Concept
I will attempt to follow the work of Honaker and Magritte, by producing a work with the bag motif, while expressing a clear theme.
I will again try to portray the loss of identity, through the bag motif. I will also take inspiration from Munch, by having the model express some sort of action, like grabbing their face in despair/panic.
In 'The Lovers' ,Magritte uses the simple motif of a bag to express a narrative of stuggling and frustration, further serving as a visual metaphor for relationships and the emotional strains that can occur. I decided to use this same motif to portray mental illness through the same kind of visual metaphor.
Timings
I will attempt to take my photo at mid-day as to have light entering the room so that the subject is clearly visible. This does not matter too much as since it is not outside, the direction of shadows due to positioning of the sun will have little effect in the room.
Details
I will ask a family member to act as my model as, again, they are easy to utilise. However, having no artistic input, the work will be solely down to me.
I will stage my image in a well lit room, with good lighting as to illuminate the image.
This is the extent of my team, I will take the photos myself and do all the subsequent editing myself. I may try taking some images with poses, and some without as to determine which looks better.
Equiptment
I will ensure that my camera is fully charge, and will try to use my tripod incase longer exposure times are needed to capture the light.
I have no floral walls in my house, but I intend to replicate the camouflage effect that is created in Honaker's work, so I will need to buy some wallpaper or aquire samples and attatch them to the wall behind my model.
I will also have to aquire a sheet with a floral print aswell as floral clothing to apply to the model.
Ideas
I will attempt to replicate Honaker's effect of camouflage into the background. However, rather than having my model static, with their arms by their side , I will attempt to create a sense of distress through the action of the model.
This will be to emphasise the suffering inflicted by mental illness and, as mentioned before, the loss of identity. However, I am especially trying to express the distress caused by the loss of identity.
Results
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All of these images used :
ISO : 1600
Av : 25
Tv : 1/15
I chose to continue to edit the two images above. I used GIMP to edit the photos to be greyscale, to be more like Honaker's work. I then edited the curves of the image to emphasise the shadows and exaggerate the light. The dark shadows seemed to add to the effects in the images; the dimmer tones in the right image creating a more melancholly tone, and the image on the left seeming more manic with heavy shadows and sharp contrast between the dark and light in the image.
The Bride
I have chosen this as the final image of the shoot as I felt it was a better example of my theme. It expresses the frenzy and fear that mental illness brings. The model clutching at their face as if trying to retain the last aspect of their identity, but the constraint is wrapped too tight. This is supposed to represent the removal of identity imposed by mental illness, and the anguish this causes in turn.
I used a home environment as Honaker did, this is intended to show that alot of the suffering occurs at home, 'beneath the surface' of public life, when we are free from maintaining a public appearence, the effects of mental illness manifest. The camouflaged effect gives the impression of the model fading away, losing their identity to the stuggle.
I named it The Bride as the wedding band is clearly visible on the model's finger, and is intended to be a twin photo of another upcoming work that I am near completing, named "The Husband".
