Windows
Editing Photos
In this photo I decided not to layer over the faces as I wanted to be able to see my parents faces and they didn’t match exactly. I decided to put it underneath but that then created a line in the photograph so I decided to erase around the photo so only the faces of me and Jack would come through. I think it works really well having it over their clothes. I think the space at the top is too empty and so could layer something else to build that up. Also there are alot of lines which are distracting in the background. But I think putting it in black and white gives it an older feel.
This was another photo of layering my face over my mums but this time I tried to look more like her and line the photo up so it matched together better. Again I erased parts so that it looked more like one image. This is my favourite photo because it really does look like one image and shows how alike me and my mum are.
This photo actually scared me quite abit how much me and Jack look like my parents. I think matching them up worked on this one as were not looking straight on in the photograph.
This photo I think works really well because it looks like I’m in the photograph. The black and white worked really well as the colours didn’t match when it was in colour.
Dressing up as Mum
This photo was taken on my dads iPhone as a practise to see how the photos on my disposable would come out. I wanted to make sure the composition was right. I wanted the table cloth in as I love the pattern and how old fashioned it is. Also we have an old fashioned tv in our kitchen which adds to the affect. The only thing that stands out to me as modern is the clock on the wall. When dressing up as my mum I used this photo as inspiration. I love my mum in this photo as she’s all dressed up and looks happy. 
I tried to copy her posture of arching her back and smiling right at the camera. I tried to look like her as much as possible so I curled my hair and put it up and put red lipstick on. I also borrowed one of her dresses, which I now where all the time! I love the pattern on it and it reminds me of the dress in Stacey Whitakers photo ‘Iris.’ I showed this to my friend Beth to get a critique of the photo and she said I looked like my mother, and that she loved how my house had old furniture in. She said to improve my next photos I could go to a different setting, one where my mum has had photos taken before, also I could layer old photos and new ones. Im going to take her comments on and hopefully go to different locations. Hopefully when I get the photos developed they’ll look as good, however they won’t have the colour affect I’ve put on the photo. However I can scan them in and change them.
In this photo I wanted to copy the picture of my mum on the phone but I decided that using my house phone would make it look too modern. I picked the lounge to take this photo as it has less modern things in and I really like the composition with the piano in the background with ornaments placed on top. I managed to find clothes like my mum was wearing so it makes me look even more like her. I again put a filter on, the same as the first photo but faded it quite alot because I don’t want all the pictures to look the same as none of the one’s of my mum do. I think this is one of my favourites as it has the exact same pose as the origional. 
Putting My Dad Into My Grandad’s Slides
I wanted to use old images and new and combine them some way and this seemed the perfect way. I projected my Grandad’s slides onto the walls of my barn and got my dad to pose in them. Some of the photos I love because theyre funny and you can clearly see my dad but others I found were too dark to use and there wasnt enough light shining on my dad for him to be seen. My favourite is either the one of my dad in the pram and my dad swearing insinuating that he was doing that as in the actual photo his hand is blurred or the one of my dad in the caravan with his family. In that photo he looks like he’s actually there and properly part of the photo.
Stacey Whitaker Email
When on Stacey Whitaker’s website I noticed she had her mobile number on there so I decided on a whim to try and contact her and she replied! She gave me some really good insight into her photos that would help me in analysing her work and also gave me inspiration to do my own photos in a style like hers.
Stacey Whitaker (Artist Research)
After graduating with a first class honours degree in Editorial & Advertising photography in 2001 Whitaker was chosen as one of the Metro Imaging Student bursary winners and was also asked to exhibit as part of the Young British Artists Exhibition at the Hereford Photography Festival and at the Fototage International in Herten Germany with her ‘Family Album’ project. She has also exhibited for the BBC as part of their ‘Who do you think you are’ series and taken part in the Leigh Art Trail with my personal projects. She then went on to work as a Black & White Printer for the Imperial War Museum, London and then a Portrait photographer. Since getting married and starting her own family her photographic interests have moved more into a Lifestyle genre of photography.
The collection is based on the concept of family photography. She used herself to perform each picture using costumes, props and locations, which relate to various time periods and familial activities, they are by no means self-portraits. She was acting out these familiar roles of women within society. She also has changed the format, size of image, and type of paper to relate closely to each time period. Family photography is taken less seriously than other art forms, but it is by far the most popular form of photography and is an important part of most people’s lives. She wanted people to be able to relate their photos with hers. When you explore other people’s albums you are immediately compelled to link them to familiar stories or tales from your own family history, but more than often you can never envisage the reality behind the image. It belongs to a completely different person, with different life experiences, and it is these hidden mysteries that make the topic so interesting. The only information disclosed is the characters name and the date the image was taken, therefore you are only provided with the boundaries of the time period in which the image was supposedly recorded, and are therefore left to appropriate each photo as you would with your own family experiences, constructing your own narrative.
