THE EIZO COMPETITION

SUBMISSION FOR THE EIZO STUDENT AWARD

For this competiton, we were asked to look into the theme of Colour, saying ‘It is life, and is present in all aspects that surround it’ and were chosen to represent this concept in one of eight main categories.

Within my project, I chose the theme Fake which asked to look into how the real world and simulations had become harder to decipher. In this, I wanted to explore editorial photography and how what is presented in magazines and news articles doesn’t provide a thorough or accurate representation of the current situations at hand.

In this, I wanted to create a piece that subverted the representation of the pandemic through the use of a very lighthearted piece, featuring portraits that were heavily influenced by the light produced from the sun and the use of environment to evoke positive connotations. However, I want to explore subtle ways in which to potentially show the dark undertones of the situation at hand- maybe through facial expression? gaze? post production edits to emphasise darkness? I’ll have to experiment with these to see what works best.

I feel as though these are the strongest pieces from this shoot in terms of response to the brief.

For the editing of these images, I thought it was important to keep it simple and not over do the editing process. I looked to enhance the use of colour to better fit the brief, whilst also creating an over exaggerated use of warmth as a means of a false sense of comfort. I felt this was important as it’s very common that the media uses scare mongering or sensationalism as a form of exaggeration to better sell their news.

In terms of the darker undertones I described earlier, I ensured my model kept a really emotionless/unhappy face while surrounded by such a beautiful-dreamscape like environment to show hint that something wasn’t quite as cheery as the image was originally presenting. In post, I corrected the highlights and midtones to ensure that there was a constant undertone of subtle darkness deepening aspects of the image, like the facial features in particular. I felt this not only made the colours pop that little bit extra, but also hinted this subtle darkness in tone throughout the image.

SUBMISSION DESCRIPTION

An Editorial inspired piece highlighting how contrived stories within key aspects of the media have been used to only emphasis the extremes of current events, through the use of sensationalism. Within this, I wanted to explore the ways in which articles only cover the extreme highs and lows of everyday stories in order to generate more of an audience, and subsequently creating falsified or exaggerated stories to do so, which led me to consider where is the balance between these two extremes.

In doing this, I wanted to create a project featuring portraits that were heavily influenced by naturally occurring light and the use of vibrant and environmentally powerful backgrounds to create an almost dreamlike setting; with a subject plastered with an unbothered, almost vacant expression. This juxtaposition of serenity and noncelaunt was posed in order to represent this middle ground that the media fails to acknowledge; that both can coexist and make something still worth viewing, even without the melodrama.