When? Shoot.
For this shoot, I went to Hadleigh Country Park because it has many hills and beautiful horizons which was perfect for the shoot I was planning on taking. I took my shoot just before sunset in the ‘golden hour’ of the sun because it illuminated the houses on the horizon and created excellent lighting for the shoot I wanted to take. I had the idea of doing a shoot with my friend who has been a vegan for the past two years because she was explaining to me how her views on animal cruelty and her choice of being a vegan not only impacts her choice of food but how it also impacts the little things in her life, such as making a cup of tea (the inspiration for the milk she’s holding in the images). I had the thought of doing a shoot portraying this issue of hers because Gillian Wearing’s concept is about people “express[ing] intimate thoughts or personal convictions” and I thought that this thought would create a perfect Gillian Wearing inspired shoot. I took the photos using a Canon EOS 4000d DSLR camera, with a portrait orientation for the majority of the shoot.
Original Image.
I think that this shoot and this image was very interesting and in particular, I find the sign interesting. I find the sign interesting because of the way it is written, the “VEGAN” is written in capital bold letters at the top of the sign, yet down below at the bottom half of the sign, in a thinner and lowercase lettering it states “& Proud”. I think that from an interpretational perspective it could suggest that the subject isn’t proud of her veganism or is perhaps angry at how it impacts and affects her life. It could also reflect on how, because the sign is “express[ing] [her] intimate thoughts or personal convictions”, she is too afraid to say she is proud of her veganism, due to the lack of support from the people around her – especially fellow teenagers - because statistically, only 0.5% of (American) teenagers are actually vegan. The model’s dull expression, the milk she is holding and even the small “& Proud” all juxtapose her “VEGAN” message which could emphasise how veganism is seen as a trend and is glamorised across all media platforms; whereas, in reality, it’s a choice which impacts someone’s life and affects the simple and ‘insignificant’ things in life such as making a cup of tea - all due to a seemingly innocent view on a love for the wellbeing of animals.
Developments:
Overall Adjustments.
Paper Adjustments.
Writing on the sign development:
Final Image.
For the developments of this image, I planned to utilize as much of the ‘golden hour’ sun as I could. Firstly, I did this by decreasing the highlights and whites of the image and increasing the saturation and vibrance – this allowed the ‘golden hour’ sun to reflect off of the horizon and illuminate the environment surrounding the model. I also slightly tinted the image green to make the green colours of the grass and trees more vibrant because the colour green represents nature and connotes freshness and health which reinforces the “VEGAN” subject matter of the photograph. I also developed the to sign stand out by selecting it and increasing the exposure until it was completely white and blank, ready for the bold black colours to be drawn on. I re-drew the black colours by importing the image into Procreate, this made it easy for me to manipulate and trace the slightly faded lettering on the sign, using an ApplePencil. This gave the image a fresh, new, bold look which it didn’t have before, to draw even more attention to the impactful message on the model’s sign. Finally, I also cropped the image and gave it a vignette to create a focus on the model and I also increased the grain and texture of the entire image to recreate the classic Gillian Wearing style of photograph from her ‘Signs’ collection. This message and this photograph links to my theme of ‘The World Around Us’, not only due to the links to teenage society but also due to the literal definition of a vegan’s philosophy: “rejecting the commodity status of animals” and “abstaining from the use of animal products”, meaning that vegans primarily protect ‘The World Around Us’ and also the animals in it.