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Digital Collage

Anchor 1

Exhibition 

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A Glance in the Mirror, 10/9/18

     The inspiration for my piece was a huge turning point in my life and is something that really changed me and made me a whole different person. My project was based on my one-way trip to the United States, when I first moved here. I moved to Kansas from Cairo in 2005 and it was really a blessing for me. The political and social environment over in Egypt would have had some detrimental affects on my future, as it would be very tough for a person like me to come out of there successful. Living in the United States has really opened me up to new cultures and people that made me who I am today, and I would never want to change that. My childhood and my life in Egypt as a kid has really come to shape me in the things I like and the way I do things. The childish younger version of me is a symbol of how I've changed and evolved over the years. 

Some of her work

Research

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Cindy Sherman, Untitled #14, 1978
(inspiration)

Experimentation

     To come up with an Idea, I first played around with Photoshop to see what I was capable of. I knew I definitively wanted to use the lasso function to cut out one photo and add it to the other as well as soften the edges on the added piece to make it blend better into the original photo. I wanted an overall contrast as well to help add to the 'past' & 'present' vibe of the photo and help everything bland together better. I had multiple options for both layers that I could have used but I chose these two options because they matched well together and looked similar in stance which added to the unity of the piece.

Planning sketches

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Process photos

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #14

     The inspiration for my piece was a piece by Cindy Sherman called Untitled #14. Cindy Sherman really stood out to me from the beginning because her pieces are photos, which is specifically my task. I just needed one of her photos to be something that involved my idea which would be something that somehow showed my roots and where I came from. I knew I struck gold when I saw the photo of her posing in front of a mirror. Cindy Sherman herself is a very influential female artist in the 20th century. Her pieces were typically photos of herself in some sort of dramatic or cinematic setting. She liked to make her pieces look like scenes from movies. Her series called "Untitled Film Stills", one of her more famous and popular series was in black and white and portrayed stereotypical scenes of women in 50's movies playing roles they would usually play at that time such as housewives. She loved to use lots of props in her photos such as prosthetic, makeup, wigs, and costumes as well. She used these things to occasionally exaggerate the drama in a photo and sometimes to make the photos look in a certain way such as in her clown photos where she uses makeup to make her face look very comedic in its amplified structure and style.

     The piece that  I used from Cindy Sherman was her photo called Untitled #14 from her Untitled Film Stills collection. This piece, similar to the rest of that series, depicts a female (Cindy Sherman) posing in front of what looks like a bedroom mirror looking like a character from a classic 50's drama. The piece was made in 1978 so it was conceived after the time period in which these types of movies were actually popular and widespread. It has a medium of gelatin silver paint and its dimensions are 24 x 19.1 cm. I plan on making my piece very similar in this in the idea itself. My photo will be a picture of me posing in front of a bedroom mirror with an angle that shows myself and a good part for the mirror as well so I have room to Photoshop things into the background. I will have myself and in the foreground as a 16-year-old boy, and behind me in the mirror reflection will be a photo of a younger version of myself facing me. The lighting will be the same, a darker black and white sort of room around myself.

Compare: 

  1. Both the pieces have a mirror and a reflection 

  2. The contrast is the same, black and white

  3. the camera angle is also the same, placement that hides the camera man but still leaves a good part of the mirror open for a reflection 

Contrast: 

  1. The original piece had a female with her original reflection in the mirror behind her while my piece is me with a reflection of myself as a kid behind me

  2. The original piece is based on 1950's pop culture while my piece has modern 2018 clothing and setting

  3. The original piece is themed dramatically with the main characters pose and the setting in general, but my piece

Process, Ideas, and Intentions

     This project really allowed a lot of room for creative growth and allowed for us to experiment and try something new. We started Photoshop which is very different from what traditional art is considered to be. It also isn't something that we did before in art class so the experience would be very exciting and new for us students. To find a proper inspiration, I got a background story idea in my head first and then began to search for an artist that does things relative to my project. I then found the artist Cindy Sherman and I found her work to be very useful material for inspiration since she uses photos of herself in her artwork which is almost precisely my task. I then found a way to implement my backstory into the piece and found a beautiful and simple idea from almost the first time i glanced at her piece Untitled #14.

     Once I found a way to incorporate my backstory into the piece I got to work designing a good setting for the photo. I didn't change the setting too much from the original piece, I kept the mirror and the general mood by keeping the contrast the same as well. To work on my Photoshop a little bit I practiced with some sample photos to learn all the basic settings. This project overall really improved my research skills as I had to do a lot of research to find a piece to match the idea in my head, as well as an artist to match my task easily. It also improved my design skills as I had to design my own piece off of my inspiration in a meaningful way, and I had to design this website in a way that made sense and implemented all the requirements at the same time. Most importantly this project sharpened my Photoshop skills a bit, this definitely opened me up to Photoshop which could be very useful in the future career-wise. 

