Appraisal

Critical Appraisal: Body

For our body project we had to focus on portraiture. We had to find a person that we found interesting or relevant to a topic that we wished to focus on. It had to be someone that we didn't know and I chose Tom Williams who also attends UCA. I interviewed him and based all of my research on his interests and icons.

Research:

     

Tom Has a very flamboyant style and will occasionally wear make up, extensions etc. He also told me that he loves Andy Warhol and his work so i started by looking at Warhol's collection of drag images. In the photos he wears bold wigs and make up however it is still very clear the he is a man. I then looked at Jeffree star who looks at the superficial aspects of being a transvestite. The purpose of researching both of these people was to help me choose what sort of angle i wanted to take when making the decisions for my own images.
Tom is also a fan of Lady Gaga. Although styling is a huge part of her appeal I also looked into her expressions and positioning.   

 After looking at men who had explored beauty in different ways I decided that I wanted to take a beauty shot for my final image. The image of Boy George to the right inspired my work as although he is clearly wearing make up, he naturally has traditionally feminine features and the image is very casual. For my lighting reference I chose to look at Halsmans image of Ricki Soma.I felt that the lighting really portrayed beauty and was very flattering for the model. 

    

Contact sheet:

I originally wanted to use one if the images above. I felt that the poses were strong and the lighting was flattering for the model. I also managed to get the background how I wanted it and the pattern in the outfit really helped to show Toms character. I made a mistake with the lighting and over exposed the model to too much light. when printing I            managed to get some detail back in the hair and face but the images were still far too bright and unable to be used.

I had planned a shoot with another student at the uni as a back up shoot as I was unsure if tom would be able to make it to the shoot. I chose him as I was trying to achieve a beauty shot and felt that his features would be perfect for it. After making mistakes with lighting in my other shoot I managed to achieve better lighting in this shoot and did not over expose the models face to the light. Many of the shots were of the model looking towards the light as  I felt this was the most flattering use of shadows on the face but also tried a few shots from other angles. 

Final Image:

I chose this as my final image. Although I originally did want to use an image of Tom I felt that Brendan's photoshoot was just as relevant to my research and was mainly inspired by the images that I found of Boy George and Halsman's photo of  Ricki Soma. I have put mascara, blush and lip gloss on the model to accentuate his features but kept it subtle as like Boy George he has very strong and classically pretty features. I have the model directly facing towards the light as it creates the most flattering shadowing across the face. This is why I chose this image as aposed to the others as I did experiment with slightly different positioning but it did not work as well. I chose the focal point of the image to be his eyes as they are the most expressive part of the face.I am pleased with my final image and the only thing that I think I would do differently if i was to re do the shoot is to make the model wear slightly more make up as it would be more suited to Tom character.