Advertisement: Advertising is a method of communication used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience to take or continue to take some action. When looking at it from a photography point of view the audience would be viewers.
Campaign Photography: A campaigning advert is a matching series of linked advertisements with a single idea or theme using photography. Focusing on a common theme, or be directed at a particular segment of the population.
To begin my unit I researched many different campaigns that were created by individual photographers as opposed to that of a team of creatives, this allowed me to find photographers to research especially as I came across lists of
campaign photographers who had won awards for the campaigns that they had created.
After looking into many different campaigns I decided to act as a campaign photographer and give myself my own brief. The brief I chose was Mental Health issues; I started a new research process looking for photographers that used mental health issues in their images. I came across an artist who portrayed her experiences with mental illness in the form of a photograph and a photographer who created a set of images for a campaigning company. I also thought about different techniques I could use to portray the issue of mental illness in a variety of ways.
I chose to focus on Domestic violence for my final piece as I felt that I wanted to move away from my Mental Health, I
thought about using issues of abuse until I came to my final decision of Domestic Violence. “Victims are made to feel guilty for ‘provoking’ the abuse and are frequently subjected to intense criticism.” This line became my focus for my Domestic Violence piece and I began to work into ideas of victims covering up the fact that they are victims of abuse due to the guilt and shame that they are made to feel. I used a female as this criticism reminded me of a need to be better and look better I associated this with the use of make-up.“Make-up is her cover up” became a reoccurring message in my campaign.
I focused all my work on the victims of the issues that I was portraying in each campaign I decided to focus on.
I thought about how I would present my images to show that there was a correlation between the video advert I had created and the two advert posters emphasising that I had created my own campaign. Initial ideas were focused on the size of printing I wanted my images to be very large with a selection of freeze frames from my video very close to the larger poster size images. I then thought about where campaign adverts go, on bid billboards on walls on streets and so I decided I wanted my images to be mounted on a wall background rather than just a white background.
The image and video were taken in the space of a day, I started the process of my images by using face paint to add artificial bruises to my model on her face, neck and arm. I took one set of images in front of a white backdrop and the
second set I told her to act like she was doing her make-up and trying to cover up her bruise. After taking a few images I told her to continue and to also put on a scarf to show how she hides her neck bruise. This is the shot that I
decided to record for my video.
During my editing process I had to delete the images that did not show the bruises clearly enough or that seemed to focus too much on the bruises thus keeping not very far away but quite distant shots. I also in the bathroom began images where I as the photographer was the mirror but felt that the over the shoulder images were more effective
The photos are all about my victim. I wanted the focus to be directly on her. Not on what she was doing, where she was doing it but just on her. In the video and one set of photos there is a natural background to create context. My victim is doing natural things but there aren’t any specific props or anything in the background which should be focused on. The main focal point is always my victim and using a white backdrop for come images made this very obvious, this was to ensure the theme is apparent not anything else but the physical abuse that we can see on her body in the form of bruises. I can describe the artwork as very thought provoking. Its large scale, specific images, it being a black and white piece with harsh bruises and contrasting tones, use of black outs in the video all help to create disturbing and uncomfortable thoughts in the viewer’s mind.
I want my viewer’s first reactions to be that of being provoked, I want them to see these huge images of a woman with bruises and feel disgusted enough to want to act against domestic violence. I want them to obsess on what thoughts they believed where going through the victims mind as she hides her pain and the mind of whoever is causing her such pain.
All of my freeze frame images were printed onto an A5 sheet of paper so that my viewers had to come in close and focus on them following the story of the images while I wanted the posters to be very huge so that they were very in your face and hard to miss. I wanted that when my images were looked at the poster images hold a high level of attention but the freeze-frame images hold greater focus from viewers. They all hold the same level of attention. The tone of my piece is quite dark while painting the victim in a bright innocent light.
One main images was taken at eye level however the over the shoulder image used a more oblique angle, this helps to change the role the viewer. Sometimes the viewer is dominant and can offer help and other times beneath the victim and can only be a viewer looking in from the outside. The angles help to create different relationships between the victim and the viewer which also evokes different emotions.
I tried to evoke very controversial feelings and emotions from my viewer’s I wanted them to either connect with the role of the victim, realise they are the persona causing the victim pain or feel passionately about their role in helping the victim as an outside individual.
Upon completing my third unit I felt that I wanted to do that little bit more
ensuring I had done everything I could to get the best grade that I can
achieve.
I was happy with the concepts I had come up with and how well thought through they were. When looking through my work I wa s able to see the change that adding text to images made and how different fonts can create different impacts for the viewer. Ensuring that I explored a range of techniques in Photoshop I did a lot of reading up and watching of Youtube videos so that I could experiment with a range of media including producing my final pierce in film. Taking this time to reflect on my work and develop it further I came up with a few points on how I could improve my personal projects further.
I felt that I was taking inspiration from photographers that I had researching and then creating my own images based on what they do. I felt that I needed a more clear representation of how their work had influenced my own, incorporating more obvious styles of their work in my own photographs.
I wanted to discuss the inspirations behind the campaigns that I decided to create images for showing the understanding I have on each topics and how this understanding had an impact on my photographs.
