Alicia Kathryn - Speak now, stop the bully.
Kathryn is a graphic designer who uses a love for photography to create her images; I focused specifically on her Anti-bullying campaign. Her series of images all focus on children and the issue of bullying; she uses the phrase “Speak now, Stop the bully” across all her images, this being her campaign message.
1. In the first image we are made to focus on a mobile phone with the message “U weren’t in school today but I’ll get you tomorrow” the hand and the phone are in focus with a blurred background. There is also black text in focus where Kathryn adds the message that bullying does not only end at school helping to raise awareness. The image has a dull
look to it and no bright colours are present. Overall I can describe this image as one which creates a negative gloomy feel in its viewer.
2.The second image uses its background and setting to help create the image and message. In the background we can see trees and grass which allow the viewer to know that the image was taken outside, our eyes then focus on the
grave stone which portrays the messages of the bullying campaign stating that the point where it gets “enough” is
the point where children are led to taking their lives, we are presented with flowers and teddies and as we focus on the
text realise that there is a shadow in the foreground this creates a sense of empathy towards the parents of these bully victims. In this image there are brighter colours however a cold tone to the image seems to be evident.
3. The third image was my favourite due to its simplicity, a glass with a bullet hole through it, I felt this was the most effective image, its simplicity is what makes is what I can describe as an emotive piece of work. We immediately as viewers focus on the bullet hole and spend a little time processing the rest of the grey blurred image before we get
to the text that tells us the story of the bullet. However the message is different to the first two, this message goes out directly to the bullies, questioning the bully, this emits guilt in its viewers, and we feel as if we were the bully as we read this question to ourselves.
4. The next image is similar, to the third in the sense that it speaks directly to the audience like we were the bullies, I feel the focal point is the hand of the child and the blood from her slit wrists lead your eyes onto the writing. This image differs to the others as it uses warmer colours however in a negative way as the warm orange is there to complement
the red blood making it a painful, angry, fire orange as opposed to a warm autumn colour.
5. The fifth image I enjoyed due to its use of a blackboard, this led my mind to a school, I struggled to read the names on the board as it had been smudged this created a ghostly effect, the background and foreground became merged into one big ghostly smudge. The struggle to read the names helps give an effect of struggling to remember these children who had committed suicide from bullying.
6. Moving back to cool colours Kathryn uses symbolism of a scarf to create a story of a little girl who hung herself with
this scarf. Without the use of children we picture this little girl’s death and an image of a sister buying her the scarf and then having it as a gruesome reminder of her little sister’s death.
7. Image seven is the only one which focuses on the face of a child, and it is in the form of a passport photograph. I like the idea of an image in a photograph as you can draw the attention of the viewer to more than one different settings at the same time. In the background we see the floor and parents feet while the hands are clear and pull your eyes into the centre of the image where we are presented the little boy who has passed away.
8.The final image is in the setting of a bedroom, the image has an effect which makes the bright colours look very sketchy and dull. The central focus of the image is a skipping rope we are then told that an eight year old had used this to strangle herself after spending the night begging her mum to be able to stay home from school.
Overall I can describe the posters as very emotive dark, dull and gloomy artwork. They have no way of being terpreted in a positive light. If it’s not the colouring then the messages and text will help evoke dark emotions and negative feelings of guilt and remorse from its viewers.
The main elements of each image are very simple props which help to create a story of death in bully victims. These props help to create illusions of pain in children without us seeing these children or pain being inflicted. These props help to emphasise the thoughts of a viewer and so reactions are all results of each individual.
My first reactions to her images were always that of guilt, not because I was a bully but because I never really thought about bullying as being an issue that was this big or that cause thousands of kids to take their lives. Her images made my think about losing my siblings to something as pointless as bullying and this thought angered me, the thought that another silly child who may not even know what they are doing can cause someone else to take their lives or inflict pain on themselves because of their fear of facing these bullies.
I feel Kathryn focuses on the placement of her words and focal points in each image as they vary; she has no specific style or patterns to her photography and just works with each campaign poster individually. As someone who was not aware on the effect bullying had on its victims each image shocked me. I feel she restricts her images to one tone
not varying with light and dark areas; she also always uses a consistent theme of soft subtle colours and contrasts they are always muted and very cold, keeping her images simple she has no use of patterns or symmetry and I feel this is what makes her campaign images stand out. You see the image and are hit with one thing rather than repetitions of elements that make up the image. Her use of visual textures add to the images especially in her bullet hole image, where we see the cracked glass and blur effect.
Most of her images are taken at a face front angle this gives us a direct view of what’s happening in the image, there are also angles where we are almost the person holding the phone, or the couple visiting their child’s grave. All the
images are taken to tell a story, a story of the negative ffects and results that bullying has, they help raise awareness
and campaign against the matter. The themes and subjects of being campaign photography and focusing on bullying
are focused through the use of text to compliment the images.
I loved viewing the images that Kathryn produced as it links directly to the kind of work I hope to produce by creating a group of similar campaign images. I have decided to respond to this work with my own series of anti-bullying campaign images but using models rather than focusing on props, however I aim to keep her style of photography and make the images objective so that the viewer can create the story of what they feel may be happening. I aim to focus more on bullying rather than the results of bullying.
