Research

Subject Matter:

The dictionary describes a myth as ‘A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.’ This is evident in the happenings of Arachne; the turning from human into part animal is the supernatural event that categorizes it as such. Whilst Philip Matyszak states in The Greek and Roman Myths: A Guide to the Classical Stories that a myth merely is ‘the ancient view of the world.’ Although myths revolve heavily around the gods and goddesses, they are given human attributes and emotions. This is said to help the readers ‘see themselves in these tales and understand their relationship to the rest of the world as well their connection to the gods.’ I feel this is an important point to focus on, because I want to create a human-like feel to Athena, but also represent the divide in power from Arachne (the human) to Athena (the goddess).  

Stylistic Approach:

Duane Michals -  

Because I have chosen to focus on the ending of the story, my narrative is based solely on the transformation of Arachne. This means that rather than having photos of select parts of the beginning, middle and end of the narrative, I am focused on a smaller area of time. Duane Michals’ photos ‘Death Comes to the Old Lady’ and ‘The Fallen Angel’ are a representation of how has constructed a narrative and created a spread of time. He has almost made a filmstrip out of the five or more photos in the order in which they happened. Showing them like this each capture a still moment in time, helping for you to focus on each step as it happens. He also enhances this effect my keeping the camera central in every shot he takes, this keeps the audiences thoughts on the literal movement in the shot rather than who we are in the scene or what the photographer is trying to present with different angles. This style will work perfectly with the physical transformation of the human features into a spider’s; I will be able to capture each point of the growth of the legs through Arachne’s skin.

I find his artistic style fascinating, the way he actively keeps in the blurring of the separate characters in shot to add a mystical sense to their belonging in life. This is the most prevalent in the photos of the old lady. Throughout the first four images, she is crisp clear whilst the movement of the man in the background towards the camera helps to blur his identity. She then becomes blurred in the last photo, showing how she is passing from her known life into the unknown state of death. This would be a style I want to incorporate when Arachne is transforming from the woman into the half spider, this movement can indicate the passing of her life into this myth and story.

Gregory Crewdson –

Gregory Crewdson in my eyes is a genius with cinematic lighting. His financial backing is allowing him to create such detail perfect photos with large and time-consuming photo set-ups. I am looking to pull a lot of inspiration from the way he uses light to create effect, such as in these three shots. I have tried to choose shots that are indoors as they are the closest resemblance to the type of space I want to be working with.  These photos are all part of the ‘Brief Encounters,’ collection of images, I feel all based around the encounters we have with extra terrestrial life and the idea that we aren’t alone in this world. They all however have a different and unique way of pumping light into the set. The top left being from above the main subject shining down on him, as if above room itself (outside the set.) The one below is done through the windows behind the subject, whilst the bottom photo is being eliminated through the holes in the floor.

Crewdson’s work is an extremity of how you can use light to create meaning and emotion, as well as lighting the scene, however I wont have such resources at hand. Because of the sheer scale of some of Crewdson’s photographs he if forced to use tungsten, as he would have to have enormous flashes for it to illuminate such as vast space. I am working on a fraction of the size he would be, so this means I am able to use a lot smaller of a set-up, utilising small flashes or small tungsten lights to expose my scene and subjects within it. 

Richard Avedon -

Richard Avedon is a famous portraiture photographer that has produced photographs for hundreds of prolific and powerful people during his career. The New York Times published an article named ‘Richard Avedon, the Eye of Fashion, Dies at 81’ upon his death in 2004, stating his “fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half century.” Although his portfolio is vast, I have chosen to focus upon his shot of Malcolm X and also Marilyn Monroe, each holding different aspects that grabbed my attention.

This portrait of Malcolm X took my gaze with the deliberate use of blur. Because of the experience that you know Richard Avedon has with a camera and making people look as good as possible, this wouldn’t be a photo you would expect him to create, especially for a man that is one of the most influential African American human rights activist, thus making you think deeper about the meaning behind the use of blur. This shows how Avedon as used a technique within the taking of the photo to create meaning, something I want to aspire to do, I want to stay as far away from digital manipulation as possible, leaving the photos as raw as possible.

