OBJECT & BODY

UNIT ASSESSMENT

Initial idea: body

Immigration in nowadays British society is understood as one of the main country problem. According to local people minds here is too many foreigners who came to the country in order to profit, steal or get the benefits from local government. This is the side of immigration which is seen by local people. Nevertheless, I as an immigrant myself can say that people are coming in order to create better life for their families, in order to get the European education, in order to find their own way for living. They are leaving their families, loved people, homes and are going abroad where they also face lots of challenges. In my body project I want to find three different immigrants who lives or works in the Medway area and represent their life stories which will be reflected on their portraits. "The scale of contemporary immigration offers up plenty of statistics, often cited and analysed in the media. But behind each number lies a story, and these stories often remain untold. (Caroline Irby)

Research: Immigration UK
In England and Wales there were five local authorities which saw their population increase by 11% or more in the five years since 2001. The immigration to the United Kingdom had large increase since the European union has been expanded by 10 new countries in 2004. Approximately 700,000 foreigners from the East Europe have came to the country at that time.

UK public opinion toward immigration

The evidence clearly shows high levels of opposition to immigration in the UK. In recent surveys, majorities of respondents think that there are too many immigrants in the UK, that fewer immigrants should be let in to the country, and that legal restrictions on immigration should be tighter. Around three quarters of the population are hostile to immigration (both legal and illegal). People in Britain are more likely than the people of other nations to view immigration negatively to see immigration as a problem rather than an opportunity, and to view the immigrant population as already too large. The public is much more positive about the children of immigrants: two-thirds report positive their integration.

Immigration benefit for the UK

Two-thirds of the rise in United Kingdom population is due to immigration. Experts believe that without immigration to the UK the population could go into decline, shrinking the working age population and compounding the problem of how to support an ageing society.

Visual references

I was interested in how the immigrants was captured in the 20th century America. These days immigrants where captured in documentary photography during their arriving. Pictures made by Augustus Francis Sherman.

Adam Amanguel

His series "Day laborers which presents laborers who every day are looking for job which lets them to earn just less than federal poverty threshold in the US. I liked this series because of portraits simplicity and compositions in which the main object person is composed in the centre but his environment is also presented.

Artists self-portraits

I was interested how different artists (Feuerbach, Nadar, Van Gogh, Rembrant, Picasso, Cezanne) used to present themselves in the portraits. There is tendency that most of the painters liked the idea of "half of the face" presentation. One use the light in order to create shadow on one face side, other captures himself in half of profile position which more presents just one side of the face.

Different lighting
Portraits made by Yousuf Karsh, Rembrandt, Gustave Courbet. In these portraits I liked the lighting choices where one side of the face is presented in the shadow and/or other side is accentuated by light from the back.

Participant - task 1
Riikka Eiro from Finland, Europe Lives in the United Kingdom for 9 years. The main reason for immigration studies with better opportunities. The main challenges language barrier and missing of her family and friends.

Task 1
The portrait is composed by two separated pictures. The first one profile picture which represents the right face side while the second one the left. Both sides represents different countries as two worlds of participants life her homeland where she was born and grew up and country where she created her own life. For both pictures I used the shallow depth of field which was concentrated on models eyes in order to catch the deep gaze.

Participant - task 2
Konesh Siva from Sri Lanka, Asia Lives in the United Kingdom for 11 years. Reason for immigration European education and better opportunities to create business. Today Konesh is a few food stories owner.

Task 2
The participant is presented in his shop which is his own business. I chose to compose my model in the centre of the composition among shelves of various products which are sold there. In order to capture him in his own daily environment.

Participant - task 3
Prabo Cromwell from Nigeria, Africa Lives in the United Kingdom for 3 years. The main reason for immigration European education and desire to come true of his dreams. The main challenges discrimination due to the fact that he hasnt the British passport.

