Project Proposal

For my self assigned photography project in A2 I would like to look at makeup as being the main topic of what I do.  I have chosen this topic as it is something that I am passionate about and therefore something that I won’t lose interest in over the course of the months that this project is going to be taking place.  With makeup being something that I am passionate about I think this also means that I wouldn’t get too stuck in terms of inspiration or ideas on what to shoot as well.

I would like to use makeup as broad topic that I could link other topics into.  Every shoot that I would be conducting would have some kind of sub-topic that I could justify though through the use of makeup.  For example I might like to re-visit some of the formal element topics we look at last year like colour or lines.   I could use makeup to show this.

I am thinking that most of my work will be portrait based and therefore I plan to use the studio and things like the ring flash which I learned to use last year quite a lot.  This would work well for makeup as it is best for when you are shooting people up close.  The studio would also provide a clean and sterile background for me to work with and therefore the makeup would be focal point of all my work.  Though as said I am planning most of work to be portrait based (most likely using myself) I have had some ideas where I could shoot makeup itself as an object or item.

Makeup today is slowly becoming more and more recognised as a contemporary art and this something that I really want to bring across in my work.  I don’t just want to be photographing a model or myself wearing regular makeup, but actually explore the modern side to beauty.  This could allow me give certain shoots a theme, some examples being using only powder paint to create a look, crystals and gems or even something natural like flowers and leaves.  I want to bring out in my work that beauty and makeup don’t necessarily need to be the stereotypical definition of beautiful.  I want to show the more artistic, fun and ‘ugly’ side to makeup.

One aspect that I would really like to look at and include in my work is surrealism.  I want to work with this as a sub-genre to makeup as I really love doing special effect makeup and horror makeup.  The idea of creating characters from my subconscious is something that I want to experiment with and think it would add a different dimension to my portfolio.  Often in contemporary makeup design alternative products other than actual makeup itself is used to create different effects and looks - an example of this is things like paint and water colours (also the special effects makeup materials such as liquid latex that I said I would use above).  Any materials could be incorporated to create a look using makeup as well such as rhinestones and gems, feathers, natural materials, glitter etc.