Presentaiton

Self Evaluation

For this module, International Markets and Contexts, we needed to work in groups to create a festival with our chosen theme. Initially, I did not think there would be so many aspects to consider. Research was vital in finding out what needed to be planned. This was the first part to the module. Looking at other festivals highlighted the layout, the importunacy of promotion and the cost of running a festival. It was helpful to look at websites with logos, posters and other advertising techniques that would interest the public to visit our festival.

The second stage of this module was to decide upon the location of our festival and theme, which we would, chose our practitioners and our images. The first theme we decided upon was the idea of culture, we wanted to each chose a part of culture such as fashion and religion, and to use this as our own ideas to work upon. But after speaking with Jason we felt this was too broad and would not allow us to narrow down enough. The next idea was identity, which we finally decided to go with. The location was chosen by our initial research on culture. In 2014, Riga the capital of Latvia has been chosen as the Capital of Culture. This would bring in a lot of tourism and potential visitors to the festival.  

Once the theme ad location had been chosen we then began to talk about choosing a practitioner and shooting our own work for the festival with the theme of identity. Initially I struggled with this idea, we all chose to focus on portraits, but I didn’t want to choose the obvious of maybe photographing someone in their own clothes. I decided to research previous photographers work around the same theme. The ideas I liked were around detailed parts of the body such as fingerprints and eyes, things that make us who we are and individuals. I decided to try the fingerprints first, but I struggled to get the images I wanted, and found it was too difficult to achieve. This brought me on to eyes, I loved the colours I could see in each person’s eyes, and how different they were. Before this shoot I assumed that everyone’s eyes were just one solid colour, but in my images you can see waves of different colours. I had 6 images, both male and female to have some contrast and variety in my images.

The artist I chose as my practitioner were French photographers Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson. They are collectively known as Metra-Jeanson. The particular work chosen is named ID. They cut out facial features from magazine editorials that are heavily done with make up taped them over models' faces to cover parts of their won faces. They then photographed their models, both men and women, wearing these partial masks. They wanted to focus on how they ‘disconnect between the edited faces and actual human features’.  These images show how models in the industry today are made up so dramatically to look perfect and photo shopped to improve their appearance on the front of a magazine. They talk about how they feel we are bombarded by images of others in the media, whom we try to compare ourselves to. Even though this body of work does not relate exactly to my own, I felt their ideas and thoughts suited our festival.

The presentation it self was a lot of hard work I didn’t expect. The amount of planning, and researching and working out prices took a lot longer than we first anticipate. We worked well as a team, and split the responsibilities with the 5 of us. We all had a clear view of what we wanted and our aims for this module. I found we were confident in what we were presenting and felt if we could, we would be able to organise this festival.

Over all I felt this module pushed me to think more openly, and I enjoyed working as a group. I did feel the support we got towards planning the festival as a whole was lacking, but it did make us work hard towards achieving what we did.  I would be more confident in the future if I had to plan my own exhibition and feel working, as a team was a good over all experience. Being able to set our own theme, but working in such different ways shows how we can work together on something, but still keep our own photography ideas.

Critical Evalution of My Work

Becky Hughes is a Manchester based photographer who is currently studying photography at Salford University after beginning her photography at Carmel College Merseyside. Becky's main enjoyment for her themes in photography is city based, such as documentary and architectural. She enjoys images with structure and angles, and does work with models in a variety of briefs.

Becky’s body of work named ‘In the eye of the beholder,’ which will be featured at the ID Photo Festival 2014 Riga Latvia in the summer, is based upon the theme of identity. Becky’s work is aimed to look into the idea of how people are individual, specifically through peoples eye. The work shows a series of 6 images, all of different peoples eyes using a macro lens. By showing the colors’ in such detail, it works with the idea that everyone is different in some way. Even the colours in the eyes are not the same; they are all mixed together to make the person unique.

The artist asked the models to look straight into the lens, Becky wanted to model to have a good connection with the camera to show any emotion they may have. She wanted to show that everyone’s eyes are different, and the eyes can give a lot away about a person. Becky chose both men and women for a variety of images, showing both with and without make up, for example mascara on the eyelashes. This does give away the gender of the model, and adds to the individuality of the eyes themselves.

The artist chose to name the body of work ‘ In The Eye Of The Beholder’ to link with the idea behind the images. Becky believed that the eyes give a lot away about a person, their feelings and if they are confident or shy. Eye contact is vital in these images to show a connection. By having the work named this way it reflects the idea of the feelings behind the eyes.

As a body of work, all the images work well together and it is easily seen that they are part of a group. The images are all in the same composition, as well as lighting and the area of around the eyes.  The images are bold, bright and eye catching with a lot of detail. This could be linked to the ideas of hidden identity. The colour of persons’ eyes is usually very general with blue, brown or green, but as it is seen in these images it is all not as simple. With the waves of different colours Becky has shown that it is not all what it seems. Over all Beckys work shows the idea of identity and the idea that everyone is different in some way.