     Some differences between my piece and the inspiration is the camera quality. You can clearly tell the inspiration used a very high quality camera as it is a professional photo. My piece however uses a lower quality phone camera, the only thing I have easy clear access. The props and clothing as well in my inspiration are professional, unlike mine which are just things I have access to. The photo also has a professional photographer so the pose and lighting is much better clearer and higher quality. I could have probably done better quality wise if I had better equipment and more time to acquire better equipment. Cindy Sherman's piece Untitled #14 is an excellent piece. The lighting, the angle, the camera work, the lens, the props, everything was professional and looked great overall. My piece doesn't have all these things to aid me for my piece but I worked with what I had.

     I discovered a lot about modelling while doing my research and the art of photography. Cindy Sherman was a model working for herself and she really implemented her passion for 50's movies and cinema into her photography and she really used this in her photo untitled #14 where she poses in her same stereotypical role as a woman from that era. Cindy Sherman must have really liked cinema and cinematic makeup as well because she really used these things in her pieces differentiating them from each other drastically through certain phases they went through.

     Overall the idea from my piece started when I saw a Cindy Sherman piece from this same collection, untitled film stills, called Untitled #14 which is one of her most popular pieces. The general mood and vibe of the piece really inspired me to look into Cindy Sherman's work deeper and look for more pieces I could use. The contrast and the cinematic aspect to the piece really were the main things that birthed the idea for my own piece. This project in the end was a success for me because It got me more involved with Photoshop, which could mean a lot in the future, and allowed me to access my own creativity and force me to come up with solutions for myself through my research and my designs.

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Cindy Sherman, 2012
(example of her work)
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Reflection 

     In making this Project it took much consideration to come with a concept that would fit my idea and overall meaning for the project. Once I came up with a good structure for my idea I then built around it and created a stronger concept to match my idea. I looked at good photography for inspirations and I found Cindy Sherman as a good match considering much of her work is highly produced professional photography with herself as the subject of the photo, which was something I wanted to implement in my piece. I found her piece Untitled #14 and I decided to use it as my inspiration for my concept. As I went on I made sketches and ideas that all had a similar idea behind them. I then developed my idea deeper and made the final piece. The brainstorming process overall was quite simple as I already had a concept in mind but the project itself took a bit of work and some effort to complete.

Critique

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     My inspiration is a very high quality piece that had many professionals working on it, something that my piece doesn't have behind it. My piece may lack a high quality camera as well or a high quality production crew to help out with the angling of the photo and all the specifics such as the background and props. The angle in which I took my photo could probably have been better, but I needed an angle in that would leave out my real reflection and have room for another reflection to be added, all while having myself as the main subject of the photo which I believe I succeeded in. Overall my piece and my inspiration have a lot in common, but my piece could maybe have been produced better after all.

Connecting to ACT

     My inspiration had a strong impact on my piece as it directly affected my camera angle and my position in front of the camera, basically creating my piece. It inspired the use of a mirror to display my concept with deeper meaning, implying that this part of myself is still within me and will always be a part of me.

     The creator of the original piece (untitled #14) loves dramatic photography in general so a piece like this is no stranger to the rest of her collection. The pose and composure of the piece as well as the camera work is all very familiar when it comes to Cindy Sherman's work.

     Through my research, I discovered a lot more about 50's film and the general feminine role in that era. Females were definitely put in a very specific particular spotlight and I learned more about this and how Cindy Sherman exposes this as I researched her and her work.

     The general theme of my inspiration is the role of women in 50's film and how they were portrayed. The pose of Cindy Sherman in the piece is what could be described as meek and fragile, something women were considered to be in the 20th century, especially in that era.

     I concluded  from my research that Cindy Sherman may be a feminist or a supporter of women's rights. The reason I came up with this conclusion is because of her interest in the Feminine image in film and also her confidence in herself and her own image as she likes to make herself the main subject of all her work.    

Compare & Contrast

Other Unsuccessful Options

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(Not enough space for cut image reflection in mirror)
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(Not enough space in mirror as well and too far for subject to be focus of image)
Untitled #14.jpg
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Citations:

“Cindy Sherman.” Willem De Kooning. Woman I. 1950–52 | MoMA, www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1154.

 

“Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #14, 1978.” MCA, mcachicago.org/Collection/Items/1978/Cindy-Sherman-Untitled-Film-Still-14-1978.

 

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/gallery/chronology/

 

Cindy Sherman. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1154

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