My project will be about Home, but more specifically the ideas of identity. I plan to demonstrate my theme by utilising the methodologies of my 3 artists and interpreting and profiling their works into my own. They each showcase the theme of Identity in different perspectives. I am interested in exploring portraiture and how identity can have many different forms such as; physical appearance, emotions, mindset and how one expresses themselves.

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My theme will link to my first artist, Sophie Calle, because her work consists of projecting salient messages to reflect one's emotions and experiences. I will take some inspiration from Calle and do some projections images. Calle is originally from France and she is a writer, photographer, conceptual and installation artist. When Calle was in London in November 2019, collecting her photo prize, she stated that "photographs always play a part but they rarely have a leading role. Instead they supply a layer of visual evidence for the ideas she comes up with".  She also talked about shared human experiences - such as betrayal, love, memory and death. Calle also can be described as an amateur psychologist as she digs around the human psychic and is interested by what drives human practices. She spent seven years  in and around Europe, the United States and  Mexico and her first piece was when she was in California where she had a glimpse of her future pathway, when she photographed two gravestones, one labelled "Sister" and the other one "Brother", there was no way of identifying them as there was no names or details of who they were. In the 70s, she followed people around and photographed them without their consent, for example, she followed a man in Venice without his authorization and took photographs of him.

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Another unusual aspect of Sophie Calle was her piece titled , "The Address Book", where she found an address book in Rue de Martyrs, Paris, where she photocopied all the details of the people in the book and contacted them. She convinced them to meet up with her and let her interview them about the owner, Pierre D., who threatened to sue her for infringement of his privacy, but she agreed to publish it after his death in 2005.

 
( source of information - Financial Times, 10.01.20)

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My theme will link to my second artist, Laura Estrada, as she creates pieces of jewellery that empowers the wearer in their chosen form of identity and individuality. I will take inspiration from her as she uses her own adornments in her photographs. She is based in Los Angeles and is from a Guatemalan heritage. She finds an interest in adornments and how humans have been using them for centuries. In an interview, she states "it's an expression of life, taste, ritual, of what it means to be human". Before embarking with her career, she made sure she was well equipped with the skills she needed to create her own jewellery. She has achieved her BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) degree in jewellery and metalsmithing. She then completed an apprenticeship for numerous years to become highly skilled in diamond and gold fabrication. She believes that the jewellery she creates is a reflection of her personal experiences and how she copes in the world that we live in.

 

 

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My theme will link to my final artist, Lindsay Adler, as she takes pictures of models under coloured lights to represent emotions and feelings. I want to take the elements of tone and colour that she uses and adapt that to my own work. Furthermore, I will link it to the theories of colour psychology and how certain colours can evoke certain feelings in a person. Adler is based in Manhattan, New York and has written numerous books about photography, such as the "Creative: studio lighting". In this book, she talks about the world of coloured gels, grids and unusual modifiers. She explains how high-key, low-key and dramatic lighting can alter the mood of your photographs. When Adler was doing seminars in Canada, she spoke about photographers undermining their own work and dealing with rejection in photography industry, and she gave advice and guidance on how to overcome this. Many of her pieces were publicised in magazines such as Marie Claire, Elle and her client list includes Morphe Cosmetics, Pat McGrath labs and more.

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