|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| '''What are you making?'''
| |
|
| |
|
| I started with researching Infrared photography. I’m researching different ways of doing it, like filtering the light in the camera, using a special IR filter on my Nikon D40. To take this a step further I will convert an old digital Olympus camera to a full-spectrum camera. I also want to try black and white infrared analogue photography.
| |
|
| |
| The first digital infrared experiment failed. I didn’t know how to set the camera. The camera wasn’t steady, I didn’t have a tripod but the instability was interesting, it adds an immersive quality to the image since it gives the illusion of movement. So the later experiments were a lot better as I was able to capture more of the infra-red spectrum as I found out the right settings for the aperture and shutter speed.
| |
|
| |
| I started with pictures of nature since green works the best in IR. Then I moved to portraits. My subject is not really based on nature or landscapes and I wanted to involve people in my work. Since my concept is mainly based on humanity but I will explain this further later.
| |
|
| |
| In the computer programs that I previously used I already tried to achieve an IR look in many of my projects. I wanted to show a different dimension of the people, like a hidden layer. IR shows light in a spectrum that we are not able to see. (Visible and invisible, maybe link conscious-unconscious?)
| |
|
| |
| I’m also exploring black and white photography through pseudo-solarisation (a layer of the negative comes up again) so you get a partial reversal of the image. You do this by exposing the developing print to light for a second. Man Ray did work with solarisation if you want to see an example.
| |
|
| |
| What I want do in my further research:
| |
|
| |
| Another plan is to print pictures on paper and then paint on them with THINNER. With this you can dissolve the ink layer and by doing this: rework the print. You can also contact the print by putting a paper on the top, like a stamp, a trace or an imprint.
| |
|
| |
| '''Why are you making it?'''
| |
|
| |
| (If you should condense the main question of your research):
| |
|
| |
| HOW DO I PORTRAY SOMEONE IN A SENSITIVE/EXPOSED WAY?
| |
|
| |
| This question is important because I am working with the idea of vulnerability and protection simultaneously.
| |
|
| |
| I feel we look at each other in an impersonal way. I am getting annoyed by the constant categorisation in our society. To name a few we categorize gender, race, sexuality and also our minds. I am specifically interested in the categorization of the mind. Because the mind is very abstract and subjective and therefore hard to categorize. I’m also interested in the stigmatization that comes with this.
| |
|
| |
| Concept wise I am researching the categorisation of identity. An important example for my inspiration is the TV series Maniac on Netflix, which is based in a dystopian world, with crazy technologies. The characters have access to medicines that allow them to go back in their memory and search for traumatic events. The computer registers their mind while they are in the memory. Then the therapist asks some basic Freudian questions after this and the computer prints their diagnosis and in this way categorizes them.
| |
|
| |
| What is this diagnosis process and categorisation of the mind and identity, how and why do we categorize people like this?
| |
|
| |
| I want to research the history, present and the future of this categorisation process. In the TV show, it’s the computer that diagnoses the person and it is saying something very personal, intimate (from the interior, memory, body experience) about the person but in a very impersonal way. Why do I find this impersonal? The computer is a machine that tries to match, make a connection with things and data that are already programmed and saved in its database. The computer’s categorizing is based on dry statistics and is prejudiced in this way.
| |
|
| |
| Thoughts about this subject led me to the question: Is it possible to make a genuine portrait of someone? And if so then how can I achieve that?
| |
|
| |
| I was also thinking about researching medical or scientific instruments to record parts like fingerprints, brain scans and x-rays. By this I might be going away from the traditional Body/Identity system of representations. Who knows, maybe this will at least give the fullest portrait that is possible.
| |
|
| |
| I am going to visit the medical museum (Boerhaave museum in Leiden) and look at the documentations/recordings they have. I planned an interview with a psychoanalyst as well since I have a lot of questions about how it is possible to diagnose someone? I really wonder how they are able to put the mind in some sort of statistic and framework while it all seems so abstract and subjective to me. Maybe the psychoanalyst can explain to me what the basic traits are to be diagnosed in a certain way.
| |
|
| |
| From what I know psychiatrists mostly use the book DSM-5: I see this as a huge database for diagnosis and treatment. For this reason I’m also planning to read it.
| |
|
| |
| '''Does it relate to other things you have done before?'''
| |
|
| |
| I think most of my works relate to each other through the always present subject about humanity, the mind and abstractions of realities.
| |
|
| |
| My graduation film was about gender, I guess this was one of my earlier tries to say something meaningful about categorization.
| |
|
| |
| I have made distorted portraits before and I want to get back to this because I have this feeling that it’s important to my research. This would be a more personal approach since there is some space for my own perception and there is not a detached viewpoint from my side.
| |
|
| |
| To name an important artist for me:
| |
|
| |
| Francis Bacon represents people in a particular way, he shows them in a way you’re not able to see them. Even if someone doesn’t have a jaw or hands in his paintings for example, they are still very strong in the way they portray someone. His paintings possess a certain vulnerability because they are so raw. He doesn’t need the face as it is in reality, he creates his own interpretation. This is so important and impressive to me that I want to research this further as well.
| |
|
| |
| '''How is it different to other things you have done?'''
| |
|
| |
| My research is at the moment photography based, so I would like to go more into moving image later when I’ve done more research. But for now I am diving into different photographic techniques that I never used before, mainly analogue techniques. So I guess I’m sort of exploring and wandering now between all the possibilities. By doing this I hope to get a concept, notebook and moodboard from all this collected research. This will then be my base for the film I want to create.
| |
|
| |
| Thematically it is a bit more personal and scientific, it will be a larger and more detailed research then I have ever done. I want it to be less of a statement then some of my previous work since I’m more into observing and questioning now.
| |
|
| |
| '''What are the most significant choices you have made recently?'''
| |
|
| |
| To not make moving images yet but focusing exclusively on photography and allowing myself to get completely lost in my own research.
| |
XPUB & Lens-Based wiki