Concept Tutorial Feedback
Within this tutorial, we were asked about the concept behind our work. Projects which have a substantial amount of research backing them and a strong conceptual idea are often the most successful of projects, and so therefore with this project, I want to make sure I have a strong concept to follow by (which can change along the way) which has been thoroughly influenced by the research I have undertaken into the subject area of my project.
After conversation, we agreed upon the fact that my project is focusing on a study of hair within a cultural sense, and looking at hair as identity. The idea that we all adorn, decorate and create our identity using our hair as an accessory, just like we would clothes. We construct our hair to help create our identity, using our natural given hair to our advantage (or not using it depending on your situation). We also agreed that the work being broad to begin with is suitable, because the subject is broad and open to interpretation through concept and visual research and practice, and therefore shouldn't be tied down and pin pointed just yet. Similar to Taryn Simon's work on an index of American power, I can create my own index on hair and identity, looking at how people use their hair to create their image. This will also include many different types of images and subjects, mainly to show the scope of the concept and allow me to show different ways people construct their hair, through still lives of shampoo, hair dye and hair vitamins, to portraits of each individual with their hair as they like to wear it, to collected hair once off the head, to wigs and other ways to construct your hair. I was advised to use Mamiya Leaf or even large format cameras for this project, maybe after doing a certain amount on digital to see what works best, so that I can capture all the detail within hair as its such a hard thing to focus the camera on technically.
From this tutorial, I have found a steady concept to base my work around and will continue to read around the subject of hair and identity, throughout all genres, such as religion, race, age and gender, to allow my work to develop and be critically deep. I am going to use digital and Hasselblads to begin with in my shoots and then search for workshop refreshers for the Mamiya Leaf and large format to develop my skills in that and create more technically accurate images.
After conversation, we agreed upon the fact that my project is focusing on a study of hair within a cultural sense, and looking at hair as identity. The idea that we all adorn, decorate and create our identity using our hair as an accessory, just like we would clothes. We construct our hair to help create our identity, using our natural given hair to our advantage (or not using it depending on your situation). We also agreed that the work being broad to begin with is suitable, because the subject is broad and open to interpretation through concept and visual research and practice, and therefore shouldn't be tied down and pin pointed just yet. Similar to Taryn Simon's work on an index of American power, I can create my own index on hair and identity, looking at how people use their hair to create their image. This will also include many different types of images and subjects, mainly to show the scope of the concept and allow me to show different ways people construct their hair, through still lives of shampoo, hair dye and hair vitamins, to portraits of each individual with their hair as they like to wear it, to collected hair once off the head, to wigs and other ways to construct your hair. I was advised to use Mamiya Leaf or even large format cameras for this project, maybe after doing a certain amount on digital to see what works best, so that I can capture all the detail within hair as its such a hard thing to focus the camera on technically.
From this tutorial, I have found a steady concept to base my work around and will continue to read around the subject of hair and identity, throughout all genres, such as religion, race, age and gender, to allow my work to develop and be critically deep. I am going to use digital and Hasselblads to begin with in my shoots and then search for workshop refreshers for the Mamiya Leaf and large format to develop my skills in that and create more technically accurate images.