I AM BUT I AM NOT- Work record

Basic information:
Date: 08/03/16
Camera used: Nikon D5300
Props or subject: Subject
Editing program: Photoshop CC 2014
Camera settings: 1/125, F9, ISO 200

Plans for shoot:
In this shoot I will be photographing 6 female subjects and 6 male subjects with the women standing against a blue background and the men standing against a pink background they will be holding signs which read I AM A WOMAN BUT... or I AM A MAN BUT... .

What I hope to achieve:
In this shoot I am hoping to open up a topic about gender roles amongst my peers by making them question their behaviour to find out about how gender roles fit realistically into todays society.  

I aim to use a deep depth of field in order to allow the viewer to clearly see the whole image without losing focus on either the sign or the subjects face however I will be guiding the viewers eye to the entirety of the subject by using a single tone backdrop.

I will be using colours to challenge ideas about masculinity and femininity by standing the men against a pink background and having them write on their signs in pink as pink and traditionally a more masculine colour as well as having the women stand against a blue background and write using a blue pen as this a traditionally a more masculine colour.

I have drawn inspiration from both Gillian Wearing, Liora K. and Jenny Holzer whom focused on the idea of incorporating text in their feminist photography.  I am particularly interested in Wearing's equality photography as she used signs to show the emotion of her subjects and Liora K.s work as she used both male and female subjects.

Outcome of shoot:
My final series of images only contains 10 images opposed to 12 as I forgot to take the 6th woman picture and I was not happy with the quality of the 6th man picture.  This is not necessarily a problem though as it means that I still have 5 images for each gender meaning that I have an even number for each and a total of 10 images which is in keeping with the plan I set in my concept.

I had slight issues with finding subjects and had to schedule my studio time around lesson breaks to gain the volume of subjects which I required however in the end this worked out ok as I had time to prep the shoot prior to it taking place.

I encountered issues with the pink backdrop as where the blue backdrop gives a nicely even toned and bright image due to the lightness of the tone the pink backdrop darkens the images significantly due to its dark tone and has proven to be a hard background colour to edit with as altering it too much in photoshop alters the subjects skin tone significantly.

When editing I used skills such as hue and saturation to even out the tones of the images to form a uniform series of images as well as contrast to make the text stand out against the paper and brightness and lightening predominately on the images taken using the pink backdrop.

Progression:
If I were to re-visit this shoot I would work more extensively with finding a better solution to the colouration problems with the pink backdrop or explore finding an alternate backdrop solution such as using the white backdrop for each of the images and putting more emphasis on the text and images on the signs.

Favourite image:

This is my favourite image as I like the images colour scheme best due to the way in which the subjects hair and makeup matches the background and pen colour used to write the sign.  I feel that this combination of colours helps to tie the image together and create an aesthetically pleasing and engaging image.

I also like the message conveyed by the subjects sign as it shows the fact that people do not always fit into the gender binary dictated by society and may present themselves as and identify with a gender different to that of their birth gender.

Denotation: An individual standing against a background holding a sign which states "I AM NOT A WOMAN BUT I AM ASSUMED TO BE".

Connotation: The connotation of this image is the fact that the individual is showing the fact that they identify with a gender other than the one which they were born as and as a result do not fit into the gender norms of todays society.

Context: The social context for this image is the fact that people in this time period and particularly todays youth are becoming more accepting of those whom do not fit the gender binary due to the fact that we view gender norms and roles as outdated.

Least favourite image:

This is my least favourite image due to the fact that I dislike the colouration of the pink backdrop as makes the image appear to be overly dark I also dislike the difference in tone between the pink not the sign and the pink of the backdrop.  

I feel that out of each of the signs in my straight images that this was one of the weakest ones of the combination of this and the poor backdrop quality makes this image my least favourite.

Denotation: This image is of a man holding a sign which reads "I AM A MAN BUT I HAVE LONG HAIR" against a pink backdrop.

Connotation: The aim of this shoot was to show the contrast between societies expectations of gender and how people present as that gender this is why the men are against a pink backdrop as the aim was to challenge their ideas of masculinity.  The fact that the subject states that he is a man with long hair shows that many men feel that their expression of who they are goes against the stereotypes surrounding their gender.

Context: This image is relevant now as men are becoming increasingly more active in combating appearance based gender norms by taking more freedom in their appearance by for example growing out their hair of painting their nails.