Critical reflection

For my final project I wanted to explore the idea of the politics of self. My idea was to employ masks to act as a form of metaphor for the ‘front’ that we put up, like a mask, to both disguise and project our identity to others. My original idea was to provide my subjects

A Passport selfie

I had to renew my ten year passport and it is now possible to apply online and provide a digital photograph created by the applicant, this can be made with as little as a mobile phone and a plain background. Unfortunately, I don’t have a mobile with this ability; so I used my DSLR and

The Self-Portrait A Cultural History

The Self-Portrait A Cultural History, 2015, by James Hall, London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN: 978-0-500-29211-2 This book examines the history of the self-portrait, unfortunately I purchased a Kindle edition which unhelpfully doesn’t provide page numbers, this option is greyed out in the menu; so I am only able to quote location numbers (Loc) as provided

Summary for Part 5 – Self Directed Project.

Shaun Mullins, Untitled, test shots, 2020. Part five was the preparation for my fifth assignment, this assignment is a pathway to my final body of work, a self directed project which will be assignment six. My inspiration lead from my essay for assignment four, and through my reading, In Our Own Image, Third Edition, 2010,

Photography A Very Short Introduction

Stephen Edwards, Photography A Very Short Introduction, 2006, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN: 978-0-19-280164-7 (Kindle Edition). In my opinion, this is a very good book and a very important book to read for any photographer. Notes/Quotes: Documentary is said to provide its viewers with direct access to truth. In his pioneering book on the subject,

Assignment 5: Self Directed Project. (Work in Progress)

The Politics of Self & Other My idea for a theme is a critical look at how we regard ourselves and others from a political angle. I want to explore ideas of ‘self and other based upon a form of political ideology and to be more specific consider how portraits are viewed from the angles

A critical reflection.

My brief The readings, research and exercises should have led you to think about self portraiture in a variety of ways. Some practitioners deliberately play with ideas of fluidity and multiple selves, whilst still being anchored to a nominal self. Selfies, often used as self promotion, are intimately linked to their intended audience. Create a

Technical details and editing of Assignment 3

This image was created from a collage of four photographs that was first edited in Lightroom before being imported to Photoshop for the collage process. Camera, Nikon D800e, mounted to a tripod, 105mm f/2.8 macro lens, 1/250, f/3.2, ISO 100, manual focused and fired remotely, lighting: 2 x Bowens 500wt strobe lights, one through a

Reflection point – seeing ourselves through technology

As Jill Walker Rettberg in her book​ ​Seeing Ourselves Through Technology​ says, ‘[p]erhaps the reason we feel the need to take another, and another selfie, is in part that we, as the surrealists wrote in 1928, never seem able to create a photo that will ‘fully correspond to what you want to see in yourself’’’ (Walker Rettberg,

Exercise 2.6 – Candid Portrait

Working with my friend Graham, I set-up a basic studio with a barstool and a white background, I directed his poses using my camera fixed to a tripod. After 5 minutes I gave the control of the photographic direction to Graham, who firstly wanted me to take the camera off the tripod and then photograph