Project "Making Strange" - After the First Shoot

Today I processed the film for my "Making Strange" project and I'm glad that this was just the initial shoot because they don't come close to my perfectionist standards. Thankfully, I still have lots of time left to get loads more shoots done, have time to process and print my final images. 

My initial idea was to implement my love of photo-editing by creating scenes that would look like they were photoshopped, something that is impossible unless you scan your negatives into a computer. From there I began looking into hoax photography such as the Cottingley Fairy hoax, and started experimenting with similar ideas and techniques to create my own hoaxes.

I was really underwhelmed by my images, so much so that I decided to write an evaluation of what I had seen on my negatives so that I can try to avoid making the same mistakes.

"First of all, I am unhappy that I was unable to complete the film roll due to lack of time and other unforeseen obstacles. I think this is incredibly wasteful and in future, I would much rather plan actual shoots to photograph throughout a week then process the film, instead of getting a day's worth of photos and then developing them as I go along.

I was also very disappointed that my double exposures didn't work due to lack of technical knowledge. I've come to the conclusion that I will have to go back and analyse that section of my negatives and do some more research into the methods used to create this effect in-camera.

The negatives that look promising are my UFO hoax set and my abstract set. Although the UFO photos appear to be correctly exposed, I think I will need to do a bit of print experimentation in the darkroom to make them more contrasted and gritty.

The abstract negatives have come out fine but they don't really strike or inspire me, which is a shame.

Overall I don't think this has been a very good shoot and I believe I can do so much better.

My next plan of action is to look online and in journals for inspiration as to what I can do next as I feel like I'm stuck in a rut."

I began looking for inspiration online so I could come up with some ideas, which I have documented in my visual journal, and the main idea that excited and inspired me the most involves creating a character similar to Noface from Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" and then photographing that character as part of a series, possibly utilising triptychs/diptychs. 

When I say "similar to Noface.." I mean by creating a masked creature that has quite a solemn and forlorn atmosphere attached to it. At the moment I am thinking of getting a plain full-face mask and turning myself into this "Noface" creature as a response to the continuing difficulty I am facing with trying to find and assert my identity. I look forward to starting to draft what my images will look like and creating a background and profile for my alter-ego/character.