1. In the first image we are made to focus on a mobile phone with the message “U weren’t in school today but I’ll get you tomorrow” the hand and the phone are in focus with a blurred background. There is also black text in focus where Kathryn adds the message that bullying does not only end at school helping to raise awareness. The image has a dull
look to it and no bright colours are present. Overall I can describe this image as one which creates a negative gloomy feel in its viewer.
2.The second image uses its background and setting to help create the image and message. In the background we can see trees and grass which allow the viewer to know that the image was taken outside, our eyes then focus on the
grave stone which portrays the messages of the bullying campaign stating that the point where it gets “enough” is
the point where children are led to taking their lives, we are presented with flowers and teddies and as we focus on the
text realise that there is a shadow in the foreground this creates a sense of empathy towards the parents of these bully victims. In this image there are brighter colours however a cold tone to the image seems to be evident.
3. The third image was my favourite due to its simplicity, a glass with a bullet hole through it, I felt this was the most effective image, its simplicity is what makes is what I can describe as an emotive piece of work. We immediately as viewers focus on the bullet hole and spend a little time processing the rest of the grey blurred image before we get
to the text that tells us the story of the bullet. However the message is different to the first two, this message goes out directly to the bullies, questioning the bully, this emits guilt in its viewers, and we feel as if we were the bully as we read this question to ourselves.
4. The next image is similar, to the third in the sense that it speaks directly to the audience like we were the bullies, I feel the focal point is the hand of the child and the blood from her slit wrists lead your eyes onto the writing. This image differs to the others as it uses warmer colours however in a negative way as the warm orange is there to complement
the red blood making it a painful, angry, fire orange as opposed to a warm autumn colour.
5. The fifth image I enjoyed due to its use of a blackboard, this led my mind to a school, I struggled to read the names on the board as it had been smudged this created a ghostly effect, the background and foreground became merged into one big ghostly smudge. The struggle to read the names helps give an effect of struggling to remember these children who had committed suicide from bullying.
6. Moving back to cool colours Kathryn uses symbolism of a scarf to create a story of a little girl who hung herself with
this scarf. Without the use of children we picture this little girl’s death and an image of a sister buying her the scarf and then having it as a gruesome reminder of her little sister’s death.
7. Image seven is the only one which focuses on the face of a child, and it is in the form of a passport photograph. I like the idea of an image in a photograph as you can draw the attention of the viewer to more than one different settings at the same time. In the background we see the floor and parents feet while the hands are clear and pull your eyes into the centre of the image where we are presented the little boy who has passed away.
8.The final image is in the setting of a bedroom, the image has an effect which makes the bright colours look very sketchy and dull. The central focus of the image is a skipping rope we are then told that an eight year old had used this to strangle herself after spending the night begging her mum to be able to stay home from school.
Overall I can describe the posters as very emotive dark, dull and gloomy artwork. They have no way of being terpreted in a positive light. If it’s not the colouring then the messages and text will help evoke dark emotions and negative feelings of guilt and remorse from its viewers.
The main elements of each image are very simple props which help to create a story of death in bully victims. These props help to create illusions of pain in children without us seeing these children or pain being inflicted. These props help to emphasise the thoughts of a viewer and so reactions are all results of each individual.
My first reactions to her images were always that of guilt, not because I was a bully but because I never really thought about bullying as being an issue that was this big or that cause thousands of kids to take their lives. Her images made my think about losing my siblings to something as pointless as bullying and this thought angered me, the thought that another silly child who may not even know what they are doing can cause someone else to take their lives or inflict pain on themselves because of their fear of facing these bullies.
I feel Kathryn focuses on the placement of her words and focal points in each image as they vary; she has no specific style or patterns to her photography and just works with each campaign poster individually. As someone who was not aware on the effect bullying had on its victims each image shocked me. I feel she restricts her images to one tone
not varying with light and dark areas; she also always uses a consistent theme of soft subtle colours and contrasts they are always muted and very cold, keeping her images simple she has no use of patterns or symmetry and I feel this is what makes her campaign images stand out. You see the image and are hit with one thing rather than repetitions of elements that make up the image. Her use of visual textures add to the images especially in her bullet hole image, where we see the cracked glass and blur effect.
Most of her images are taken at a face front angle this gives us a direct view of what’s happening in the image, there are also angles where we are almost the person holding the phone, or the couple visiting their child’s grave. All the
images are taken to tell a story, a story of the negative ffects and results that bullying has, they help raise awareness
and campaign against the matter. The themes and subjects of being campaign photography and focusing on bullying
are focused through the use of text to compliment the images.
I loved viewing the images that Kathryn produced as it links directly to the kind of work I hope to produce by creating a group of similar campaign images. I have decided to respond to this work with my own series of anti-bullying campaign images but using models rather than focusing on props, however I aim to keep her style of photography and make the images objective so that the viewer can create the story of what they feel may be happening. I aim to focus more on bullying rather than the results of bullying.