As well as the blur, the use of light to produce deep and powerful shadows make an abstract like style. This combination makes the photo of Malcolm X become a representation of his dominance and threatening notion to obliterate white American racism, as if moving directly towards the lens. Although there is a link to Duane Michals work with the use of blurring, they have used it in their own stylistic way to create very different meanings. 

In this portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Avedon has been able to capture a side that I feel has rarely been seen from world famous American actress and model. Marilyn Monroe was famous for playing ditsy blonde characters in many of her films, but quickly become a world known sex symbol during the 50’s, the era that is known to have embellished sexuality.

This information is a key aspect to the photo and I feel Avedon is very aware of her status and uses that extremely well. His use of a larger aperture allows him to focus on the face of Monroe rather than her breasts. This allows the audience the ability to see the emotion she is evoking at the time of the shot. Which clearly shows Monroe saddened by maybe the fact she is seen as an object rather than a real person. The point I want to take from this photo is the way I can use aperture and focus to allow me to manipulate what I show the audience. I am going to have to think about how I’m going to get both people in focus without the background also being so sharp that it becomes a distraction, especially if I use a repetitive brick background. 

Francesca Woodman –

Francesca Woodman’s work caught my eye whilst I was looking at the work of Richard Avedon. Her photography style poses a very surreal feel, giving off a sinister and eerie emotion to the ones I’ve chosen to look at closer.  Although both of these photos I have chosen were taken before she was said to have been diagnosed with depression in 1980, they both show signs of a deeper emotion that I feel she is trying to get across with her photography. The first photo, named ‘House #3’ is a self-portrait of Woodman sat below a windowsill. Again with blurring, as seen in the other two photographers I’ve looked at, shows how she is moving when the photo is taken. However here it evokes a feeling of her being trapped, as if trying to get out of her own body, a sense of mental torture.

In the second shot, which is part of her Angel series of images, you can see the blur being prevalent once again. Although my main focus in this photo is the subject matter, I love the way she has used the dangled bits of fabric to indicate the wings of the Angel, the Angel is also a mythological creature, which helps the link to my project. I find her use of simplicity of props contrasts the attention to detail she uses with her location choices, which in turn pushes the curiosity of both aspects further together. 

Annie Leibovitz – 

These two photos are from Annie Leibovitz’s collection of photographs she produced for Walt Disney, the top photo showcasing Roger Federer as King Arthur in The Sword in the Stone, whilst the one below is of Jessica Chastain as Merida in Brave. Although both of these photos are highly edited and taken through lots of effects after the photo is taken, I want to focus more upon Annie Leibovitz’s use of props to help stimulate the story for the audience. Its clear in both of these photos that the weapons they hold and the costume they are wearing both indicate who they are and what story they are then from. I believe this is a key aspect I will have to focus on, especially as the story I’ve chosen isn’t highly publicized or told such as the Disney stories are. I intend to use the text that I scanned in to delve into the story and pluck out the key signifiers for each scene and try and incorporate it within my set of photographs. I will however have to be careful as if I push too many things into the shot, I will distract from the main narrative I am trying to tell. 

Audience:

I believe that my photos will have to be sectioned to over 16s; this is due to the subject matter of the photos. The transformation of the subject from human to spider could be slightly upsetting or distracting to the younger audience. I also feel that the fact that it is a story of mythology, it will be targeted towards the older as they will know about such stories such as Medusa and Cyclops to help them relate to its historical references.

My photos wont really tend to suit any type of competitions that I have seen throughout experience. Though I sense that some photography festivals such as Photomonth around the city of Krakow in Poland have become open to a vast variety of photographers, especially the up and coming. This type of festival would be perfect for it to host the work, especially if it has anything to do with narrative structure or story telling.