Statement of Intent

For my personal investigation I intend to create a series of photographs that portray my own personal story of the struggles that took place in my life last year. I intend to tell the full story of how I was feeling within my work using the photographs to show the reality, and the illustrations to show my thoughts . I will focus on certain events that occurred and specific emotions that I was feeling at that time. For this I will take inspiration from my photographers, Heine and Georges. From Heine I will experiment with the type of illustration and the technique that he uses in which he places the illustration over the image. From Georges, I will experiment with the composition and illustration, using the technique of cutting out the main subject and illustrating around the cut out version.

I drew up some compositional ideas which will help me in my practical work and experimenting and developing these ideas.

This idea consists of a photograph of a Biology AS textbook. This idea will focus on the issue I had last year with exams. I will use different media such as illustration, newspaper and also cuttings from my own revision to show how much I tried. I plan to express how stressed I got from this situation which added to my anxiety. I will take the Photograph firstly and then cut, then copy and paste it onto a blank background and will place it in the middle of the composition so that I can illustrate all around the book.

My next idea is to show my problem of over thinking. I am a natural over thinker however especially at that period of time I am focusing on, it obviously became a bigger and more frequent issue. The photograph will be of my the top half of my body cutting off at my neck and my chest, this then leaves a space from where my head was. I will cut and paste this onto a blank new image and place it at the bottom of the composition leaving spacing for the head. I then will illustrate/scribble leading off from the neck which will represent my thoughts when I over think. I also had the idea of using ink and acrylic paint to add colour and texture.   

This idea is focusing on self harm. Originally I wasn't going to do anything for this particular topic, however I had an idea of showing a contrast to what was really going on. Therefore I would take the photograph of my hand and wrist. It will be on a blank background which will be cut and paste onto a new image. I then will illustrate flowers over the wrist with flowers and leaves. I will also draw subtle thorns amongst the flowers to show that there were deeper reasons to why this was a problem for me. Also I thought of using real flowers to stick down in the composition to add texture. I want the flowers I will illustrate to have a deeper meaning therefore I will choose specific flowers that contrast how I was feeling for example flowers that represent; love, healing, beauty ect.

 This idea is representing the battle that I have with my weight. It will show myself standing on weighing scales which will be the main subject of the composition to show that my routine was to loose weight. I will edit the photograph so that it is in black and white so that it reflects the mood of the whole composition. I will cut and place the subject of the weighing scales onto a blank page, either in the middle of the composition or towards the bottom. Lastly I will illustrate around the subject, using drawings, cuttings of newspaper and quotes. 

This compositional idea focuses on me not liking what I saw when I looked in the mirror, this links to weight as well as mental doubt about personality and worries about being liked as a person. This gives me a wide range of things that I could do with illustrating in this one, as I could focus more on my inner thoughts about things deeper than just looks. I had a couple of ideas with how I could approach this composition. Firstly, the photograph will be the back on my head and my reflection being shown within a mirror I am holding. This will be shot in the studio to give the best quality and a more dramatic effect with the lighting used. Originally I thought about within the composition, making sure that I were to leave room at the side of the reflection in the mirror to do my illustrations, then I thought about editing the whole reflection out of the mirror and then I would illustrate my own reflection as well as portraying my thoughts within the illustration. This composition will also be in black and white. 

This focuses on the topic of me feeling very disconnected with my family, and not being able to speak to any one about what I was feeling, even though I wanted to. I chose to use my mum as the subject for this idea as she was the first person who I eventually told about the issues I had. The photograph will be of my mum from the shoulders upwards, I will then cut out her profile and place onto a blank background in the bottom right corner. My illustration will start with me in the top left corner, so I will be furthest away from my mum which shows the distance I felt at that time. The spacing between me and my mum will then contain a speech bubble which will be coming out of my mouth, this will then contain words and drawings of me trying to talk to my mum. It will include things I wanted to say to her, and also drawings.