Dorota Sadovská's 'Corporealities'

The main theme in Dorota Sadovská work is the human body, viewed realistically, albeit from an unusual point of view, so it often loses its realism in an absurd optical shortcut, thus changing its actuation and wiping away the objectivity of the picture. For these reasons, and many more, Sadovská became a huge inspiration for me in conjunction with my Major Project, especially her body of work Corporealities where she bares her breast in an unromantic, unsexualised manner. Denuding them of sexual potency, she treats her breasts as sheer sculptural matter, also reminding us of the medical necessity of self-examination. By pinching, squeezing, pushing and pulling her rather voluptuous bosom she turns these feminine objects of male desire into something rather more comical, removing the romantic notion of them and instead portraying them as what they are, mounds of fat and flesh

I have always been a fan of Sadovskás' work dealing with the human body and after seeing this piece in The Body in Contemporary Art she fast became one of my favourite female artists dealing with the female form. Like Jenny Savilles' work (blogged about on the 25th March) it is the beauty of the flesh, filling the whole of the frame that really draws me to her work. So here is another set of deliciously fleshy photographs for you all to sink your teeth in. An aesthetic I strived to achieve with my final body of work entitled Bare.

Final Shoots...

So with my project deadline looming ever closer, I spent my Easter holidays cracking on with my final project, if you remember my post from the 6th March you will know what it is all about. But for those who don't, here's the general gist of it, I am doing self portraits that focus on my body and the theories around the male gaze. They are also representing this transitional period of my life, leaving education and entering the world and are therefore very bold and hopefully like Jenny Saville's work (see blog entry 25th March) deliciously fleshy! I decided to stick to more subtle images than some from my first shoot, focusing on feminine curves and suggestions. So enjoy and please let me know your thoughts about any prints you think I should use for finals!

I Don't Like Mondays

Start of Major Project

After many months of not taking photos and writing my 8000 word essay it's been tough trying to turn my mind back to working on a project. Looking back at my last Major Project Planning I have been finding it difficult to develop my self portraits, dealing with the issues of being insignificant and dealing with this faze of my life, moving on from the safety of education and into the big bad working world.

After researching into the artist Jemima Stehli, dealing with issues of the gaze and using her body in many of her portraits she has become a huge influence to me. With this in mind I wanted to deal with some of the issues I have with my body. After putting on a lot of weight over the winter term I started a health kick in January and have lost a few pounds and with this I have gained a new self confidence in my body. Whilst I don't have a perfect body, and never in my mind will, I want to try and celebrate my body and get over these fears. Therefore I picked up the camera and started to do some nude shots, I wanted to focus on womanly curves and aspects of the figure regularly used to document the sensuality of the female form but making the images fairly abstract, so only hints of it are captured.

Below are my first experiments with this idea. I am very nervous and even embarrassed to bare all to you but thanks to such female artists as Jemima Stehli and Mari Sarai I want to celebrate these nerves and embrace them. I don't know where these images will lead to but for now am fairly pleased with them, celebrating wobbly bits in all their glory! Let me know what you think.

The end of another project...

As the end of another project looms I have finally decided on a final series for my project to do with identity and the feelings of being overshadowed and insignificant. Whilst the images shown below are not necessarily my final prints, as I have a few more too take, I am really pleased with them and feel they make a strong series to end my Major Project Planning and take me into my Final Major Project. But don't take my word for it, I'm biased, let me know what you guys think.

Thanks again Bloggers!
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Constructing The Self

Bloggers I need your help. As you may recall a few posts ago I did some self portraits of me hiding behind curtains in an everyday scene for my current University project, which is all about dealing with my issues of lack of self confidence and the feeling of being overshadowed and insignificant. I have come up with a couple more shoots dealing with this idea but in different ways.

The first test shoot is me hiding behind people who are participating in pretty mundane events and laying an arm or other limb across their body, so that this is the only part of me you can see. At first the scene looks pretty normal until you spot the extra limb, it deals heavily with this idea of me feeling overshadowed and insignificant. So here are a few examples let me know what you think!

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The Second test shoot is again based around the everyday scene. Using a long shutter speed I move while the shutter goes of so that everything else is in focus but my figure is blurred and thus unidentifiable. Again this focuses mainly on the feeling of being insignificant as well as blurring my identity and body showing the lack of self confidence that I deal with everyday. Again here are some examples and feedback would again be appreciated.

So keeping in mind the curtain images as well, I'd really like to hear which idea you think is best and I should carry on with!

Thanks bloggers!

Third year begins, and with it a new project is born.

The start of my third and final year at The Arts University College at Bournemouth (mouthful I know) has begun and with it has come a lot of work! But, even with the mountains of pressure, fear and self doubt I am feeling good about my final year and have started my project much earlier than normal and with a lot more determination and pleasure! Although I am aiming for a degree, at the beginning of last year I feel I forgot the passion I have for photography and only aimed to please my tutors, forgetting what I like to photograph. But with my last few projects that passion came back and now I am determined to do a project that is personal and is for me.

So with this is in mind I came up with my current project. My strongest work lies within portraiture and thus I decided to do a project dealing with the constructed image and self portraiture. I wanted to focus on self portraiture because within the project I wanted to deal with the personal issues that I have about myself and especially my body. I have always lacked self confidence, feeling particularly (like most women) critical of my body, wanting to loose more weight, have better skin, nicer bum... I could go on and on. I also deal with the pressure of constantly feeling overshadowed by an older brother and sister (youngest child syndrome I know) so with all these issues in mind this project was born... Have a look at the images and let me know what you think, as opinions help a project grow and develop.

Cheers bloggers!

Self Portrait

I have been thinking about doing a series of portraits including flowers after seeing an article in Pop magazine the other month. I have been experimenting with a few self portraits for now just using my little digi camera. See what you think.

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Summer Time!

Self Portrait

Happy Accident with an Old Camera and a Self Timer

Self Portrait

Insomnia

I liked the idea of taking portraits of people at an intimate almost vulnerable time of sleep, as they are just trying to drop off. These are my first test shots, the light source is literally just the TV screen which I like, however it was quite close so perhaps a little too harsh. I want to do a whole series of these portraits. Any comments would be useful to improve on or what you think is working.

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