Final Project Evaluation

As I started unit 3, I had a rough idea of where I would like to take my subject of hyperreality. I began researching the key issues, controversies and themes which would help me to develop and create strong work. However, upon reflection it appears that I did not give myself the opportunity to begin commenting on some of the more controversial and weighted issues of the subject until later into the year. My images began strong, I had ambitions of exploring the ways in which Photoshop can be used in order to make the real world more exciting. However, I personally think some of my best work this year lies within my later, more challenging shoots. I focused largely on contrasts between the real world and a fictional world which was created within the media. I would use colour in order to explore these subjects, saturation would be increased in order to represent the over mediated reality of the media while the reality would be represented within black and white/muted colours of the real world. I began to notice that this idea was beginning to get repetitive, so I looked to develop my work through research into Photoshop techniques and possible connotations which could help improve the quality of my work and link to hyperreality.

I began to use different techniques such as portraiture in order to explore heavy themes such as body image. I contrasted the ways in which the media can create a more attractive person with the original image. The result looks absurd to think that the audience could believe that this was an accurate representation of a person. The purpose of the image was to make people realise the extent which the media can manipulate a person's image, and to forget about these unrealistic body images. I immediately noticed an improvement in the direction of my work due to the focus of a more layered subject within hyperreality through visually interesting Photoshop techniques. I also decided that a good way to keep my shoots visually dynamic from each other would be to use my research into other photographers of the subject and use their work as influences to my own. I began using photographers and artists such as Cedric Delsaux, Banksy, and Andre de Frietas in order to propel the quality of my work even further forward. Artists such as Banksy allowed me to develop techniques from images that could communicate to the subject of hyperreality through themes of manipulation and disconnecting socially in order to create some of my strongest pieces of photography to date. I also began to consider my body of work as a whole and looked to address key issues and weak points with it. The most significant example of this includes shoot 4 which originally for me seemed like my worst shoot. It appeared simplistic and too reminiscent of my previous shoots. As a result I used inspiration from a photographer named Alastair Magnaldo and began to change my work in favour of a more challenging, dynamic visual style which held more greater metaphorical meaning to the image of how reality is constructed by the media. This has now become one of my strongest shoots of the year.

Overall, I feel that I started the subject off with key ideas of where to take my work. However, it has become clear over time that these ideas needed to be more realised. It was after my first four shoots that I truly began to increase my ambition for the subject and sought to develop my work through visually interesting and metaphorically meaningful methods and representations. Using influences from artists and photographers whom I had previously researched allowed me to create stunning images which utilised more daring methods, testing my Photoshop and camera operating abilities. It also gave me the opportunity to create some of my more visually different pieces of Photography. I was able to explore all of the relevant aspects of hyperreality that I wanted to at the beginning of the year without making ideas seem repetitive or dull.