While at college I studied a 90 credit diploma in photography for 2 years, during this time I also learnt about graphics and different aspects of art. I covered many projects with my work, this was everything from portraiture to painting with light; something I had never thought of or attempted to do, it was a great learning experience for me because although I had taken art for my GCSE’s they had never taught it as a element in their class. I was so used to taking photos with my point-and-shoot that I was amazed by the capability of the Canon Eos 1300D we got to use at college, I learnt about shutter speed and aperture and how to use it myself to improve the photos I took. Taking the time to learn it was new and made me feel more confident in my ability, I must admit at times I was afraid to approach the camera because when it came to DSLR’s I was clueless and felt behind those in my class who already had an understanding for the way of the cameras.
When it came to our final subject before we finished the course we all as students were given the opportunity to explore and showcase what we had learnt through the year with a project of our choice, for me I chose to cover the story of Peter Pan. I had wanted to use this project as a way to express myself as I loved the art styles incorporated into Disney in all mediums of art, I had previously included peter pan in my work throughout other projects but never really delved into it for the units
The first thing I did was general visual research of Peter Pan, for me this was looking into scenery, illustrations, costumes, publications and peoples artwork to create mood boards that I could refer to all the way through, After I had created these I started to get creative with art work which I pasted into the front of my A3 sketchbook. After I had created the visual research I began to write all themes and characters onto a spider diagram which I later re-designed into my work before going on to do in depth research of all shows, movies and books Peter Pan related: including the original works.
I spent a lot of my time researching the movie, tales and stories behind the iconic Disney movie, for me this included going back to the original story written by J.M.Barrie and went on to research him, I also visited his home in the author's birthplace of Kirriemuir, Scotland. I took the time while there to photograph things ranging from the architecture to nature to make sure I had covered everything as I only had the one chance during the timeframe to visit. Kirriemuir is known as a tourist location due to the famous faces known to have come from here, the Peter Pan author being one alongside Bon Scott, as part of my visit I carried some crayons and paper to get some crayon rubbings; also known as frottage, I did this for the various signs dotted around the town. During my visit I meant to go to the house of J.M.Barrie run by the national trust but it was closed so I spent more time up at the Graveyard instead to help support my family research for the author.
After my visit I collected all of my images into contact sheets to highlight some of my favourite photographs and to point out those that helped aspects of my research as well as creating a title page which could’ve been used for publication aspects.
My next step was to research many of the characters in great deal to see what they brought to the story and the different connotations that they could hold, for me this meant comparing how they were seen through different tales (which I supported with portraits from the different medias), how their character affected others they interacted with alongside the colours associated with them. I really enjoyed delving into the characters because there are many different opinions and ways they can be seen.
Now that I had looked into the characters I took the time to look into costumes the roles were seen wearing, whether it was on stage, in illustrations or in programs. Looking into the costumes made me feel like I was considering how the author wanted them to be portrayed to the audience as well as how the reader or viewer interpreted it. Because I had taken this time to consider how clothes fit into this theme it meant I had a better understanding for the use of clothing in my work, this meant that when I used characters in my photos I had a idea of what the model should be wearing. I was happy to come across a “vintage” dress in a charity shop which I envisioned in my work as Mary (Wendy's mother) wearing when she was younger and encountered Peter Pan.
I also looked into the style of Tigerlily and the indians so that I could incorporate some of their art styles into my work, which I then used to influence a photoshoot in the forest of my friend. I felt like this photoshoot helped with my work due to the colours and subject of each of the images.
Now that I had done a photoshoot in the woods for my tigerlily I had shown I knew that location and scenery was going to be a big part of my work, because without the scenery my photos wouldn’t be as identifiable in relation to the theme. This is shown in my next segment of the sketchbook where I highlighted features from within the Disney movies scenery as well as generating colour swatches. For me this was so that I had a reference to revert to when I was trying to capture my landscapes. I got the chance to go into the woods to photograph the scenery, for me this was my way of capturing nature that the characters are known to be surrounded by during the movies. I then also collected some of my pictures together from Whitby and Arbroath where I felt the shipping crates and nets were easily related to Captain Hook and the Jolly Roger.
Earlier I spoke about a dress I had purchased from the charity shop, my next page spread was the contact sheet from a photoshoot on the beach, I found it quite difficult to get the desired images due to the glare by the sun but found that although the weather was cold the breeze ruffled the fabric adding texture to my images. Textures were something I was wanting to consider in my work which I then covered in my book by my collection of frottage created using buttons (which I also photographed).
To progress with my work I felt the need to refer to other artists and their art styles, I chose Daniele Buetti and Annie Leibovitz as their art styles had been catching my attention during other projects. I also felt I could use their styles to add effects to my work which would bring the work to life. When I considered the style of Buetti’s light installations I knew I was going to use it for the images that contained fairy dust, this was so that I could add the light to the images like the shimmer that the dust has during movies and fairytales. The reason I chose Leibovitz was that she had done a project herself of the fairytales Disney had re-released using celebrities to model in the well planned sets of images, during her documentary you can see the set-ups used during the creation of these images and it meant I had techniques I could use to bring my photos up a notch.
From here I developed my concepts into some finalised ideas where I showed the method of working before bringing my project to a close.
When I look back on this project I am aware of steps I could’ve taken to improve my work and still come up with ideas in relation to the directions my ideas could’ve gone but overall I am still happy with the grade I earned (D*)
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