When a loved one such as a parent is lost, their children no matter what age return to the state of a mourning child. No adult is going to be grown up and rational with the loss of a parent, they fall apart just like a child, to demonstrate this I decided to photograph a young lady, like my model, dressed as a young child. To me my images represent the state of mind of a mourning adult which was my aim. Her hair was done in a way that my peers and I believe best represents a young girl, this was also the aim in the choice of clothing, therefore a white dress was chosen as it symbolises purity and innocence. To further enhance my idea I developed the sense of loss, confusion and lack of understanding by making my images into diptychs where the images they are paired with are children's drawings. Each drawing representing a parent who's passed on, so either a memory e.g. me and daddy or showing them as passed on and what they think it means e.g. daddy and Jesus.
To take my images I used a fast shutter speed to create a still image which was clear and in focus. I used a medium aperture as it was morning and the winter sun was set low and was very bright in all my images, therefore a wide aperture wasn't needed as this made my images too bright and took the focus off my subject. I used a low ISO so that my images had no noise and they were really good quality so you could see the details in the whole of the image. However the settings that I chose meant that there was a slightly shallow depth of field created. This meant that the background was slightly blurred as the camera was focusing solely on my model and the gravestone in the foreground. I used minimal editing on all of my images, I just made them all black and white as I felt like this created more of a focus on the foreground as they were neutral colours, the bright green of the grass and trees in the background where creating a distraction. I felt as though the black and white filter allowed this shoot to fit in better with my project on a whole as my shoots are all either grey-scale or very toned down neutral colours.
To take my images I used a fast shutter speed to create a still image which was clear and in focus. I used a medium aperture as it was morning and the winter sun was set low and was very bright in all my images, therefore a wide aperture wasn't needed as this made my images too bright and took the focus off my subject. I used a low ISO so that my images had no noise and they were really good quality so you could see the details in the whole of the image. However the settings that I chose meant that there was a slightly shallow depth of field created. This meant that the background was slightly blurred as the camera was focusing solely on my model and the gravestone in the foreground. I used minimal editing on all of my images, I just made them all black and white as I felt like this created more of a focus on the foreground as they were neutral colours, the bright green of the grass and trees in the background where creating a distraction. I felt as though the black and white filter allowed this shoot to fit in better with my project on a whole as my shoots are all either grey-scale or very toned down neutral colours.
To develop this idea further decided to use images similar to the ones in my original edits. When you lose someone close to you, whether it be a parent or even just a friend, you feel lost, helpless, heartbroken. These feelings don't just go away, they are there constantly reminding you of that person, this is the message of my project; the girl in the images below isn't really there she is with the person she loves in thought alone, with the body they have left behind. The girl in the images is made to look like an illusion, brighter than her surrounding environment, with no shadows it's like she isn't really there.
Through editing I have created the illusion that there is more than one person by duplicating the same layer multiple times and turning each one into to a lightened version of themselves, removing the backgrounds of all except the original. This left all 4 versions of the girl blurred but the background clear. I then turned it into black and white so that it fitted in with the rest of my project but it also enhances the contrast between the bright white of the girl and the dulled down background. Completed edits shown below (click to enlarge).
Through editing I have created the illusion that there is more than one person by duplicating the same layer multiple times and turning each one into to a lightened version of themselves, removing the backgrounds of all except the original. This left all 4 versions of the girl blurred but the background clear. I then turned it into black and white so that it fitted in with the rest of my project but it also enhances the contrast between the bright white of the girl and the dulled down background. Completed edits shown below (click to enlarge).