TAKING PHOTOS

After finding new photos and artists to move forward with, I then went on to take photos incorporating these ideas. Before I did this, I researched some new artists who incorporated these ideas. I took a variety of photos, focusing on my subject of headscarves and turbans, taking a number of photos using different coloured scarves and wrapping styles.

My first photos were of a 'islamic-green' shaded scarf which wrapped around my models head and hung down at the back. I found that these photos related well to images from the 'CORAL PETROLEUM COLLECTION OF ORIENTALIST PAINTINGS' and Marie-Guillemine Benoist's 'Portrait d'une negresse'.

I then took photos using a black scarf which i hung around my models face, trying a modern take on an otherwise traditional style image by hanging a silk scarf around her neck along with a multi-coloured bead necklace. The looping and hanging of the scarf around the face, to me, was very similar to Rossetti's 'The Bride' (or 'The Beloved') and a Dulac illustration.

The next set of photos I took were of a patterned scarf, wapped and twisted around my models hair, and this related well to Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones figure study for 'The Rose Bower' along with Jan van Eyck's 'Man in a Turban'.

photos from the REAL WORLD

I then went away and tried to find photos that I had taken myself which worked with the theme and direction I was going. I looked at photos of my summer spent in Nepal, in particular those taken with the 'holy men' of the temples. I liked the bold colours of the clothing and their makeup, which was a change from the sketches and dull shades of the images I'd collected when finding artist images. Although the artist images I'd found were great, so too were these photos of the holy men so I decided to again go off and take some more photos. This time the photos incorporated pretty much everything I was considering on doing to move ahead with the project, by making turbans with bright materials and having a modern take on an otherwise traditional style.

RELATING TO ARTIST IMAGES

Once I'd taken photos of the sculpture I'd made, I looked for artists who I thought I could relate to my images and holiday work. I wasn't sure with what theme or idea I wanted to go with so I collected and researched a variation of images that either related to the theme of poverty, or middle-eastern turbans and wraps of fabric. I went ahead with the idea of headwear, in particular turbans and the wraps and folds of the material used.

The first set of artist images I collected related to the paper sculptures I had made in class, of the twisting and rope like effects. These images included Maxfield Parrish's 'Ecstasy' anda 'A woman playing a Cithara' by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones.

HANGING SCULPTURES

Within our first week of art lessons, we were given charcoal & white chalk to draw on the rolls of brown paper spread across our tables using the piles of postcards and objects given to us for inspiration. After filling the sheets with drawings, we then ripped off sections of the paper and used this as a starting point for our hanging scultpure. I used my holiday work as inspiration and looked at the idea of twisting and plaiting the brown paper using different materials like string, elastic and tissue result paper.

The end represented the struggle and pain of the figure in my holiday work photos, but I didn't feel very happy with the results. I decided to then instead take photos of sections of the sculpture so it didn't look literally like a card copy of the painting. I much prefered these images and found it easy to then move forward with the project.

HOLIDAY WORK: PHOTOS

HOLIDAY WORK

The starting point of this project was the Ernest Hebert GIRLS OF ALVITO painting, which I came across in the Musee d'Orsay, Paris a few months ago. I loved it at first glance, and fortunately went back to France at the end of the holidays, where I was able to complete my holiday work and take photos in this style. I used an assortment of house-hold 'bits and bobs' to mimic the outfit, including string, a pillow case, and table cloth(!) and used my neighbours abandoned barn as the setting. My victim for the shoot was my little sister Kitty, who found it hard to act sulky and in pain from the strain of an empty pot!!