My favourite photo is ‘Iris 1938’. It’s Whitaker dressed up as Iris (her Grandmother’s cousin) in a patterned dress with short blonde hair on a country road. Fashion is a trend I can see throughout her photos as its important to the photo to create the illusion that it’s taken at that time. The road is long with branches along the side which create a nice texture, something else to look at and gives the photo another dimension. She’s standing up right and looking straight at the camera. The photo is in black and white which gives it an old look to it, some of the photos are in colour and its to create the effect that it’s taken in 1938. The title of the photo gives the person an identity. This is because Stacey Whitaker wants you to create your own storyline and ideas about the person. In a way its a realistic photo as its a real person but it’s also not as she’s dressing up as a different person and its taken at a different time to what it states. There are no other effects on this photo apart from black and white as its supposed to look like a family photo, something everyone can take. I think with Whitaker’s photos she has acheived what she was aiming for as I can relate her photos to my own family experiences and can create stories in my head of these people.
Genetics
Facial Features:
Certain facial characteristics such as dimples, widow’s peak, and facial symmetry are believed to be dominant and filter down through the generations. Hand shape, finger shape, toenail shape, and unusual traits such as hair with double cowlicks often appear over generations. Fingerprint patterns have also been shown to run in families. To get an idea of what facial features your child may inherit you have to examine photos of relatives over generations. If it turns out most family members have a prominent chin or a round face, these are fairly strong traits that are likely to be passed on.
What facial features have I inherited?
The most prominent thing for me is the shape of my smile. Because my mum is constantly smiling she has permanent smile lines and I can see them starting to develop in my face, its not so much inherited but more her smiling rubbing of on me! Although the shape of her lips are similar to mine.
Another thing I think me and my mum ave in common is our eyes. When I was overlaying images they were the feature that fitted together most.
Personality:
Experts say there’s no doubt that many personality tendencies are genetically hardwired in baby from birth but experts also agree that environment has a huge influence on behavior. So even if your child has a certain personality trait your influence on her and her environment may cause that trait to be expressed to a lesser degree, in a different way, or not at all.
What personalities have I inherited?
I think something both my mum and I have is confidence. Neither of us would be embarrassed to start skipping down the middle of Leamington and singing at the top of our voices – yes we have done that before. Were both very optimistic people and very bubbly, neither of us let things get us down and I think that’s because we have each other for support.
Ria Van Dijk (Artist Research)
These self portraits of Ria Van Dijk are taken yearly, the first when she was 16 in Tilburg on the 5th September 1936. Its part of a fairground where if you win the shooting game it triggers a camera to take a photo of the person doing the shooting (you also get a cuddly toy!). Each year the by passers in the background change but she is always in the photo in the same position. She has a photo of herself nearly every year apart from during the second world war when fairs were cancelled. She now has a collection of 69 cuddly toys! All the photos have been collected into a book called ‘In almost every picture #7’.
I love these photos as there spontaneous and even though they’re the same activity they’re all showing different emotions and different people. I also love how you see her develop from a young lady at 16 to her as an old lady. I think it’s a great idea and reminds me of people who take photographs everyday to see how theyve changed. This relates to my work as its all about her memories, its something important to her and is almost a routine.
Sally Mann (Artist Research)
Sally Mann is an American photographer best known for her large black and white photos of her children. She was born on May 1st 1951. The series ‘Immediate Family’ was published in 1992. It consists of 65 photos all of her children who are under 10 years old. She was accused of child pornography but she said they were natural through the eyes of a mother. It explores the happy side of childhood such as skinny dipping and dressing up but also insecurity, loneliness, sexuality, injury and death. The three children in the photographs are Emmett (born 1979), Jessie (born 1981) who is now a model and photographer herself and Virginia (born 1985).
I really like these photos as their showing a different side to childhood. One of my favourites is the one of her daughter smoking because its such a contraversial subject to photograph. The rest of the photo is blurred out to exaggerate her. Its quite weird to see someone so young looking older. Her white dress makes her look innocent and angelic, the opposite to what she is doing. Sally Mann has managed to capture childhood in a way that noone else has. It’s not just happy children playing games its quite dark. The other photo I really like is the one of her daughter being grabbed under the chin. Its like she’s being forced to be in the photograph and the way her eyes stare at you is hipnotizing, you feel like you can’t look away.
Jess Hawkins 