Over the course of the year, I have researched in depth my topic, ranging from theoretical research, examples of media practices and articles that draw upon my chosen subject to looking at photographers who explore my explore my subject. This blog along with a following blog will be an overview of all my research and involvement during the course of this year, in some ways you could say a miniature essay that puts all my research in one main blog-which articles, photographers, theorists have aided me the most and been the most influential and how my research as helped me to develop my idea. This will be divided into 4 separate topics-subject search, media research, media articles/books/essay and theorists that relate to my work:


Original Proposal that i wrote:"As a final piece, i aim to produce pictures that challenge the norms of society and play on the idea that women have become puppets and dress up dolls in a media ruled society, but also how women are presented to men.Therefore through my project I aim to explore the idea of sexual fetishism-the use of women in selling men’s products but also the concept of ‘the male gaze’ and the idea of how women gain and learn to be ‘feminine’ "
                                                                          
 
Before i summarise all my work, this was something i had to do before for my pilot. Originally i believed that i had fulfilled what i had said i would do in my proposal. However my feedback was that my proprosal was interesting but i had confused myself in what i was doing and my photograps had not expressed that. However i believe that threw more research, experimentation i have achieved what i said i would do in proposal. -need to quote something from proposal and show and link it back to what i have done now!

Subject search:


   Since I had started doing photography, photgraphing people has always fascinated me. But what I find interesting is going against the norms of society and challenging what we normally see in the media. When first coming up with my idea I decided to look at advertising products and got on to the subject of women and advertising and how they look and are made to look. Within this I came across sex appeal, women as objectsa, products of the gaze-providing me with plenty of theoretical research to do, media research and lots og photographers that exploe this. Advertisements that i looked at that sent me on my way to plenty of research:


Picture inserts




These advertisements were the basis of my subject research which then led me on to my media research, artists and photographers research and theoretical research:






Media research:


Within media research this was simply looking up news articles, and events to do with women as objects and how they are  used as sex appeal. At the start of my research i already had decided i wanted to go against the norms of how women are normally viewed in advertising-which from my subject research-womens bodies are used to sell products-usually they are half naked-sexual facial expression

articles to do with my subject that particualry helped me develop my ideas:describe and relate


http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/upload/article_sexualized_images.pdf

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-437343/The-little-girls-sexualised-age-five.html


http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-19/health/women.bikinis.objects_1_bikini-strip-clubs-sexism?_s=PM:HEALTH



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2125921/Jennifer-Love-Hewitt-seen-natural-AND-digitally-reduced-bosom-differing-ads-The-Client-List.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2126399/Lily-Cole-wipes-make-thought-provoking-film.html






Theoretical Research

Power of the gaze:

panopticon:

all articles you looked at-scholarly not daily mail.



To summarise, throughout my theoretical research I explored many theorists as mentioned earlier, Foucault and the gaze, Laura Mulvey and the male gaze, Freud and his concept of sexual fetishism- all of which have helped me identify what I really wanted to base my pictures around. Although I have experimented with lots of ways of how to portray my topic i believe my theoretical and practical research has aided me to fulfill what i intended to do in my proprosal at the beginning of the year.



Through looking at men’s adverts, fetishism photography and product photography I saw that all the women were thin; all had perfect skin and were modelling in an erotic confident way. To summarise, all the women in these advertising pictures looked as society, the media and men believe they should look.

These theories I have explored have enabled me to experiment through my photographs. They have helped me both challenge the topic and come up with original ways of making a statement. Through my photographs I have explored the idea that we as members of society are mannequins that the media dress up and play with while also exploring young girls wanting to be grownup and knowing how to pose.

Artists and photogrsphers:

all these photgraphers i have done an indpemedent blog for each, this is just summarising the main influence surrounding the most important photographer. I obviously researched lots of photographers.

John Heartfield: Particularly influential as it helped me come up with my final ideas about montage and collage in photography. He was if not the most influential in helping me with the unsexed object series. His work ticked all the right boxes that i proposed for my own work-wanting to go against the norm, doing something original yet simplistic. He made a point through his photography and made people look and stop-his work about hitler was an alternative to what people were seeing in the media at the time. My own photography-is an alternative to what people at the moment see and how they see women in advertising.