Printing And Frames

Frames:

We looked into many different types of fames and mounting, but as we needed so many we needed to stick to a budget. Matt brought back research from a photography show in Birmingham which showed us a variety of frames. We have all chosen to stick with the same frame and mount, black A3 with white mounts. The frames in the second picture we will use for the prints that will be sold to the public who visit the festival and wish to purchase a print, each of these will again be in black and 5x7.

Prints:

"We currently stock what we feel is the finest paper and canvas available for Giclée printing in terms of archival qualities, print fidelity and variety. The following papers offer a comprehensive choice including some wonderful new glossy papers for photo Giclée prints:–

William Turner, 310gsm 
This paper is simply exceptional for watercolours, drawings and other work and is our most popular choice. It has a beautiful textured surface and is a Natural white, with 100% rag content. With a mean pH value of 7, it has excellent archival qualities.

Photo Rag, 308gsm
A much whiter, smoother surface lends particularly well to black and white and colour photographs, and has a 100% rag content. We have also found that oils or acrylic work reproduces brilliantly on this paper if the original painting is on board or canvas, because rather than offering a texture to the paper, its smooth white surface shows the mark making of the original painting.

German Etching, 310gsm
Similar in tone to William Turner, it has a slightly smoother surface, is equally acid free and also mould made. Very suitable for a variety of print editions including fine detailed work, black and white photography.

Museum Etching, 350gsm
This paper offers the luxurious texture of a traditional etching board and a natural white point, an ideal medium for images with soft tints or fine grey nuances as well as more saturated reproduction prints. The extra heavy grammage also increases its appeal.

Sugar Cane, 300gsm
An exciting new inkjet paper with 75% of its raw material derived from “bagasse” pulp, a by-product of raw sugar production. The 25% cotton portion is made from recycled paper waste. Displaying the fine texture of a pastel paper Sugar Cane lends every image an artistic look and feel with sustainable approach.

Bamboo, 290gsm
The world’s first digital fine art inkjet paper made from bamboo fibres. Bamboo represents spirituality, naturalness and resource-saving paper production. Particularly suitable for warm-toned colour and monochrome prints, Bamboo really highlights the sensuality of images.

FineArt Baryta, 325gsm
This paper sets a benchmark for high colour depth, wide gamut and image clarity. This paper offers photographers a "wow" factor particularly to black and white prints with an extremely high dmax and the finest grey tones, utilising a bright white. Using barium sulphate in the premium inkjet coating ensures the typical gloss that makes this paper a genuine replacement for traditional Baryta papers from analogue laboratories.

Photo Rag Baryta, 315gsm
Photo Rag Baryta uses the best combination of a luxury cotton paper and a traditional baryta board to produce a exceptional print. The very fine surface texture with the baryta gloss gives life to Photo Giclée and is a welcome addition to the range offering similar qualities to FineArt Baryta yet with a more natural tone.

Canvas Artist, 340gsm
This is a matt artists' cotton canvas with a high quality texture with a natural white tone. It can also be stretched and then varnished after printing which is a popular choice for digital canvas prints. Its coating gives a very good water resistance and print reproduction fidelity.

Sponsorships

We found two companies who we wished to sponsor us. Picture Bloc, who we wanted to use as our framing. We made a mock up letter to ask them for their services, and in turn of publicity for their company, have them pay for the shipping of the goods to Riga. The second company were a restaurant from in the centre of Riga, International SV. They had lots of excellent reviews for their food and we wanted them to serve canapés and drinks at the opening night. We we able to offer them the publicity and felt that we could bring in more customers for them as people would be visiting the festival.

Costs

Together found out the cost of all the things we needed such as, prints, frames. Also the advertisements, flights and cost of hotels to have somewhere for the practitioners to stay in Latvia. Each one has been broken down into items and the number of items we need. The total is £11,733.

Reseach - Own Images

This is the original image I found that I wanted to try and use as inspiration for my work. This was not a image done by my chosen practitioners, but I wanted to look into finger and hand prints. I liked the idea of the hand being on a scanner to allow us to see the detail, but I wanted to get even closer.

This image was the image I found next, one that was closer and more detailed and showed all the lines of the fingerprints. I liked how it looked over all, with the composition and the black and white to add to the detail. I rented out the studio and began to try to take my own images in this way.

Unfortunately i was unsuccessful. I found that I had to wrong lens, I was unable to rent out the one I needed, so the detail on the fingers couldn't be seen as well as they can in this image. I had to think of another thing on the body that I knew would be different in everyone. This brought me back to the first ideas, images of eyes. I then shot 6 different peoples eyes, very close to see the colours, and found this was very successful. I liked how everyones eyes aren't just one colour such as blue, green or brown. Everyone had a mixture of colours that made them unique to them. This reflected my idea of identiy, that everyone is different, and our eyes identify us with no control from ourselves. Our eye colour can not be changed, but is something we are not scrutinised for. 

