Final Photos
For our final photos, we had to collect multiple props and items to make our photos authentic and have the qualities of Pop Art. We gathered handmade cardboard signs, face paint and modern clothing. We decided to make our signs as we were able to design and adapt our sign during the photo shoot making it versatile. Also we used face paint to give the appearance of defined facial features and bold black lines, common throughout the Pop Art movement. Moreover, we decided to use modern clothing as this is our contemporary spin on the Pop Art movement, therefore we used modern clothing to emphasize this. Within the studio, we used multiple lights to try and remove shadows form the backdrop. We managed to eliminate some shadows however removing all of them was difficult. Also on the camera we upped the white balance to try to remove shadows and make the backdrop appear whiter. With the remaining shadows, we were able to edit them in Photoshop by editing them. We changed the brightness and curves to make the image appear more flat and dynamic. Moreover, we used the paint bucket tool to change the colour of the background, eliminating the shadows. This made the image look flat as if it had been painted.
I believe this image relates to our research the best. I think this because the colours throughout the image are vibrant. This relates to Pop Art as it involved bright eye catching colours that were bold and limited. Moreover the first image relates to the research as throughout the image there are bold black lines. These defined the facial features and outfits of Pop Art. They used these bold black lines to define facial features, clothing and emotion. In addition, we explored the topic of romance that was common in comics that featured at the time. However, we added our own contemporary twist to this topic by using two female models. This represents modern society and how same sex relationships and marriages are now legal. Where as back then it was frowned upon to be attracted to the same sex. Moreover, by flipping the colours by using white on Chelia and black on myself, we were able to link our piece to race equality. As this is a massive topic within modern society as people still have a closed mind. We are representing that anyone of any race, gender or ethnicity can love who ever they want. We used Ben Day Dots within this photo but we decided not to fill the face with them. I believe if these dots were smaller it would have had a better effect and outcome overall. From the original shot we decided to use Photoshop to crop the image like Roy Lichtenstein. This was very common of Lichtenstein's work as it focus on the emotion and expression of the person in question, like in our piece. This piece was inspired by "In the car", Roy Lichtenstein.
I believe this image relates to our research. I think this because of the colours we decided to use. We chose to use vibrant colours such as yellow, red and blue. These colours are eye catching and bold which relate to the Pop Art movement. We decided to make these colours more bright in Photoshop as on the original photo, they appeared dull. Moreover, within this piece we used dynamic black lines to define the face and emotion. This is common throughout the Pop Art movement as this was a key feature of it. We decided to make these lines striking therefore we edited it within Photoshop. In addition we decided to explore the theme of power/action. By adding a contemporary twist, we made the model female but disguised as a male. This shows that women were seen as the weak during the movement and were often depicted as a 'damsel in distress'. This was because society viewed women to be below men as they appeared more dominant. Nowadays this isn't the case, but sexism can still be found and influences some people. Moreover, we are showing women can be as strong as men and show that we are equal. In addition this piece creates a feeling of uneasiness and the 'uncanny' as it is recognizable to be a female model but the makeup makes me appear to em more masculine. I believe that the first image is more recognizable to the Pop Art movement as the characteristics and styles of the time are reflected more consistently and effectively within that piece. To improve this piece, I would make the black bold outlines define the whole upper body making this piece more fluent and recognizable. This piece was inspired by "Girl with hair ribbon" and "Crying girl", Roy Lichtenstein.
Throughout this project we encountered multiple problems, mainly when shooting the final photos. One problem was that the lighting in the studio wasn't as bright as we needed it. This created shadows that were unavoidable and had to be removed via Photoshop. Moreover, when we were viewing our overall shots, we noticed that they were very distant. We fixed this by using Photoshop to crop the image, like Roy Lichtenstein's work. This allowed us to make the audience focus on the mood and emotion of each piece. In addition we had to adapt some of our ideas due to time restraints and material limitations. For example we were suppose to paint the upper half of the body for the second image. This had to be changed on the day of the photo shoot as we had a limited time slot in the studio. Therefore we had to change this idea to have clothing replace the painted suit. I believe the suit would have worked better to relate the image to the Pop Art movement.
Overall I believe we were successful to recreate the Pop Art movement for a modern day audience. We manged to use the key characteristics throughout each image to relate it directly to the Pop Art movement. I enjoyed this project as we were able to paint on live models and experiment with different ideas that represented out society. Compared to the past projects I enjoyed this one the most when experimenting as we had multiple fun ideas that we could have explored prior to our final photos. However when it came to shooting the final photos I enjoyed the Surrealist photo shoot better as I was able to manipulate the images better and we didn't have a time constraint.