Working back into the images I created and polishing some photoshoot concepts helped me to achieve a unit that I was very happy with.
Campaign Photography: A campaigning advert is a matching series of linked advertisements with a single idea or theme using photography. Focusing on a common theme, or be directed at a particular segment of the population.
To begin my unit I researched many different campaigns that were created by individual photographers as opposed to that of a team of creatives, this allowed me to find photographers to research especially as I came across lists of
campaign photographers who had won awards for the campaigns that they had created.
After looking into many different campaigns I decided to act as a campaign photographer and give myself my own brief. The brief I chose was Mental Health issues; I started a new research process looking for photographers that used mental health issues in their images. I came across an artist who portrayed her experiences with mental illness in the form of a photograph and a photographer who created a set of images for a campaigning company. I also thought about different techniques I could use to portray the issue of mental illness in a variety of ways.
I chose to focus on Domestic violence for my final piece as I felt that I wanted to move away from my Mental Health, I
thought about using issues of abuse until I came to my final decision of Domestic Violence. “Victims are made to feel guilty for ‘provoking’ the abuse and are frequently subjected to intense criticism.” This line became my focus for my Domestic Violence piece and I began to work into ideas of victims covering up the fact that they are victims of abuse due to the guilt and shame that they are made to feel. I used a female as this criticism reminded me of a need to be better and look better I associated this with the use of make-up.“Make-up is her cover up” became a reoccurring message in my campaign.
I focused all my work on the victims of the issues that I was portraying in each campaign I decided to focus on.
I thought about how I would present my images to show that there was a correlation between the video advert I had created and the two advert posters emphasising that I had created my own campaign. Initial ideas were focused on the size of printing I wanted my images to be very large with a selection of freeze frames from my video very close to the larger poster size images. I then thought about where campaign adverts go, on bid billboards on walls on streets and so I decided I wanted my images to be mounted on a wall background rather than just a white background.
The image and video were taken in the space of a day, I started the process of my images by using face paint to add artificial bruises to my model on her face, neck and arm. I took one set of images in front of a white backdrop and the
second set I told her to act like she was doing her make-up and trying to cover up her bruise. After taking a few images I told her to continue and to also put on a scarf to show how she hides her neck bruise. This is the shot that I
decided to record for my video.
During my editing process I had to delete the images that did not show the bruises clearly enough or that seemed to focus too much on the bruises thus keeping not very far away but quite distant shots. I also in the bathroom began images where I as the photographer was the mirror but felt that the over the shoulder images were more effective
The photos are all about my victim. I wanted the focus to be directly on her. Not on what she was doing, where she was doing it but just on her. In the video and one set of photos there is a natural background to create context. My victim is doing natural things but there aren’t any specific props or anything in the background which should be focused on. The main focal point is always my victim and using a white backdrop for come images made this very obvious, this was to ensure the theme is apparent not anything else but the physical abuse that we can see on her body in the form of bruises. I can describe the artwork as very thought provoking. Its large scale, specific images, it being a black and white piece with harsh bruises and contrasting tones, use of black outs in the video all help to create disturbing and uncomfortable thoughts in the viewer’s mind.
I want my viewer’s first reactions to be that of being provoked, I want them to see these huge images of a woman with bruises and feel disgusted enough to want to act against domestic violence. I want them to obsess on what thoughts they believed where going through the victims mind as she hides her pain and the mind of whoever is causing her such pain.
All of my freeze frame images were printed onto an A5 sheet of paper so that my viewers had to come in close and focus on them following the story of the images while I wanted the posters to be very huge so that they were very in your face and hard to miss. I wanted that when my images were looked at the poster images hold a high level of attention but the freeze-frame images hold greater focus from viewers. They all hold the same level of attention. The tone of my piece is quite dark while painting the victim in a bright innocent light.
One main images was taken at eye level however the over the shoulder image used a more oblique angle, this helps to change the role the viewer. Sometimes the viewer is dominant and can offer help and other times beneath the victim and can only be a viewer looking in from the outside. The angles help to create different relationships between the victim and the viewer which also evokes different emotions.
I tried to evoke very controversial feelings and emotions from my viewer’s I wanted them to either connect with the role of the victim, realise they are the persona causing the victim pain or feel passionately about their role in helping the victim as an outside individual.
Upon completing my third unit I felt that I wanted to do that little bit more
ensuring I had done everything I could to get the best grade that I can
achieve.
I was happy with the concepts I had come up with and how well thought through they were. When looking through my work I wa s able to see the change that adding text to images made and how different fonts can create different impacts for the viewer. Ensuring that I explored a range of techniques in Photoshop I did a lot of reading up and watching of Youtube videos so that I could experiment with a range of media including producing my final pierce in film. Taking this time to reflect on my work and develop it further I came up with a few points on how I could improve my personal projects further.
I felt that I was taking inspiration from photographers that I had researching and then creating my own images based on what they do. I felt that I needed a more clear representation of how their work had influenced my own, incorporating more obvious styles of their work in my own photographs.
I wanted to discuss the inspirations behind the campaigns that I decided to create images for showing the understanding I have on each topics and how this understanding had an impact on my photographs.
Working back into the images I created and polishing some photoshoot concepts helped me to achieve a unit that I was very happy with.