Unit 2 - Identity

Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia

Artist Analysis

The photographer Evilsabeth schmitz-garcia practiced scannography as her final piece as a photography student. What I see in her pieces are distorted and surreal faces almost in conflict with themselves. If I were to describe them, I would say they stretched faces and are contorted as waves are. The overall genre in these photographs is portraiture photography. This photograph reminds me of insane asylums. Often in movies the characters who are out of their minds make the same gestures and movements as she does and it is almost like it is a dream and all the movement has been captured in a moment. These are abstract images because you would not see these in real life. This photograph was made without a camera and instead with a scanner. I know this because she did not use Photoshop to distort her face; the raw images were already stretched. The most important concepts in the images are probably the black and white colour complemented with contrast to make the subject pop out of the background instead of the image being

flat. The scanner cannot capture the light in the background as it is a small strip but the face is still highlighted. This makes it look like the head is floating by itself.

The most interesting part of the photograph is the face; the facial facial expressions she makes are quite scary and surreal which helps portray the message of personality disorder to the viewer. Space and time is quite interesting in these photographs as by using a scanner , she captured the

movement of 5 seconds in an image. If I could ask the photographer any question I would ask her what artist inspired her, as she does not state it in any biography. If I could give a title to these images as a group, I would call it ‘stuck’ . I feel the broad term can branch into many different reasonings behind it, for example: in some images it looks as if she is trapped behind a pane of

glass. I think these photographs are about identity crisis, Dissociative identity disorder or another mental term which links to identity. If I were inside one of her photographs I imagine it would be a void, I would be trapped with no way out being slowly driven to insanity. I f I had to live inside the photograph, it would be cold and dark, The darkness would be never ending and loneliness would unbearable. The aspect of the images which worked the best is the distorted face. This effective because it make the unique in its own way and memorable to the viewer because there are not many photographers who do this type of photography. In the phots i think the greenish colour does not work because it makes the image looks blurry instead of well captured and clear. I think other people would say her images are quite scary and her work is off-putting. I think this because content of the image and the distorted face could be considered as horror. By exploring and learning about her style of photography, I have discovered how to use a

scanner to take images and how to edit the green colour onto my images situated purely around the face.

Photoshoot Plan

What is the idea?

The idea is to have my model position herself over the scanner and distort her face. The outcome will look quite surreal.

Who/What has inspired me?

The photographer who has inspired me is name Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia. She di scannography for her exam and produced some surreal photos which I have taken inspiration from.

Setting/Location

The background will be black as I am taking it with a scanner and the surroundings of the model will not be captured.

Main challenges of this shoot

One of the main challenges will be imaining how the photo will look before I can see it because with the scanner I will be using, you cannot preview the photos, also, you cannot see what the scan looks like before you take the copy.

Lighting

I will use natural lighting but it will not reveal itself in a scanner photo, but the light on the canner will illuminate the face.

Contact sheets

For my first shoot inspired by Evilsabeth Schmitz - Garcia, I decided to replicate her work by focusing on distortment and surrealism. I wanted to factor in the horror and have a mental story behind the photographs I take. To take the photos, I used an office scanner. This meant I and the model had to drag our faces across the screen as the light travelled down. This was a challenge as we repeatedly moved too fast or too slow for the light. Therefore, it took many tries to take the right image I wanted. Another struggle for the shoot was deciding which facial pose to do in the scans. This was challenge because I had no references as the artist only took about ten images yet I need twenty. Above that, every image took about 3 tries making it a very troubling yet rewarding shoot. I think this shoot was the most successful of the two I took. The images are interesting and well captured nd all have clear meaning behind them which I could talk about. My ideas turned out well and they all look like I imagined them. one of my favorite images is the one with the tall, distorted head. To do this, I had to guide my model through tilting her head in the right position at the right time by moving it slightly. This is because it took many tries and was very difficult to do as you had to move your head exactly at the right time and never came out perfectly. In the photo, there is a high contrast between black and white. This makes it look like the head is emerging from the darkness like so sort of demonic creature. I had my model in the center of the frame as she was the main subject of it. My least successful image of the series was probably the one with the dark, distorted faces. This was not successful because the distortion cut is sharp and badly captured, however it is a statement image therefore I decided to keep it for its impactful image. If I were going to retake this photoshoot, I would use more materials and makeup to make the image more colourful and impactful.

Developments

Overall, I think these images turned out quite successful. They resemble the photographer's work starting from the black background and continuing with the green tint situated mainly around the subject of the piece. The least successful developments were the ones of the faces alone without distortion or the hand. This is merely because they are less surreal and therefore less significant. They are less interesting than the others as they have more potential meaning behind them. I have used a scanner to distort my model and myself. As the light in the canner moves slowly across my face, I move with side to side distorting my face. It does this because everything the light touches is recorded by the scanner. I did this to create an effect like the photographers of being trapped behind glass. I chose this technique and artist because it linked to the message of hidden identity following the topic of identity perfectly. This artwork fits in with my topic of Identity because it is based on BPD. The images portray a young girl trapped in her own mind. I like the composition of the images because it is acted perfectly. To prompt her into getting these facial expressions, she needed a story line. I told her to pretend she was a mermaid trapped for years in her enclosure. As time goes by, she slowly starts to lose hope of ever escaping and her mind becomes blank and empty. To improve my work, I could try more techniques and movement to find new ways of distortion.