Promotional Content

This is our logo, poster and advertisements in the city of Riga. The text is bold and is easy to spot and read for any distance. We want to attract as many to our festival, and I think this is intriguing enough to do more reproach and visit the festival. The dates are included which makes it easier for potential visitors to find us. The city will be bust during the whole year with its capital of culture status. So having our festival there will only bring more people. 

Why Riga?

Riga is the gem of the Baltics. It is situated at the mouth of the Daugava, on the shores of the Gulf of Riga on the Baltic. Riga has an ancient history and rich cultural heritage. As Riga has always been located at a juncture of trading routes, it is a multicultural city which means there are things to see here: a weekend in Riga is a great way to gather new impressions and to relax.

The event programme promised by Riga for 2014 will be a pleasant surprise for any person interested. It envisages several hundreds of exciting cultural events, including the pride of place given to amber, which historically linked many nations but in modern Latvia is used in different new ways.      

This year the focus of attention will be placed on the Castle of Light or the new building of the Latvian National Library designed by the world famous Latvian architect Gunars Birkerts. Thus far, for fans of architecture the name of Riga has been associated with the romantic medieval buildings and the marvellous Art Nouveau heritage located on the right bank of the river Daugava but now also the left bank of the river with the new library will become a landmark of the city.

Follow the programme "Riga 2014" and come to visit! Welcome to Riga, its picturesque sister city Sigulda and the whole Latvia!   

Event program

More than 12,000 participants from almost hundred various cultural institutions: national, local and non-governmental have engaged in the cultural capital of Europe event programme preparation.  

Riga's — European capital of culture — event programme features both modern and historical trends which have left significant traces in the society's memory and culture. Fine arts exhibitions and modern art festival "Survival Kit", which in a few years' time has become a much-awaited event in the general public, several performances, festivities, promotions and attractions and, yes, of course, the light festival "Shine on, Riga!" which lightens up our capital in the darkest time of the year. Also, the national  solstice festival with sonorous Ligo songs, frothy beer mugs and oak tree wreaths... and much more to come. 

http://www.latvia.travel/en/article/riga-will-become-european-capital-culture-2014

With the large amounts of visitors to the city this year, Riga was an easy choice for our venue. As our original idea was culture, when researching we found that Riga is the capital of culture for 2014. This brings in a lot more tourism than usual and would mean more visitors and a bigger audience for our artists.

There are currently 74 events planned for Riga during this year, including the exhibition "Amber through the times." The exhibition is also a permanent display at the Natural History Museum of Latvia. This will bring a lot more visitors into the city, and potentially to the ID festival. 

The view around Riga's town square.

Final Images

Contact Sheet

These are the contact sheets from the two shoots I have done for this brief. I had to re shoot some of my images as I found some were out of focus, and some of the models were not looking straight into the camera as I wanted. I found that it was more difficult to get the shot I wanted at first thought. I wanted to get the colours vibrant and clear in the eye. Different lighting set ups were tested and I feel I found what I was aiming for in this shoot. Each eye was so different and had a big variety of colours, I was very happy with the outcome. 

Practitioner - Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson

As a curator for the ID festival, one of the practitioners chosen to show in the festival are French photographers Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson. They are collectively known as Metra-Jeanson. The particular work chosen is named ID. They cut out facial features from magazine editorials that are heavily done with make up taped them over models' faces to cover parts of their won faces. They then photographed their models, both men and women, wearing these partial masks. They wanted to focus on how they ‘disconnect between the edited faces and actual human features’.  These images show how models in the industry today are made up so dramatically to look perfect and photo shopped to improve their appearance on the front of a magazine. They talk about how they feel we are bombarded by images of others in the media, whom we try to compare ourselves to.

They say how ‘the act of representation seems to have taken over what is real. The edit is what counts most. And so models erase themselves in order to gain another self.’

The series of images in the ID collection are quite disturbing. With the different facial features placed on the models making them look unreal and altered. The idea behind our festival is to show different peoples identities and personalities. This group of work almost masks the models identity, and adds someone else’s. They will work well within the festival as this work shows how others may think they want to be seen, and maybe change their own identities to fit into society. They are portraying the models identities but slightly changing there over all appearance in a very obvious way. They are showing each of the models becoming another person by masking her own image and identity. These images work well with the rest of the practitioners work, as they are also portraits. They are all done in a plain white background that draws all the attention to the model. The models faces have been transformed in a way that takes a hard look at our identity, but they can still be seen behind the paper over laid images. I like this concept and feel it will work well in our festival.

Metra and Jeanson talk about how they believe that; ‘We are fascinated by the power of media to influence people's identities.’