For my A2 Photography personal investigation, I have chosen the theme of identity in portrait. I have chosen this theme because I would like to experiment with manipulation through portrait photography, not only digitally but also manually. I am going to be looking at different ways of printing and manipulating images, linking to identity. 

 

To begin my project I will be looking into an initial photo shoot I did over the summer when I visited Portugal, when I was there I was inspired by the culture and how the people lived. This then inspired me to look at people’s history and identity within my family and town. But also how society today wants to mask their identity in a way and change their image. To begin my project I am going to take a simple portrait shoot and overlay the different buildings and shapes onto the portrait photographs, to show the combination of places and people. For this shoot I am going to take inspiration from Matt Wisniewski who looks at creating digital collages by blending fashion and nature photographs together. The aim of his work is to create surreal images. 

 

I will also be investigating the work of Elenora Clark as she puts texture onto her subjects and then photographs them instead of manipulating the photographs in Photoshop, for example she uses materials such as salt to create texture and a somewhat disturbing effect, when she photographs them. I plan to use some of her techniques in my photo shoots in the near future. I will also add textures onto the photographs once they have been printed to impact on the 3d effect. I want this shoot to be a way of hiding someone’s identity by using different medias and adding materials straight onto the face but also by adding medias after the photograph has been printed. 

 

 I Will also be looking at different ways I can deface people’s faces in portrait images using different images, texture (Using different medias straight onto the face and over the top of the printed image) and by editing the images in Photoshop. 

 

I will focus on how contemporary artists and photographers edit and manipulate their images to create abstract eye catching pieces of work.