Hilighting Success

This is my favourite image out of my first photoshoot. I have selected this image, as I think the ratio between the positive and negative space works well to create a feeling of uneasiness, as it looks like my model has been incapsulated in a glass object. There is also an ambiguity to the image, as the viewer is left unsure about the narrative behind the image and is left wondering. In addition, I have purposely used cool colours and tones to again, create an eerie and surreal image. I think the surrealist fantasy element to my work works well to create a feeling of tension which I would like to explore more in detail. Talking more about the geometric side of this image, I love the swirls and patterns the hair makes on the screen. This just adds to the fantasy affect the image has on the viewer. There is little space on the screen making the photgraph very powerful and overwhelming because of the little amount of negative space.

Further Developments

Experimenting with Liquify

With these images, I decided to experiment more with morphing the faces. Using the liquify tool, I made them look like they are melting in different directions. This moves further away from the artist but follows the same path of surrealism and horror. My favorite image is the one with the girl's hands against the glass. She looks more alien than human and there could be many backstories behind the picture. For example she is being held in captivity and slowly loses hope as her reality starts to deform and morph into these distorted creatures. Most of these changes are unnecessary abut interesting because the images are good on their own but it is fun to experiment with distortion and what you can do with photoshop. Distorting the faces make the more surreal and almost horrific as I feel I would see one of these in my nightmares. I feel these images create more of an impact than the first set of developments because they are more unique and deformed than supposed to be. I chose this specific technique of editing as it amplifies the aspects the image already has. The unpredictability of the shapes and movements when I am editing it.

Process Log

First, I burned the background of the image with the burn tool. This made the background black and eliminated any imperfections.

Next, I increased the contrast ad brightness to my prefered level. This made the image lighter and the highlights pop. I also decreased the saturation. This takes some of the colour out of the image.

In this slide, I have copy and pasted an image of the colour green onto my edit. I had then decreased the opacity of the layer so the model was visible underneath.

Next, I erased the parts of the green that I did not want, this made sure there was still black in the background.

Finally, I softened the edges of the dark spots with the burn tool. To do this, I had to decrease the hardness and exposure.

Liquify

To access the liquify tool, I went to filter, liquify. That brings you to the screen above.

Next, I experimented with dragging the cursor over the face and shaping it into the form I wanted.

Redraft

Contact sheets

Developments

In this photoshoot, I tried to create images based off the work of Evilsabeth Schmitz Garcia using a scanner. To do this, I used an open scanner to scanmy face and my modles onto a backgound. To improve from the previous shoot, I tried to use different colours by using makeup. to make certain areas of my face pop. My most successful photgraph is the one with my face pressed against the glass witha pink highlight on my cheek. I liket this image especially because it makes the skin look glossy and glass like and adds a highlight to my face which loos like stage lighting. My least favourite image is the one with my hands against the glass. I think this image is ugly and I do not like the makeup in it evn throughit is intentionally bad. One of the main struggles of the shoot was the makeup. I had to treat it like stage makeup because it id not show up as prominenet as I wanted it the first couple times. Therefore, I had to reapply it so it showed in my image. Another struggle in the shoot was the compositon. I had to think of more and more positions to putour hands an dface in which were also differnt from the first shoot. Despite my negative feedback, a highlight of the shoot was th ecolour in th shoot. My diea of colour worked well as the makeup did add impact for the photo and made them stand out more than the first shoot.

I have taken a series of scanner phtographs with added maekup and edtied them accordingly. This means I adapted to the added use of colour and edited them differently to my previous shoot. For the first photoshoot, I added a green tint over the images to match the artists style of photography. However, for this particular photoshoot, I decided to simply enhance the features the images already have instead of adding mor colour to not distract from the original pink shaded by adding green. By enhance, I mean increase the contrast, brightness and stauration to make the colours and shadows pop more. The aspects I like of my images are the surreal aspect of them. They look as if someone is trapped behund the glass and the breath on the screen makes it look as if they are freezin to death. This is not the initial reaction I wanted but it worked in the end. I however do no think this photoshoot is better than the first one as I had more images and they were simply better as photographs. This includedt the composition the quality and the meanings behind them. If I could retake thi, I would make try experiment with materials such as clingfilm and try more compositions and poses to be in and make the series more interseting to lok at.

Highlighting Success

This photograph is the best one taken from my redraft images for many reasons. It highlight on the side of the face looks like stage lighting and the girl is giving a wholesome performance. The image is extremely clear and the composition is interesting. It has not been heavily edited leaving a natural effect and the slight pop of colour adds contrast to the skin tone of the model.

Experimenting with Composition

Experimenting with Curve

Experimenting with Image Blending

To further develop my work, I used a variety of techniques. This includes mirroring, image blending, curve and composition. I think the most successful technique was probably double exposure of image blending. This is because I used my most successful development to create the,. I also love the glossy and smooth affect they have merged into one another, it makes them look more professional. To do this, I first selected, pasted and mirrored the image onto the other. I then selected the image blending options tool and selected one of the vast choices. Another way I blended it was by selecting only half of the image, mirroring it onto the other side reversed and the blending it. I loved this technique but much much preferred the the first one as the image simply speaks to me more. My second favorite technique was definitely composition. I did this to create more impact in my work. By placing all my images next to each other, it makes them look more meaningful and 'finished'. To improve, I could have used other techniques such as liquify to add more variety to my series. I could also edit more developments as this would add depth to my work.