Proposal

Keywords:  Portraits
                     Outside
                     Self Portraits
                     Fashion
                     Meanings
                     Unusual
                     Narrative
                     Art
                     Studio
                     Body
                     Shadow
                     Age
                     Changes
                     Skin
                     Body image
                     Feelings

            
                    

Overview/Interests:  

When looking at what my interests are one of the things I enjoy doing is taking portraits whether that is self-portraits or portraits of other people. I haven’t had chance to do this a lot and most of the time had other ideas that didn’t involve people but this is something that I enjoy doing I would like to do a lot more of. Another project I am doing at this time is on images of people and I am really enjoying doing it and feel like I would like to do a lot more with portrait photography. My main interest is looking at the idea of body image and peoples different views on their own body image and others. 

Intro/ Research Question:

Because of my interest in doing portraits my starting point is going to be to research into different kinds of portraits eg. Self-portraits, fashion, documentary and from this I am going to have more of an idea of the direction I would like to go in. My main idea for this project is to look at body image either different people’s views on body image or to stick to one main idea and question about body image. One of my ideas was to focus on my friend Sarah, sticking to the idea of body image still. She is undergoing a breast enlargement on the 14^th January and I thought this would fit in perfectly with my project. Or research for what I will be focusing on. I have already took before images of her and plan to take images throughout her journey, even if I don’t use this idea for this project it will be good research for my blog and on the idea of body image. I am going to start researching into the body and body image also portraits of people to see if these ideas will fit in with my project.

Research Question:

To create a body of work that involves portraits around the idea of body image.

Aims and Objectives:

- To research more into portraits.
- To research photographers who have done projects on portraits.
- To research social media in relation to portraits.
- To find visual references in relation to the topic I have chosen.
- To choose a final theme for what I want my images to be.
- To show my skills in what I am trying to achieve and to show what I have learnt here at university.
- To decide how I would like my work to be shown.
- To create a body of work that fits in with the brief and my developed research.
- To research body image.
- To research plastic surgery.
- To research media and body image.
- To take visual test shoots for my ideas.
- To decide what my final project idea will be.

Rationale:

 To start off with I am going to have to research a lot of areas to figure out what my final idea will be, all based around body image. I plan on starting my research with my first few ideas I had for the project. That being self-portraits, body image, portraits in general and portraits and body image in social media. I feel like this will be a good starting point because at this moment in time I have no fixed idea. I am going to research all this through the internet, books, and magazines and looking at other photographers work. I have now decided that I will be defiantly doing my project based around body image but I have not yet decided on a final idea that I will be using. 


General Methodology:

I’m going to research into body image and people’s views on it. Also body image within the media. I feel like this will be a good starting point for me to look into and is a subject that really interests me which will help me keep more focused on my research. I am going to research plastic surgery and also airbrushing and how the media is very involved in how people look at body image. I’m also going to research about magazines and fashion photographers and images and how photographs have changed in magazines over the years. I might also do a survey asking people about their own body image and how they feel about it and how they feel about airbrushing etc. Overall I think I have quite a lot of research to do but I feel like I know how I am going to start it and I have an overall idea about where I am going with this project and where I’m going to start with my research.


Data Collection and Analysis:

To collect my research I am going to use mainly the internet and books from the library I’m also going to look at magazines as I think they will be a vital point in my research. I am also going to research photographers who do work that influence my own. Another big part of my research will be looking at interviews with models and videos talking about body image and the media also about the pressures of looking a certain way and why people would want to change how they look, whether it is through plastic surgery or other non-permanent ways.


Qualifications and Restrictions:

The restrictions I think I might have while doing this project is finding models to take images of and getting them into the studio. Although I am not too worried about this as I already have a few in mind that I know will be able to help me by modelling for this project.



Specialist Needs- Equipment access, workshops, training etc.:

For this project I am going to need equipment access as I will be using the studio for my images which means I will have to book out the studio and also use the lighting for the studio etc. I have included a weekly timetable for this module so I can keep on top of what
am doing and no when certain things need to be done by and what week to do them. This has already been done as I will need it to keep a good timescale for throughout the project.

Initial Bibliography:

Books:

-Body Image: Sarah Grogran, 1999
-Eating disorders, body image and the media: BMA, 2000
-The body, culture and society, an introduction: 2000
-Womansize, the tyranny of slenderness: Kim Chernin, 1983
-The body in society an introduction: Alexandra Howson, 2004
-Eating disorders and magical control of the body: Mary Levens, 1995
-Body consciousness: Seymour Fisher, 1973
-The psychology of appearance: Nichola Rumsey, 2005
-Am I thin enough yet? The cult of thinness and the commercialization of identity: Sharlene Hesse-Biber, 1996
-Culture, society and the media: 1988
-Career opportunities in the fashion industry: Peter Vogt, 2002
-Media and everyday life in modern society: Shaun Moores, 2000

All these books link in with body image and the media and how people view themselves and their body. They also look at how people in society deal with the media and weight loss due to modelling in magazines etc. I feel like all these books are a good starting point for research for my FMP and all have something useful included in them for what I want my FMP to be about.

Magazines:

- i-D magazine
- Pigeons and peacocks
- Vogue

I am using these magazines to look at the models in them and how they are airbrushed and portrayed in the magazines themselves also to look at what kind of models they use and how much editing is done to the images.

Internet:

http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/excerpt.asp?id=2

http://www.cmch.tv/mentors_parents/bodyimage.asp

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/teenage-pressures-media-and-body-image/5497.html

http://www.urbanette.com/obsessed-with-thin-media-gone-too-far/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2122177/Meet-real-life-Barbies-Internet-craze-sees-teenagers-turn-freakish-living-dolls.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/769290.stm


All these websites also help with my research showing about body image, models, airbrushing eating disorders and the media. All these things link into what my FMP will be about and is all important research for my subject.