The Gay Beards
Flower Boy
The first image presented above is from an Instagram account called the Gay Beards and the second image above is a part of my series entitled Flower boy which consist of images edited using computer manipulation opposed to physical manipulation.
The Gay Beards focus largely on the beard as it is a key symbol of masculinity and attempt to juxtapose this masculinity throughout the incorporation of more feminine items such as glitter or flowers; this is done in order to discuss the way in which society views certain things as less masculine and more feminine and to demonstrate that both men and women can enjoy the same things without becoming more or less masculine or feminine.
The composition of both images is similar in some aspects whilst differing in others for example the images are similar in the way that they both use a square orientation as well as featuring a deep depth of field in order to allow the entire image to be in focus. The images vary however in the fact that the Gay Beards position the subjects head so that it is facing the camera head on with only the lower half of the subjects face in shot. This has been done in order to draw the viewers eye to the beard and artistically arranged flowers opposed to them looking at the background of the image; the plain black shirt worn by the subject also prevents the viewers eye from straying from the focus of the image. Alternatively my image features a side on profile of the subjects whole head. I have made this choice as I thought that the profile of the subjects face helped to tie show the fact that this was an image of a man in a similar way to silhouette photography. The subject also wears a white shirt which when accompanied by the white background blends together in a way which draws the majority of the viewers focus to the subjects face and his floral beard.
The flowers used in the Gay Beards image have been positioned prior to the photo being taken opposed to being inserted into the image via either physical or computer manipulation. My series differs from this as each of my images are comprised of both the original image of the profile of the subjects head and an image of flowers which I have taken separately. The images have been edited in photoshop with the flowers as the image background and a section of the beard removed using the rubble tool to allow for the flowers to show through, the flowers are then resized and repositioned to allow for the most aseptically pleasing arrangement and proportions. Finally the entire image is cropped to a square to match the dimensions of the original image of the subjects head.
If I were to improve this shoot I would consider finding smaller more densely positioned flowers that would provide a more colourful and vivid beard design however due to the season in which this shoot took place and the location which I was shooting in this was not possible.
In conclusion both the Gay Beards photography inspired me to begin thinking about ways to challenge societies views of masculinity by using the beard and more traditionally feminine objects such as flowers to create my Flower Boy series however I also took inspiration from other areas such as silhouette work and wished to put my own twist on the concept by incorporating my photoshop skills.
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