Photography series research

Research

Duane Michal 

Duane Michal's, is an American photographer who use's photo sequences in some of his work.
Although I appreciate photography I find photography series much more compelling as they usually give more insight an explanation which helps to convey a stronger narrative.

Duane's work was the first to really help flow my inspiration as I found most of his work incredibly inspiring

These first two photo series were the beginning of my search to find influence. I found them extremely inspiring as they send a powerful message and I quite like the elegant but saddening black and white filter in which is used in his work.

in the way the artist captures different mental health issues, from how I have interpreted it.




Dr Heisenberg's Mirror of Uncertainty - Duane Michal, 1998

 I associate the first sequence of photographs with body dysmorphia from the way in which the image in the mirror is distorted and untrue to the image in real life. However, upon researching this image further it seems that wasn't the intention behind the images and it was in-fact French Vouge who wanted Duane to do an illustrated feature on quantum psychics.

Duane states;

"I thought I could illustrate Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle with the mirror, which transforms everything in front of it. When my model moved it even slightly, her image changed completely. It was strange, liquid-like and very exciting. It seemed as if I was looking at her energy evolving and vibrating right in front of my eyes. Of course, we can't see energy changing state at this level, but to see her distort into all these faces was still marvellous."  

Source

I also discovered upon research that he used a convex mirror (which is a curved mirror) to gain this effect. I am throughly inspired by the simplicity of the idea and how effectively it works to convey a deeper meaning.
I would love to stick to a similar style for my own photograph sequence; using little manipulation through editing, focusing on the lighting and using minimal props that will help me to conduct a powerful message.

Exploring body dysmorphia 

                                                         Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson 

The artists took body parts of supermodels and placed them on "ordinary" people.
I found these images to be very inspiring and relevant to the theme I want to explore (body dysmorphia).

working directly with images that come from the media (magazines)
inspired by the pressure of social media

I like the simplistic idea of sticking different features/body parts onto a model and think I could create my own version of this, perhaps in a darker and more surrealistic way. 

                         

Meltem  Isik

'Twice into the stream"

This represents a distorted view of the subjects body, maybe pinpointing the persons insecurity areas. 

This is simply done by having a magnified print of the chosen area of the body, printed on a large canvas sheet and held up against the subject.
I feel like this is quite a positive portrayal of insecurities and makes us feel more normal about our "Flaws", which is very powerful; however it is not the kind of "feel" I desire for my own photographic sequence. 

Christian Sampson

A photographer who captures mental illness in his art, targeting issues such as bi-polar, depression, anorexia, and OCD.

Tracy Martin

This technique done by Tracy Martin using projections is something I want to explore in my photographic series. I would like to project the negative thoughts that someone with body dysmorphia experiences onto my subject as I think this would make a powerful photograph. 

Learning about the disorder