MISSION UPDATE AND ARTIST REASERCH

Working with the charity Mission at Huddersfield for over a month now building friendships and gaining the trust of the charity users.

Each week I am trying new ways to help give their voice within my photography, Firstly the disposable cameras, second a set class planned by me and thirdly letting them take their own portrait. I know we've gone over the disposable cameras in my previous post, but more and more cameras are coming back. The more the merrier.

Last week I planned and hosted my own art class at the Misson. I wanted to use influence from artist Maryssa Dowling, The Movement of an Object,Blue Bag. Using an everyday discarded item to create something beautiful.

The project is a long-term project exploring the idea of an everyday object being passed internationally; a blue plastic bag. The bag is used as a prop writhing the photographs as the subject wishes. Some humorous images and some powerful completely different evoking different responses but the same mundane object.

I have decided to use teabags as my everyday item to give to the group to create into a piece of art. The inspiration coming from Marissa Dowling and her blue bag project.

The art class was a huge success. Everyone who attended really enjoyed and made some amazing work. Each person took the task upon with different approaches from my instruction and examples. The different ways in which a simple household item can be turned into to create artwork is very broad and the work shows how different people take this approach on. I know that the people at the art class make some amazing work and wanted to incorporate this into my project showing that these people do matter, they have the talent and shouldn’t be ignored. I want to emphasize the effort and quality of their work more than mine within my exhibition. I wanted to adopt this idea of a mundane object given to a group of people and photographing the outcome.

The next step is to set up a studio setting within mission at the art group, consisting of a back-drop camera, tripod and a trigger and allowing the subject to take their own portraits. Making a marker to where to stand for a full-length portrait so that if they don’t feel comfortable taking a picture of their whole body then they can adjust.

I want to give them as much control over their images as possible just using my knowledge about photography to help them create the outcome, I am less of the photographer but more the project director the real artist are my subjects.

Jemima Stehli a British photographer posed and stripped naked for her critics in 2000 and allowed the male to use a trigger set to her camera and take a photograph when they saw fit.

Each subject reacted differently to when they chose to take the photograph. Within this series friends with benefits (2000)Stehli has done she has tried to seize back the power of men objectifying the female body. I want to use this strategy to give my subject the power over their portrait rather than the camera and photographer retaining the power.