Photography

final proposal

This project is an examination of double exposure, which is two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. Part of what inspired me to go for double exposure was to play more around with my images I took with my camera and another part of me was inspired by double exposure images that I have seen on the website, Tumblr. I saw on my dashboard that someone rebloged some images of nature with a woman’s face, as if the flowers had a face. I wanted to take some images as if there were ghosts around, so I set up the tripod so that the exposures were the exact same (the wind made it hard to) so that it would look as though there are two of the same people with the same background. Some of the images seen have my model create movement and capturing it as if her soul was reaching out of her or leaving her. In one of the images shows the model sad, and another picture of her happy, as if to tell a story or show that the model’s soul is mocking her. While some of the images that I took were just two completely different pictures with different exposures and backgrounds and just overlapped them, in order to create the effect that the trees had eyes, to make it mysterious and creepy.

 I used the program Photoshop in order to create the double exposure effect, since my camera does not allow me to do so. I overlapped the images and then changed the opacity of the top layer, making the picture as though it is slightly see through, so both images show. I wanted to have fun with this project by making my model seem as though she is just staring at herself in a creepy way, or staring at herself (as seen in some of the images) along with putting two images together to make one interesting and  picture (such as a moth over my model’s lips). I want the viewer to feel something, whether they like the idea that they should try something new or think about what all 12 pictures have in common (isolation comes to mind). I was trying something new with experimenting with double exposure photography and just having fun editing the pictures. Enjoy!

Artist

Sophie Calle is a French contemporary photographer and writer. Sophie Calle is known largely for works combining texts and photographic images. She is also known for her detective-like ability to investigate people lives, through pictures. A particular set of pictures from Sophie Calle that caught my eyes along with using her detective skills was The Hotel Series. Calle got a temporary job as a maid and once the guests were gone, she would investigate who these people are by going through their stuff and photographing it. “She made a piece of work about her imagined ideas of which the hotel guests were, based on their personal belongings”.  This shows that Sophie Calle was very involved with her work and personal when she went through the trash and letters of the people that stayed. Since she was also a writer, she combined her notes of what she believed was going on by her photos. For example if the comforter was moved, she would take note. The photos are taken in black and white, which to me means simplicity and focusing on the shape and shadows of the objects. Since there is no color, the viewer focuses more on the objects and the story rather than losing interest if the photos were taken in color. The simplicity of the black and white images is easily over conquered by the risk and detective work of Calle, which makes the objects of the tenants much more interesting. By viewing the pictures from Calle’s Hotel Series, the viewer is also intruding on the guest that stayed there. We can see the trash along with the clothes the guest has and can even make up our own ideas as to what is going on. These images show the viewer not just other people’s belongings and trash, the images tells a story of Calle and her risks and thoughtfulness into creating a detective story. Calle also draws me into her work because even though it is still, it speaks and questions can go into one’s head as to what is going on?