BRIEF
Take a self-portrait of yourself. This should tell a story about who you are. Important to make it mixed-media - not just use a photograph - add typography, graphics, layers, collage. What best portrays this? inside/ outside? A favourite place/location/room? Experiment with printers, scanners etc How can you best convey your subject area/ specialism? Use mirrors, reflections etc?
IDEA/RESEARCH
When I received this assignment, the sentence "This should tell a story about who you are." stuck out to me. My aim for this task was to create a portrait that a stranger could look at and instantly understand who I am. Since I am a big fan of investigation-style films and TV shows, I wanted to use an investigation-board-style format, where each element on the board would showcase information about me.
When looking into investigation board style media, I came across a promotional poster for the show 13 Reasons Why. Each section of the board showcased a different character and their traits. I wanted to replicate this in my project.
For the actual self-portrait, I wanted to have a Polaroid-style image to add to the investigation theme. I came across a self-portrait taken by Andy Warhol using the Big Shot camera by Polaroid. The self-portraits taken by Warhol have a very unique style which I found interesting. I felt that it fit in well with my theme so tried to imitate that style with my portrait.
I drew a rough outline of what I wanted the project to look like to help me during production.
PRODUCTION
Production started with making the polaroid. I took photographs of myself using a Nikon D5300 on a tripod and a remote shutter control. When taking the photos, I experimented with using flash. After reviewing the photographs, I decided to go with flash on since it was more accurate to the style seen in Warhol's portraits.
In my plan, I had included a newspaper. To make this, I used Adobe Illustrator. Despite not being a real newspaper, I wanted it to look real, so I added a grey background to match the colour of the paper used for real newspapers. I also add grain to the text to try and replicate the look of a newspaper that has been through a printing press.
To make the map look used, I folded and scrunched the paper to add texture often seen in a real map.
With all of the elements ready, I could make the final investigation board. I laid everything out on the board, trying different compositions until I was happy. I then added the pins and red thread. The board could then be photographed to get the final self-portrait.
EDITING
To make the self-portrait match the style of Andy Warhol's, I had to edit the photo in Adobe Lightroom. I wanted the photo to look like it was taken on a disposable camera. I adjusted the exposure, shadows, whites and blacks until I achieved the look I wanted. I also added grain to make the picture look as though it was taken with an older camera.
Once I had taken photographs of the final product, I needed to change some elements using Adobe Photoshop. I changed the cinema ticket to show my favourite film, Toy Story. I also changed the train ticket to Reading West, to showcase my journey from Reading to Portsmouth for university.
OUTCOME
Although I was happy with the outcome of this project, I feel that the result could have been better with more time. If I were to continue working on this project, I would add more elements to the investigation board. this would add more life to the photograph and make the board look more accurate to a real investigation board, which is usually more chaotic.
It would also be interesting to make the project interactive, with elements on the board showing more content when hovered over. This could work as a landing page for my portfolio, with each element of the board showcasing work.
