Portraits: Revised Plan, Shoot Reflection, Contact Sheets, Experiments & Final Image

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was unable to work with a model outside of my bubble within my own house. Luckily, my backup model (who is in my bubble) was still up for the shoot, so we worked out some alterations together.

Following my tutorial with Anne, it became apparent that flowers were quite a cliche prop to use for bath portraiture. Traditionally, it links back to 'Ophelia', a painting by John Everett Millais depicting the graciously drowning titular character in Shakespeare's Hamlet. As such, instead of yellow roses I sought out something else to represent what keeps the model 'afloat' when mental health issues creep up, hiding their identity from them. The model shared that they use video games and music as an escape and to bring them out of depressive ruts, which gave me a new idea.

What if I wrote out extracts from the score of the model's favourite piece of video game music, cut them up, waterproofed the pieces and used them as photoshoot accessories?

To accommodate this, I would be taking on more in my secondary role as stylist, meaning I'd be responsible for makeup application and adorning the arms/hands with these strips of paper. Since this was tentative, I did a test beforehand. Using a Sharpie felt tip, black ballpoint pen, gel pen and pencil I drew music notes on a piece of manuscript paper and sprayed it with Scotchgard. After leaving it to dry and wading it in warm water, it proved to be effective - the paper didn't disintegrate and the ink/graphite didn't bleed. This meant I could proceed with copying down bits of 'From Past to Present' from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, composed by Jeremy Soule. I also wrapped my fingers in music score-themed washi tape and submerged my hand it water, which surprisingly proved to be water resistant, become slightly tranluscent and letting some skin colour show through.

Here are some revised thumbnails I sketched after these tests:

I was also inspired by music artist Poppy's most recent album art and a fan interpretation of it - it influenced my vision for the black streaking makeup coming from the model's facial orifices. These also echo my earlier idea of using black sclera contact lenses, or simply editing some of the photos to black out the eyes (independently from the assessment).

The eyeliner I bought was advertised as waterproof, but the low price unsurprisingly meant that it wasn't quite up to standard. Nevertheless, it gave a nice effect on the model's face. I ended up even applying some to a piece of waterproofed manuscript paper, symbolising how depression can bleed into hobbies and comforts, rendering them temporarily dissatisfying, tiring or uninteresting. I experimented with single black streaks and multiple streaks, the latter turning out to be more compelling.

For health and safety reasons, I inquired about the bath bomb and was assured that no allergic reactions had been reported, only natural ingredients are used in the company's products and the main irritant found in bath bombs (SLS - a foaming agent) was not used. The bath bomb was certified by a board of chemists. I was also recommended to use flash in my photography for a metallic effect, so I experimented with this during the shoot.

My classmate Esme also suggested that I play the model's chosen piece of video game music during the shoot to encourage a more natural emotional reaction in the portraits. This was a great idea, so I used Spotify on my phone to play the Elder Scrolls V soundtrack and the model found that it put them in the moment more.

I ended up not using a reflector or my LED desk lamp, because the flash gave a particularly interesting effect. I also felt that using colour gels would take away from the stark black and white look, but next time I would try it with them - perhaps they could add to the emotional overtones of the portrait, what with the theme being mental health (e.g. yellow gel for happiness, blue gel for sadness, etc). I also forgot to set the white balance for a cooler tone in the rush of the moment, which I would make time to sort next time, though it's easily fixed with a tad of post-processing (shown below). Overall, I am relatively happy with the results, but missed a lot of planned steps out of anxiety, and aim to better control this next time I shoot portraiture. On a side note, since the water was hotter at the beginning during the test shoots, we got a few shots of the steam rising up, creating a hazy effect in front of the model, which was a pleasant visual surprise.

In terms of taking inspiration from Tim Walker (my chosen photographer to research), I staged a somewhat elaborate image and provided an environment (though small) for my model to interact with. Some specific direction was given to help achieve the compositions I had planned out beforehand (e.g. hands to face, holding breath underwater, furrowing eyebrows), but afterwards I was looser with the posing, asking the model to act out some hypothetical situations or evoke a certain mood, capturing how they interpreted my prompts. This is a technique that Walker often uses, inspired by his former mentor Richard Avedon. Walker also notably refers to 'darkness' as a necessary force in good portrait photography, asserting that "black is beauty". He believes that photography is often the "manifestation of one's psyche", which I related to a lot, going for a theme that I could personally relate to - mental health issues and identity inform one another in my experience, and this experience informed my work. Furthermore, I was inspired by Walker's milk bath shoot with Carey Mulligan and the stark contrast of the black eyeliner thickly applied around her eyes in the image, as well as the dramatic, defeated posing, black line-style makeup and dark tones in his promotional portraits of Cillilian Murphy for 'Grief is the Thing with Feathers'.

147 photos were taken in total, including some shots of purely the bath bomb dissolving as it was quite mesmerising. Here are the contact sheets for this shoot, including test shots:

Here are some candidates, illustrating what I would have done to polish the photos, as well as some more experimental edits that were just for fun. The first is a hazy, ethereal curves experiment, second and third are desaturation and colour-grading experiments, fourth is inspired by the saturated pinks seen in some of my inspiration moodboard images, and fifth is a bizarre complimentary-colour clash, resembling blood and frostbite. I enjoy how the model looks as if they're sleeping in some images, as oversleeping and insomnia are extremely common symptoms of people experiencing a depressive episode, something that the model and I had both understood.

 

Here is the final single image, which I arbitrarily titled 'If It Bleeds' after my favourite song off of this new aforementioned Poppy album that inspired the model's makeup. I feel that this title nicely wraps up the portrait's theme.

IF IT BLEEDS

Aperture: f/5
Exposure: 1/125 sec.
ISO speed: 800
Focal length: 41 mm

Successes of this image: Interesting angle and expression, creative us of mise-en-scene, decent exposure, edgy shapes of wet hair behind model, executed vision nearly fully, model's black shirt helps create sinking illusion.

Downfalls of this image: Could have more creative colour cast than just flash, props and makeup could have been applied more delicately/controlled (i.e. black streaks all the way down neck bleeding into water, tape secured with intention, etc.), model could have been directed to look more emotional.