This is the final image for my Sixties Victim design. I think the research and planning that went into this design really paid off. I used fake eyelashes on the bottom as well as the top lids to give it a glamorous sixties feel and kept her make-up quite authentic, then added blood in the places it would've been from the research that I did into brain haemorrhage symptoms. I am very happy with the styling and think the collared dress works well for sixties styling. I am proudest about the hair in this shoot, as usually hair is a weakness of mine but sufficient research and testing meant I was able to create a beehive that worked well with the rest of the shoot.
This is my main final image for the Bedlam Insomniac.I am extremely pleased with the outcome and I think the concept transfers well to photograph. The contouring, green toned lips and matted hair show decay and neglect of the body and the constraints around her face represents both the emotional and physical constraints of having a mental illness.I am especially happy with model choice - she was able to take direction extremely well and work with me to get a good photo composition, for example, twisting her hand to make it seem as though she's pulling at the straps on her face and moving her neck at odd angles. I also think the styling worked well for this shoot, especially the home-made backdrop.
I wanted an eerie background for my Bedlam shoot, so I bought some white material and wrote on it and splattered it with fake blood. I wrote messages like "help me" and "spiders" which you will only be able to see bits of in the actual photographs, but I think this will be quite effective because it makes it more eerie. I got inspiration from researching images of mental asylum graffiti, like these:
After I researched Light and Shadow and how it was portrayed in different media, I thought I would be handy to test some lighting myself in Photography. I wanted to see if I could recreate Jim Ferreira's style and the lighting that was used in the video for Ghostpoet and see if I could get light and shadow to fall across the models face in a way that was both intriguing and Gothic. The following images have had NO EDITING and I created the light and shadow using different angles of flash and reflective boards.
I think that the use of light and shadow in Gothic media is very important as it symbolises the presence of good and evil. My background in art has helped me understand this, but I wanted to research how it was used in music videos too, as this is the concept of my shoot.
The video for "Cash and Carry Me Home" by Ghostpoet relies heavily on the use of light and shadow and this has inspired me a lot and shown me what is possible. I've also used the use of the brightly coloured objects surrounding him that are going through his mind as the video describes his mental state as research for my Bedlam Insomniac character.
I really like the use of light used in the video for Warpaint's "Elephants." Its a soft spotlight that, when combined with the fans and dark background, give the girls a ghostlike and extremely powerful presence.
This is a sketch that i found by Michael Newberry, I think its really exciting to explore how light and shadow is portrayed through different medias and Newberry is one of my favourites who can do this through sketching with pencil.
The two above images are by Jim Ferreira, who specialises in Film Noir Hollywood Glamour Photography. I think the way he portrays light and shadow is really interesting because he uses it not only on his subjects but to create backgrounds as well. The way he uses light and shadow gives a Gothic/creepy feel to the photograph, and this feeling is only achieved in that way, not through styling or make-up or props, he relies purely and light and shadow and I think that's fascinating.
I need to darken the contouring so that it is more effective when applied to the face and also deepen the sockets. But overall I am pleased with this design and like the concept of showing both the physical and emotional constraints of having a mental illness.
RIBBON: I have made sure that this is a feasible idea and will secure it to the head by tying it and pulling the hair through to create a more distressed look.
When researching mental illness something
that really caught my eye and, for me, captured the whole essence of
mental illness was the person being constrained because it represents not only physical constraints but the constraints of the diseased mind. I thought this would be something really interesting to incorporate into a high fashion make-up shoot, and would also work well with the Music Video concept. These are some of the images that most inspired me on this concept:
Patient constraint on American Horror Story
Patient constraint to bed in padded room
Constraint of eyes and wrists in forest
Bodily constraints and the inability to see because of them
Constraints by other people, pulling hair with disbodied hands.
I took inspiration from these images to come up with my own face design, as seen below:
This design uses faded eyebrows to give the effect of character deformation (as discussed in the post before) and greenish/blue lips to show neglect of the body. High contouring and minimalist eyes will give the look a high fashion yet dishevelled feel. I have put constraints across the face, which I will incorporate into the hair (designs to follow) and these will be created using black ribbon.
.jpg)
