So today I tried to work this idea into my theme because it reminded me of my research and I believed I could incorporate it. Looking into what the media suggests is beautiful.
My main difficulty from today came from me being unable to find images that represented this because by going through my initial research into artists and photographers I couldn't find anything that I could use. I then thought about looking into particular scenes from the Girls series were Dunham is naked. Again I was unsuccessful and was beginning to give up the on idea and return back to it in the future when I may be able to resolve the issue. When I remembered a series of photographs in the David Bailey exhibition. The series showcased a variety of models of different races, ages and shapes. I used this imagery in my work to portray what is considered to be an unattractive person. As I had this imagery I wanted to show the difference between an 'attractive' and 'unattractive' body. For my attractive imagery I found it very difficult to find the appropriate image. I looked into all of the artists and photographers I had initially researched into. Yet just before I was about to give up and think of a substitute idea I remembered the Mert and Marcus photo shoot for issue three of LOVE magazine. The shoot included nudes of well known models such as Kate Moss, Lara Stone and Naomi Campbell. I used the image of Naomi Campbell because I feel this image portrayed what is considered to be beautiful as she's thin where as the David Bailey image shows a heavier woman which would be considered unattractive to the media.
So with these two images I used them in my sketchbook whilst placing tracing paper on top. On the first tracing paper I had written words such as ugly, imperfect, disgusting and placed this over the top of the 'attractive' image and then for the 'unattractive' image I used words such as beautiful, perfection and ideal. I made a point of placing these words over the 'unattractive' woman as it is opposing the 'attractive' image and going against the genera thoughts of what is attractive and is unattractive. Also this related to the binary opposites concept as both images or opposing each other.
Then developing from this idea I wanted to go down the distortion route and mix the two images together. For this I collaged the two body types together thus making an overall distorted body. I cut out particular aspects of the larger model cutting her breast and thighs and stomach then I placed these on top of the thinner model, so it made a very different image of a woman with oddly shaped legs, an oversized stomach and different sized breasts. I really liked this as it is quite odd to look at but creates some very interesting shapes. So to carry it further I drew over the most important and prominent shadows and lines from the body. For a second development I wanted to include fabric. I noticed that on my distorted image the stomach had several rolls, I portrayed this through gathering the fabric to imitate the roll effect. I found this activity really helpful and I really enjoyed how it enabled me to look at the body in a different way. I am hoping to reference back to this when I am designing because I think I could translate the misshapen body into some interesting shapes on the body.
With this in mind I started looking into the photography of Manabu Yamanaka. He mainly takes nude portraits of societies outcasts such as the elderly, homeless and deformed. They're quite striking and difficult to look at because they are not the usual bodies shown in the media. I think this was the main appeal to Yamanaka.
I chose two photographs one of an elderly woman and the other of a hunchbacked women. I think that their bodies were interesting to look at because they showed the human body in a different way. Such as how the elderly woman's body became wrinkled and would sag. Also the shape of the girls back.
I drew over the images as I wanted to highlight the shapes their bodies made. For the elderly woman I wanted emphasise how her skin sagged especially around her breasts, upper thigh and stomach. I think these shapes are interesting and could easily be recreated with fabric such as through draping fabric on the stand. The second image I thought the shape of her back was really interesting and would make some intriguing shapes as I could exaggerate it and create a large oversized back or even use the bump on different parts of the body. Similar to the previous collage I drew around their most prominent aspects highlighting the shapes in the process.
Overall I feel that today has gone reasonably well in terms of developing my ideas as I am really enjoying the distorted body aspects because I think that this would allow me to experiment with shape a lot in different ways. Although I think today has highlighted my biggest problem of running out of time as I work quite slowly and run out of time very easily as well as getting distracted. Although I do feel that I have managed my distractions a lot better compared to the very beginning of the project.
So with these two images I used them in my sketchbook whilst placing tracing paper on top. On the first tracing paper I had written words such as ugly, imperfect, disgusting and placed this over the top of the 'attractive' image and then for the 'unattractive' image I used words such as beautiful, perfection and ideal. I made a point of placing these words over the 'unattractive' woman as it is opposing the 'attractive' image and going against the genera thoughts of what is attractive and is unattractive. Also this related to the binary opposites concept as both images or opposing each other.
Then developing from this idea I wanted to go down the distortion route and mix the two images together. For this I collaged the two body types together thus making an overall distorted body. I cut out particular aspects of the larger model cutting her breast and thighs and stomach then I placed these on top of the thinner model, so it made a very different image of a woman with oddly shaped legs, an oversized stomach and different sized breasts. I really liked this as it is quite odd to look at but creates some very interesting shapes. So to carry it further I drew over the most important and prominent shadows and lines from the body. For a second development I wanted to include fabric. I noticed that on my distorted image the stomach had several rolls, I portrayed this through gathering the fabric to imitate the roll effect. I found this activity really helpful and I really enjoyed how it enabled me to look at the body in a different way. I am hoping to reference back to this when I am designing because I think I could translate the misshapen body into some interesting shapes on the body.
With this in mind I started looking into the photography of Manabu Yamanaka. He mainly takes nude portraits of societies outcasts such as the elderly, homeless and deformed. They're quite striking and difficult to look at because they are not the usual bodies shown in the media. I think this was the main appeal to Yamanaka.
I chose two photographs one of an elderly woman and the other of a hunchbacked women. I think that their bodies were interesting to look at because they showed the human body in a different way. Such as how the elderly woman's body became wrinkled and would sag. Also the shape of the girls back.
I drew over the images as I wanted to highlight the shapes their bodies made. For the elderly woman I wanted emphasise how her skin sagged especially around her breasts, upper thigh and stomach. I think these shapes are interesting and could easily be recreated with fabric such as through draping fabric on the stand. The second image I thought the shape of her back was really interesting and would make some intriguing shapes as I could exaggerate it and create a large oversized back or even use the bump on different parts of the body. Similar to the previous collage I drew around their most prominent aspects highlighting the shapes in the process.
Overall I feel that today has gone reasonably well in terms of developing my ideas as I am really enjoying the distorted body aspects because I think that this would allow me to experiment with shape a lot in different ways. Although I think today has highlighted my biggest problem of running out of time as I work quite slowly and run out of time very easily as well as getting distracted. Although I do feel that I have managed my distractions a lot better compared to the very beginning of the project.
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