Connecting Essay 1

Reference Image

In this image we see a group of people clawing at a window. They have taken the image behind a window that has a laminated sheet on it which makes it harder to make out detail of the people unless they are right up against it. This adds to the creepy factor of the image because you can for the ones of the left see their hands in some detail with the blood smears down the and you can only see a shadowy figure for the actual person. The photographer here has taken decided to also include the faces of some of the people to add to the fear factor and to also fill in the space in the image. I think that the photographer has successfully created an interesting image and has made a rather creepy and horror like photo, it almost looks like it has been taken from a zombie horror movie.

My Image

Here in my image I have decided to convert it over to black and white  because it adds to the darkness of the person behind the hand. I think that this works very well because it adds another fear factor to the image which is darkness. Also with my image you can see the blood smears on the glass and it looks like the person is clawing into the wood to try and escape from behind the window. In the background of the image we can just about make out a head and part of a body but no underline features. This works very well because it allows for there to be some sort of mystery to who's hand it is and to the gender of the person behind it.



The Connection

Both images have shadow like figures in the background to add to the fear factor in the image. In the top image you can more easily make out details of the people behind the window which I think works well with colour and the way the photographer has captured the raw anger of the people behind it. In my image the bottom image I like how the you can't make out the details of the person behind it in anyway and you can only make a few guesses as the what they look like from looking at the hand and because it is also in black and white it creates an erie atmosphere to the image making it even more creepy and scary.

Print Techniques

Black and White:

Selective Colour:

Repetition:

Duotone:

Soft Focus:

Photojoiner:

Work Diary - Shoot 7

Evaluation:
In this shoot I decided to put my sister in a shed covered in blood and mud to make it look like she had been locked in there for a long period of time. The reason I did this shoot was because I am expanding out to include horror into my project. This connects both the murder element of the forensic section and also connects to the horror element. Even though I didn't do what I said exactly in the last work diary this section still works on a phycological level.
The reason I think this works on a phycological level is because the images that I took are fairly disturbing and contain some graphic images. These images were very easy to make because it isn't very hard to make a graphic looking image. The images that I think work the best are the ones of just hands and a body in the dark that can't really be seen. This is because those images look really creepy and also look rather menacing.

I like this image because it makes the viewer think about the image while looking at it and if you look at it closely you can see a figure in the window. Just by looking at it you can't tell if it is a reflection or in the window, this is because there is water on the window which distorts the image.

Here we see a black and white hand covered in blood and mud trying to claw out of the door with it's nails. It looks a bit zombie like and also looks very rather old which adds to the horror element of the shoot.

Progression:
For my next shoot I am going to do some complete horror. I will uses lots of horror props and have a variety of photos that show extreme levels of horror. This will be done by using body parts of animal to look like human body parts and zombie like creatures eating them. I also plan to do some images with costumes and contact lenses for a horror fantasy thing.

Here is an image of a zombie that I will try and recreate. This image has multiple things that I would like to use. Them being bodies, flesh, and an abandoned building.

Here is a scary looking person wear a gas mask and looking though a window rather menacingly.

Straight Images - Shoot 7

Research On Lauren Freedman

Lauren Freedman:
The reason I choose to do research on Lauren Freedman is because she does a lot of interesting horror work which I find rather interesting. She does a lot of horror images mainly with females either as a victim or as the horrendous suspect. She also edits them to make them look more horror like to be more interesting. Another reason I decided to choice her to do this on is because her work is quite dark and gruesome which makes it a perfect example of the work I would like to do in my photography project. She also changes the saturation in some of her images to remove the colour from them which is another thing I would like to try in my project.

Here we see a rather horrific photo of a demonic figure holding a doll child upside-down, holding a knife almost looking like it is about to sacrifice the child to some other dark lord or even eat the corpse. 

Here we see a woman getting her throat slit by a machete and her head being held in place by a man. It looks like a decapitation because the machete is almost fully submerged in to the front of her throat.

Here we see someone has had from ear to mouth to ear cut with a knife but only enough  to split up and to show lots of the muscle and the flesh in the mouth.

In this image we see a girl sitting looking rather possessed with blood all over her and sitting in front of a wheat field which makes it look like she is wild.

The way this photographer has influenced me is to do more horror photos out in public places like she does. This is because i think that it creates a rather interesting atmosphere to all of her photos, it makes them seem a lot dark than they actually are. She has also influenced me to try and create a more horrifying images by changing the filters to suit the images.

To summarise she using models to depict horror scene mainly in public and also mainly uses females as her models, which creates more interesting and controversial images. She also uses different filters on each of the images to make them seem more horrific and real.

Research On Josha Hoffine

Joshua Hoffine:
The reason I choose to do some research on Joshua Hoffine was because he does some very interesting horror cliche. Some of the main cliches he uses are the monster under the bed and the monster under the stairs in the basement. His main work is to show the horror that children have that is related to monsters, he was criticized for using his children to show the horror but claims that it didn't cause her to have any nightmares. I would like to try and use some the the cliches he uses in my own work because I think that if they are done correctly they can be a very effective tool in a photo shoot.

Here we see his daughter walking down the stairs to the basement and a rather menacing figure  looking rather  hungry at the bottom of the stairs.

In this photo we see children's blocks have been spread out around the floor of the room  and some monster hands with very long protruding fingers are outstretched across the floor.

Here we see another child nightmare of hands and arms emerging from behind a sofa coming towards the child as she innocently watch T.V. blissful to the hands behind her.

Here we see an image of a snake bursting though an air vent scaring a baby.The snake also looks hungry and is about to eat the child.

This photographer has influenced me to use clichés in my work and to use the fear that people have as children in my work. I will do this by also joint it in to movie horror clichés as well to make a more interesting photo. I also plan to use some children in some shot in scared situations as well because I think that will have an effect on people viewing it.

To summarise he uses the cliché fears of children to create interesting images. He also uses models he creates or buys as the monsters and put his kids in positions which a child would find themselves in if they were int he nightmare themselves to make it seem more real.

Research On Sally Mann

Sally Mann:
The reason I choose to have a look on Sally Mann is because she did loads of photos of corpses each decaying in a different condition. This gives her a wide range of conditions in which a murder victim can be found in, meaning she can see and photograph the way in which dead bodies react to different environments and how the body decays in that environment. This is interesting because it means she has lots of experience with taking photos of dead bodies.

Here we see what happens when a corpse in buried for a long period of time then dug up again. In this we can see that most of the flesh has decayed but there is still hair attached to the top of the body.

In this we see what happens when a body was left outside to be ravaged by wild animals. We can see that large chunks of flesh have been removed. This was probably done by wolfs looking at the tear pattern. 

Here we see what happens when nearly all of the flesh has decomposed and there is just the skeleton left behind. 

Here we see what happens when a body is left outside and then inhabited by spiders. We can see that the eye socket has been fully cover in spider webs and the head is covered.

 This photographer has influenced me to explore the conditions of someones body after the body has began to decompose for a prolonged period of time. I would like to try and experiment with this by leaving flesh and clothing outside for some time and what happens to it after a long period of time has passed.

To summarise Sally Mann took photos of people bodies in lots of conditions to see what prolonged exposure to certain elements of nature does to a human body. She would also take her photos in black and white. This created an effect that made the bodies seem like they had been left out for longer than you would have thought.