Graded Unit ProposalMolly McCluskey

Introduction :

Provide an outline to the intentions of your project. What you write here will be the foundation to informing the sections to follow.

-State which genre of photography you have chosen and why this interests you.

-Identify key ideas and/or theme/s that will form the narrative of your project.

-Recognise key practitioners/influences that are important to the production of your project.

-Identify contextually where your work would appear? Who is the audience?

-Finally, justify how your project will be achievable.

For my graded unit, I have chosen portraiture photography as it’s the area I would most like to improve on and what I want to build on and peruse in the future. I feel like by working on portraiture in college I can take full advantage of the resources I have available to learn new skills and expand my current knowledge whilst I have my lecturers and peers to guide and help me. Portraiture interests me as I feel like it’s the most engaging form of photography. I like the narrative that comes with portraiture and the potential to style and portray the subject in so many ways. I find lighting models interesting because I think the body can create so many different shapes and shadows. I want to practice my portraiture as I want to become more confident in interacting with others and directing them.

The main theme of my graded unit is going to revolve around transgender/transitioning people. The current title for my GU is ‘A Work in Progress’ and I want to raise visibility and show the less documented issues that come with being a transgender male/female in society and show my audience what these people go through daily throughout their transition on their path to becoming who they feel they are. I want it to be a documentary style group of images challenging existing narratives about transgender issues, that educates and explains the different experiences that transgender people have and the things they must go through every day.

I have looked at a number of different things that have influenced this project. Nan Goldings photographs, including her photo book collections like ‘The Other Side’ and ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ have influenced me as her images are intimate and raw yet remaining soft at the same time. Christer Strömholms set ‘Private’ also shows a similar intimacy which is something I want to achieve. Other influences include Larry Clark, an essay by Thomas Skodbo,

I can see this work appearing as a part of a campaign, possibly for LGBT Youth Scotland or other relating organisations that work to educate the population on gender and sexuality based issues. The audience will primarily be school aged youths and young adult as I feel that this is the generation of people that want to better understand the experiences of others. I also feel this age range are also the most important to connect with and educate if we want to create visibility for trans individuals. The idea for this project was inspired by my best friend, who is transgender and still in the process of transitioning. I think this is going to be achievable as through him and other trans males/females that I know I have a good network or relevant people that I can photograph. I know or have connections with several people at different stages in their transition which will give me variety in

the models I use and will enable me to illustrate the different experiences and hardships that this group of individuals experience. I think through proper time management this project will be manageable and achievable.

Christer Strömholm

Nan Golding

https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/24679/1/MicrosoftxWordx-xDISSERTATION.pdf