Linder sterling: Also extremly influntial in manipultation, collaage, montage idea behind my final series of photographs. Her work furthermore is actually on a similar topic to mine that is to look at women in the media and how they are portrayed. Furthermore the photograph below (forks and spoons) was the initial photograph that triggered the idea of house hold objects and can any object be sold if it is put togwether with sex appeal?


Yurie Nagishima: Very useful in promting the idea of unsexed objects although not going along the same topic-helped develop my ideas hugely.



Nigel Tomm:His photos offer an angle of how to look at womens bodies and how we are bombarded with magazine pictures of naked women in sexual positions.
aided me in developing my intital ideas and producing images of magazine cut outs and the perfect face-although not my final images they were step in the right developing direction.

Spoof Ads also very influetial: insert some pictures

Notes From tutorial:

The more Mundane the object , the better!

potential further ideas for objects in between breasts:

• Computer mouse
• socks between boobs-showing how a lot of womens boobs are 'shown' to be big- dirty pair of socks
• plastic cup
• egg cup
• salt and pepper shaker

sexual expressions and pretending to cover boobs as if its a sexual picture-un sexed object-takes this aspect away-playing on this idea of what are sexed and unsexed object?

£

First 3 finals of My exhibition:

Potential blurb to go with this set of images:

This series of photographs exposes the ways in which women in media and advertising are used as sex objects in order to sell products. It aims to challenge the stereotypical products that women advertise whilst also posing the question can sex appeal sell any product?

These are my first set of finals for my exhibtion and how they will be set up against the wall. Additionally, i plan to have a further 3 or 4 more on the pictures I have taken which are in an earlier post, i just have not quite decided which ones yet. I really like these three images as a set, as I think along with my potential blurb they really show 3 mundane objects which crudely contrast with the idea of sex appeal. Furthermore I like that they are all landscape photographs which makes them go together more. I think that my other set of images for the exhibition will be portrait and they hopefully sit nicely under this set.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2125921/Jennifer-Love-Hewitt-seen-natural-AND-digitally-reduced-bosom-differing-ads-The-Client-List.html

article i found and how it relates

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2126399/Lily-Cole-wipes-make-thought-provoking-film.html

need to discuss in comparison to relevant literasture and media and cultural studies-how i can relate this to my essay and pictures for exhibtion

Can sex appeal sell any object? Household Objects

PHOTOS

Installation ideas and layout for the exhibition:

what pictures to chose, how to frame, what sizes to print? 

The overall colour of the images is an important factor to consider. The images should not only work well together but also compliment the décor of your target area. All the images should come together as a set. Ten sepia and two black and white just looks as though you ran out of images, regardless of how good they are.

The colour of your mounts and frames is also very important. Black, white or cream are the classic colours that compliment most images. The purposed of the mount and frame is to concentrate the eye on the photograph, so regardless of how much pink there is in that fantastic sunrise, a matching pink mount will only serve to dilute the image.

Framing:

  No Colored Mats or Frames:

This means black or white frames and black or white mats only (grey and cream mats are not acceptable). While natural wood frames are not exactly a “color”, they stick out as the only non-black or white frame in the show. This is why it is important that the framing is restricted to black or white. Hanging a show should depend on the image, the flow of the room, and the size of the work. Color of frames and/or mats should not be a factor in assembling the show.

-       Black Frame vs. White Frame:

White frames have had a recent surge in popularity, particularly with color images. For images with cool or muted tones, I think white frames are a great option. They remove the “black border” effect often used in silver gelatin printing, and rarely used in color photography. They also bring more attention to the image. However, I do not think that white frames are the best option for black and white prints. For the most part they should be left to color images, in my opinion.

-       Metal Frame vs. Wood Frame:

As a photographer, I do not have a preference for either wood or metal frames. As a gallerist concerned with esthetics, I do not have a preference either. But as a gallerist who hates to tell her artists that their work has been damaged, I much prefer metal frames. Metal frames will not crack or chip in shipping and will not split if the wire is screwed in too tightly. If something happens to the photograph (such as an image slipping in its frame), I am able to open it up and address the problem. They also tend to be lighter and thus less expensive to ship.

Whilst researching the framing of my photographs, i believe I either need a black frame around my images, or to not be framed at all. I think that my photographs will look good with no frame as all of my images have all white background. -need to see if michelle like the idea of a no frame? is this a good idea or not?