Digital Photographics Project Two

PEOPLE Katherine Emma Ng

Leaving home is a paradoxical time. While it brings greater responsibility, greater indpendence also means it is a time when we are free to run wild and renew our child-like sense of fun. This series of photographs attempts to capture this strange period between childhood and adulthood in a new environment which is almost like a playground. The girl in the photos has been made to look more child-like by enlarging her head and her eyes but this disproportionality is not immediately noticable apart from making the photos seem slightly bizarre and unsettling. Just as she is yet to grow into her new life, it’s as if she doesn’t yet fit her own body.

01. This photo playfully opens the series with a sense of peek-a-boo nostalgia. The floral leggings against the floral couch are a nice echo of the above photo by one of my artist models, Sam Jones. His photographs have also influenced the playful and mischievous nature of this series.

02. This photo continues to play with pattern, drawing influence from the kitsch juxtapositions of colour and pattern in the photographs of Martin Parr. The sense of a captured moment is strong in this photo, as in the top photograph by Martin Parr and even conveyed in the casual framing of the bottom photograph of tea cosies, also by Martin Parr.

03. Sam Jones’s portraits and their sense of candid intimacy with a touch of the bizarre (such as the above photo of George Clooney) were my initial inspiration for this series and I think this photograph is a strong example of this. There is a real sense of engagement between the photographer and the subject, as the camera begins to reveal the subject’s personality. The setting and colour co-ordination of the subject and setting contribute to removing this photo from the norm slightly into the bizarre. Ryan McGinley’s influence can be seen in the almost monochrome colour co-ordination.

04. The spontaneity of Ryan McGinley’s photographs has been a key influence over this series, as well as the monochromatic theming of each of his photos. Both of these things can be seen in this photograph, the colour-theming shown in the matching top and bottom of the outfit co-ordinating with the pink blanket and movement and energy expressed through this action shot.

05. This photograph is a synthesis of all my artist models. The absurdity of Sam Jones and Martin Parr comes together with the spontaneity and sense of a captured moment of Ryan McGinley as well as the unsettling disproportion of Daniel Lee. It also provides a refreshing change in scale from the longer shots which precede it in this series.

06. The influence of Martin Parr’s kitsch layering of patterns (above photos) is particularly evident in this photograph, as well as the emphasis of this through slightly exaggerated levels of saturation. The child-like expression and pose tie this photo in with the others of this series, and the vulnerability of this is emphasised through the tweaking of the head and eye proportions (drawing inspiration from Daniel Lee’s (photo below unsettling photoshop manipulations)

07. Like a child resting after a day of play, this photo closes the series. The tight, intimate framing emphasises a sense of comfort and cosy security yet this photo continues the series’s sense of the bizarre and playful. The sense of peace and contentment conveyed complete the gradual deceleration from the high-energy michevousness of the beginning of the series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In this series I’ve tried to convey a sense of the playful, spontaneous and slightly bizarre in order to capture the spirit of living away from home forf the first time, when we are both a child again as well as newly adult. Synthesising together my artist models helped to convey this by presenting an unsettling cross between an adult and child in a candyland of colour and pattern.