Petra Collins:

Petra Collins’ is a Canadian artist who was born on the 21st of December 1992 she has a profession in art – photography, performance, film and installation – has consistently focused on depicting her own experiences and her own world through collaboration with friends. As a teenager, she took pictures to explore and better understand adolescence, using the mechanics and output of a camera as a coping mechanism. Sharing and collaborating has been a fundamental part of her curatorial work too, through which Collins has brought attention to whole new movement of young female artists: a glitter-loving, habitually digital collective who have featured in Collins’ group productions. Her photography is characterized by a feminine, dreamlike feel, informed in part by a female gaze approach. I chose Petra Collins as my new artist because I found a link between both her and Chloe Sheppard Her photography is characterized by a feminine, dreamlike feel, informed in part by a female gaze approach and that's what Chloe Sheppard's photographs portray and I also enjoyed doing my last artist so I wanted to pick a new one that has a similar style to Chloe Sheppard. In a town where probably 10 men do 90% of all fashion work, she has made inroads that are quite remarkable for both her age and sex. And also because she shoots 35mm film. As she said in an interview, “Film was the first format I used. At first, I was working with disposable cameras.

My instant reaction to Petra Collins work was "I'm going to pick her" the reason being was because I love the vintage style, 70's so much I just find it so aesthetically pleasing. Her work makes me feel astonished in different types of ways. Her work is so Youthful, modern , yet shot entirely on 35mm, her work is both neoteric and nostalgic: film photography for the digital generation. As I explained above her Work reminds me of Chloe Sheppard's work : dreamy, retro, and both are linked to the 70's style. In my opinion I think that the message or meaning Petra Collins photographs gives us is reality linked to feminism and reality. And this is shown on her "selfie" pictures. Feminisms shown since there are only females in all of her pictures not just the "selfie" ones. Reality is shown whilst they are "taking the pictures" it shows the behind the scenes of taking a selfie. Petra Collins work should be taken into consideration quite carefully since there is a lot of meaning in her photos rather than just a picture in its self.

Petra Collins's work:

This is Petra Collins work she has a variety of different pictures including the "selfie" ones. I chose this genre of hers because during my last photoshoot I took pictures outside and I wanted to change up the "mood" abit by taking them inside. Petra Collins also uses low-key lighting so I did aswell I tried to impersonate her work as much as I could.

Contact sheet:

These are my contact sheets for my Petra Collins independent project. I managed to achieve everything I said in my photography plan and am very proud of the out come of the pictures. One of my main targets in this session was to enhance a variety of different pictures with 2 main backgrounds in order to highlight the similarity in Petra Collins work. In addition to this I made sure my models (Rebeka and Rrezarta , my sisters ) had a phone to act like they are "taking selfies of themselves".

To capture my images I took pictures in the bathroom and in my bedroom. I Chose to take pictures in my bedroom because I have a lamp outside that has a orange colour and I thought it would look good for pictures and it did! I also wanted to aim to use artificial light, rather than rather l because I wanted to have a orange colour on the photos just how Petra Collins has a type of yellow vibe to her pictures. I looked at all different angles I could capture my models in, to see what angle works best to make it more realistic that they are taking "selfies". It was important for me to capture my models on in the moment so I asked them to forget about the camera and do what they would do when taking selfies. I asked my models to wear any comfortable clothes since they are just at home and in the bedroom and bathroom I wanted the clothes to fit the scenery. Overall, I'm very happy with outcome. The images show a connection to Petra Collins work but also include my own ideas inspired by her work. I believe this is by far my best work that i have achieved during this project!

My edits and developments:

For these images I tried to keep them as simple as possible to show the understanding I have of Petra Collins work. To show that I used the curve tool to make the overall of the aesthetic darker as shown in Petra Collins photography's. When I see Petra Collins pictures I get the same vibe from each one they have the same aesthetic colour for example her bathroom ones. They have a yellow aesthetic vibe to them. The feeling those pictures give me is a gloomy background to the actual photo and make me believe that there can be a darker meaning to it. And that's what I wanted to achieve with mine and I feel like I have!

This picture I took is not exactly the same as to my other ones and diverts away from the traditional style of Petra Collins. However the reason this photograph was taken with the aim to show the movements, concentration, and the positions my models and I have to look at to take the best shot. This type of photography is called long-exposure this specific genre is not what Petra Collins uses for her pictures since all her pictures are still and have no movement into it. Another reason I chose to take this photograph was to show the movements of actually taking a selfie. I also thought the way the camera has captured the colours in this particular images very interesting and successful and linked back to the other worldly, dreamlike qualities of Petra Collin's work.

Redraft developments:

For my redraft I am going to try and take more pictures on the bed and in my bedroom as during my last one I took more pictures in the bathroom. I am going to use a low-key lighting as Petra Collins hardly ever uses high-key lighting.

Contact sheet:

This is my contact sheet for my Petra Collins independent project redraft. I managed to achieve the things I said in my short paragraph just above and am very proud of the out come of the pictures. One of my main targets in this session was to use a artificial lighting with colour in order to highlight the similarity in Petra Collins work. In addition to this I made sure my models (Rebeka and my mum Leonora) had a phone to act like they are "taking selfies of themselves". At first I thought I should just use my mother but eventually I decided to switch it up and use two like I did during my last photoshoot for Petra Collins. As you can see I only have one contact sheet the reason being is because I wanted to take fewer pictures to focus on editing more, the past two artist I have picked do not really have any connection to editing, so I thought since it is an independent project I will take pictures in the style of my chosen artist but add a little twist of my own.

To capture my images I took pictures in my bedroom. I Chose to take pictures in my bedroom because I have a lamp outside that has a orange colour and I thought it would look good for pictures and it did! I also wanted to aim to use artificial light, rather than natural l because I wanted to have a orange colour on the photos just how Petra Collins has a type of yellow vibe to her pictures and I took pictures during the dark hours so I wouldn't have any light anyways. I looked at all different angles I could capture my models in, to see what angle works best to make it more realistic that they are taking "selfies". It was important for me to capture my models on in the moment so I asked them to forget about the camera and do what they would do when taking selfies. Overall, I'm very happy with outcome. The images show a connection to Petra Collins work but also include my own ideas inspired by her work. I believe this is by far my best work that i have achieved during this project!