Task 3
The left face side was left in slight shadow as a symbol of foreigner being while the right face side - personality life within British society reflection. The out line light on the left desires and achievements symbol. Shallow depth of field which should concentrate viewers sight on the eyes.

Initial idea: object

"An estimated two million people in the UK have an addiction to some form of substance or activity. Addiction is a complex illness with physical and psychological symptoms, affecting not only the patient, but their family, friends and social environment too." (BBC Health) For my object task I want to concentrate on a particularly important problem in nowadays society addictions (alcoholism, narcotic addiction, smoking). The main idea is to represent the personality loss caused by addiction.

Research: Heroin Addiction in the UK

Heroin addiction is one of the main drug problems in the UK today. The British Medical Journal, the Lancet has described heroin as the most dangerous and addictive of the commonly abused drugs on the streets today. From 2009, the use of Class A narcotics, including heroin, had risen to 3%, approximately 1.2 million drug users throughout the country. During this period there was also a sharp rise in deaths due to substance abuse and nearly 3,000 people are thought to have lost their lives due to heroin addiction. Death due to illegal drugs use is the third most common killer amongst Britain among 15 to 34 year old people. In the UK are over 300,000 children living with parents who have a serious drug dependency.

Drugs impact for the health

Narcotic drugs damage the nervous system. Narcotic drugs have adverse effects on vision, hearing and the cardiovascular system. Overdoses of narcotics can cause death. Use of narcotics leads to spread of AIDS virus when an infected addict shares needles with an uninfected addict. Narcotics reduce the activity of central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), the person feels drowsiness, and sleep takes place.

Social effects of drugs addiction

For addicted people their main priority in life is addiction. Someone in the grip of an addiction can become selfish, self-centred and oblivious to other peoples concerns. Things such as paying the mortgage and bills or other day to day issues of home are no longer important to them. This often leads to a breakdown in the marriage or relationship. They may have started to go absent for no good reason, not completed their duties or stolen from colleagues and/or the company. This results in that employee losing their job which then impacts upon their home and family life. Addicted people may become secretive or deliberately offensive; selfharm; lie, cheat or steal; or place their need for their addiction above their family and friends. The addictions have the power to change certain structures of a persons brain which have a dramatic affect upon that persons personality.

Visual references: Irving Penn

"CIGARETTES" New York, 1972 Penn captured the cigarettes which were left in the street. This Penns series was my inspiration for addiction idea.

Peter Lippmann

I liked series simplicity and how photographic choice to use the black background brings more details on main object.

George Benson
"flowers have an intimate relationship with death as they are what we use to mark life passing. I understood that death object using can be appropriate for my own project. As a symbol of dying personality.

Different artists flowers

I was interested in how artists used to present flowers in their works. I liked the Edward Steichen Heavy roses the most because of the composition and background choices. This picture is focused on the texture and forms of the flowers what is needed for my own project.

Final image
The main object is the flower in the beginning of the decay what is the symbol of weakening of personality caused by addiction. Black background - dark addicted persons view of life in which every simple but loved things are gone (family, friends, job, happiness and etc.) the only thing that now matters is his or her addiction. The white powder on the flower reminds the drugs such as heroin or cocaine which are burdening the person's life.

Critical appraisal
I was really interested in both of my projects issues. I have read some useful and informative articles and interviews which gave me strong understanding about it. In my view my research supports my projects concept. Nevertheless, it may be improved. Maybe it would be useful to use more and various sources. My visual choice was considered by me before my shoots. I suppose that it translates my idea because all choices were chosen for particular object.

 I supposed I managed my studies quite well, but in my view I could do that better. For instance my research and time management should be improved in the future. I think in the future I need to spend more time with idea developing and research which can help me to do so. If you spend more time just thinking about your idea but you have not references for that it can be difficult to express or even create it in the final. The most challenging for my was research for relevant articles and interviews which can support my idea. I tend to believe it will be alright if I manage to spent some more time with it in the beginning of idea developing.