Creative Essay
Date: 8th of October 202
Imperfection is beauty, Madness is genius and its better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
Marilyn Monroe
The Start
My concept originated from the love of imperfections, I’ve always found images that highlight the raw emotion and capture a person’s true essence to be more appealing than a filtered/airbrushed image.
I want my children and others to understand that individuality is beautiful and how our body looks is unique and should be embraced not concealed.
With the rise and take over of social media, people have made this world where everything needs to look “perfect”.
Because of this our children are growing up believing that this is how their world is meant to be when in reality life is messy, chaotic and at times very hard but that’s ok.
A-tel-o-pho-bia is the fear of imperfection or of things going wrong and also the fear of failure.
We all have this fear in one or many aspects of our lives, learning to live and embrace it I feel is the only way we can try to control it so it doesn’t take control of us.
My concept is to pay homage to two famous photographer’s whom have created a name for themselves by their unique style of portraiture.
I feel I really resonate with their body of work, their style is so real and raw and thought provoking by accentuating the humane form in all its perfection.
Although pre-production won’t be too time consuming as well as shooting, I will however need to do a fair amount of post-production in photoshop to bring out the details I wish to creatively enhance.
I want to create a sense of haunting beauty where the viewer wants to completely explore each image.
As I progress in learning the art of controlling my light sources (speed lite, natural and flash) this may come in handy to be able to light my subject but keep detail in the background.
Blocks
Realizing the work that is involved in my concept has caused me some anxiety as well as the timeframe in which to achieve the desired outcome with so many continuing COVID restrictions starting to be reintroduced.
To overcome these blocks I am keeping up to date with all government announcements.
So I don’t get overwhelmed at the task ahead I find breaking down the whole process and focusing on one area at a time helps me not too stress or lose momentum.
Evolution
Now that I have decided on my concept I will now start the process of pre-production including list of talent.
Trying to come up with out of the box ideas to creatively achieve the overall effect I’m after should help with the planning and production of the shoot/s.
Actively watching videos and tutorials will expand my knowledge on lighting and post production photoshop editing.
Trying to look at all aspects of the shoot and how to intently organize different ideas around my concept in case any changes will need to be made, sometimes an idea isn’t successful and will need altering so having a back up plan is always handy.
Listening
Most of the time I do suffer self-doubt however instead of letting it stop me from progressing I use it to my advantage, when I doubt that I am able to accomplish a concept I choose to research as much as possible to find several solutions before any issues arise, I will also do a mock setup and see what problems come up.
I do seek external feedback from my peers at TAFE as I trust their input and they have always provided constructive criticism.
Maintaining
When I begin on my concepts, I do get very excited and want to do the best job I can so I do a lot of research and as the ideas and inspiration flows, I can keep focused very easily.
If I start to feel tired or I lose focus I find it best to stop completely and have time with my family or go back to looking at images to reignite my ideas.
It’s always best to give myself time out when I’ve spent too much time on the computer, I don’t want my concept to be become overwhelming or no longer a joy project.
The End
Once I’ve completed my creative work, I plan to evaluate it based on how the images make me feel:
- Do theyinvoke a sense of perfection in the imperfection?
- Do the images respectfully pay homage to the photographers?
- Are the images thought provoking?
- Are the images sharp andtechnically correct?
Learning from this process will be from solving any problems that arise while planning and executing the shoot.
Figuring out what has successfully worked and what areas I need to focus more education on.
I enjoy the process of creation, production and seeing the final image, this is why I continue to repeat the process.
Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.
Dr. Seuss