element to my work but still the majority of the images is still a photographic print which was the criteria for the brief. I have used 12 by 16 paper as this was the closest size to my original collages before I photographed them. I felt that these were images that looked better in large print and also would not be also to combine the prints of my collage with original elements of the collage if they were completely different sizes. I am pleased with the prints as I feel  that I have managed to achieve the same tones and colouring within the prints and stand firmly on my decision to attach the collaged heads. After looking at artist like Linder Sterling and Hannah Hoch where they have cut out images and overlapped and stuck images together I felt that by having a flat print of the image it was no longer a collage but simply a photograph of one. By bring some of my original collage into it I have managed to reform it back into being one again.

I feel that I have achieved my goal of making the portraits slightly ridiculous. When looking into this topic I kept finding myself thinking how utterly ridiculous it all was and how it could have ever been allowed to happen. I wanted to try and portray this in my work and show the 3 politicians in such a way they also made then appear ridiculous. It could be said that I have almost humiliated them by using comical bodies that relate to their stories within the scandal and giving them abnormally large heads but I felt this reflected the humiliation that they faced when exposed by the media.