Key Words: artist research, Gillian Wearing, Evelyn Bencicova, photography, work conception, work process, reflection, light practice, PS, final idea, gothic style

Work Practice: a series of shooting attempts about movement and light sculptures

— Work Preview

In the shooting, the use of shooting props to achieve the expression of light and sense, in order to improve the feeling of artistic conception brought by shooting pictures.

— My Thoughts on Production

• The Content Contained in This Production

The topic of this time is about the problems existing in the society, and since this topic covers a lot of problems that can be discussed, I chose a common problem that I have been exposed to most and have the greatest self-feeling about —— various problems and influences of people’s thoughts. This time I mainly chose the seven deadly sins and mental illness, two common social factors that are closely related.

• Improvement of work and further action

Because at the beginning, what I wanted to show about this topic is about “double-dealer “.  So after a series of research and preparation, I shot < Mask and Rose >. However, at that time, my choice of shooting site, shooting props and lighting was relatively random, so I went to the formal studio in the final shooting, and then adopted some lighting and added more post-painting effects.

Therefore, in the following work, my primary goal is to determine my lighting requirements for the shooting, and then purchase props according to what I want, and then go into the studio with my classmates to shoot.

• Final Work Name

< Seven >, < Illusory Fantasy, Authentic Phantasm >

• What is My Plan For This Production With The Surrounding Resources

Due to the current epidemic situation and the treatment of my ear for about two weeks, it still did not prevent me from using the things around me reasonably to complete this homework. In this assignment, I chose a new way of production — I chose to shoot a series of pictures and attach text to them, rather than continue to choose the short film production I chose for the first time.
At the beginning of the production, I first determined the content of the work I just wanted to make. After determining the content related to human emotions, I contacted my friends in my former school and practiced shooting in the photography studio of my former school.Because what I wanted to express was the Gothic style of shooting, I discussed the lighting requirements for the shooting for many times in the initial time.Shooting equipment I used included Honey Comb, Coloverd Gel, Snoot Spot Flash, Soft Box, Transparent Color-Paper.

— Research And My Feeling About The Artist

Taking pictures through ideas to show normal problems in society, mostly self-problems caused by external factors.

Exposed social problems: about self-affirmation and common street social issues.

· Gillian Wearing

Gillian who live in British now is known for her photographic and videotape approach to document everyday life, involving the discussion of personal identity in the relationship between private and public space, largely blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

[Everything is connected in Life the Point is you know it and understand it]。

To create the series, Gillian randomly selected passers-by, asked them if they would like to write down their thoughts on a piece of paper and held it up so she could photograph it. In contrast to documentary photojournalism, she tried to engage the participants actively and challenge social stereotypes and assumptions.

Through her work, Gillian is providing a platform for individuals in society to express their views, and the work validates her personal concerns about collective belonging.

But one of Gillian’s most compelling — and uncomfortable — projects is a series of photos in which she duplicates other people’s faces. In the photos, Gillian Weying is photographed wearing someone else’s replica face mask, cutting out her eyes, putting them on and pretending to have a different personality.

Such works are really poignant, because the issue of identity is always very responsive and receives a lot of attention in society. However, what Gillian is illustrating is more of a psychological discussion, and she’s thinking more about mortality.

In this way, she successfully allows herself to enter a variety of different characters and experience their identity and background. Just like, everyone has his own way of life and story experience, not everyone can tell others, and this time itself is full of many subjective opinions and disguises.

In this way, getting to know other people can better understand diverse points of view, and Gillian has created a network of relationships within her framework. She lets herself know a lot about other people and also about herself.

The metaphorical method is used to remake certain themes, which has a unique shooting style and reflects certain social problems.

Exposed social problems: violence and potential isolation in society.

· Evelyn Bencicova

German artist Evelyn Bencicova has created “Ecce Homo”, a series of work that recreates the origins of violence and war as described in the Bible, using mass nudity as her material.

Ecce Homo, Latin for “Look, This man,” was originally Pontius. Pilate said this ina very contemptuous tone in front of the Jewish people after the flogging of Jesus. Pontius Pilate was probably sorry for Jesus, but he just wanted to do the people, so he put Jesus to death under the outcry of the people. At the same time,this sentence is also a spiritual meaning of Jesus on the cross with the crown of thorns on his finger.

Evelyn’s work are very distinctive. She uses a group of naked human bodies to interpret places, such as the supposedly beautiful dance room, the fundamental physiology lab, the meeting room, and so on. Nude models are placed on tables, hidden in cabinets, or stacked on the floor, appearing in a strange and twisted way to the audience like lifeless sculptures. But ironically their faces are cleverly obscured.

The tone of the whole series of work is Gothic style, dark, strange and exaggerated. The human body is composed of abstract patterns and symbols in the work, which gives people a strong sense of ritual. Although there is no violent element in the work itself, it is still shrouded in an uneasy stillness and fear, which make the viewer feel an uncomfortable depression. Photographer through such a picture is to show the human suffering naked.

— Research Summary

Gillian Wearing: Gillian’s work puts forward a multidimensional understanding of the interchanging joys and sorrows of everyday life. She uses documentary photography, film and television techniques to construct the worry, words and actions of ordinary people in their daily lives through subtle situational manipulation. This kind of work, which puts the viewer in subtly manipulated situations, makes the audience feel uneasy: in the face of her work, we just have to question some of our own inherent prejudices.

Evelyn Bencicova: Her works have a plain Gothic style, mostly dark, strange and exaggerated as the main melody, the human body is composed of abstract patterns and symbols, giving people a strong sense of ritual. Although the work itself has no vicious elements, it makes people feel enveloped in an uneasy stillness and fear, which makes people feel depressed. As a young artist, Evelyn’s work has strong quality. The background elements are simple, the colors are subtle and dark, and regardless of the fact that there is no violence in the work itself, it can somehow put the viewer in a kind of uncomfortable repression. The static fear factor is enough to take your breath away.

— Flash Setting and Light Sculptures Movement

I used different colored paper to try to achieve unusual effects of environment expression, and then tried to make my classmates move continuously in front of the camera. Then I used the camera for motion capture, so that the picture was blurred.Here are some of the more successful images I tried to catch.

In the following images, I mainly used the camera’s time-lapse photography.

I used a luminescent object, and move it quickly and use a camera to capture its path. Then I learned one thing from this attempt, I need to turn on the flash when I don’t need a black background.

But as you can see, the tracking of the light wasn’t particularly good, and because of the increased movement, most of the time my subjects were blurred. This is one of the examples I’ve listed off some of the effects of reflection, the other common examples are over-lighting, or under-lighting.
As I am not professional. I did not fully master the lighting skills. When using the colored background board and colored light, I could not let the light and shadow completely cover the whole background board, which is also the fundamental reason why I chose the black and white background board and white light in my final work.