Maya Daniels is an independent photographer of Swedish descent, based in London. Her craft has been described as unique, incorporating a multidisciplinary approach to her work. Daniels’ academic background in sociology, journalism and photography has had a great impact on her artwork. She claims it has ‘given her compositions a strong focus on what she calls ‘human realities’ in a Western, contemporary environment’. Monette and Mady are identical twins who share a close relationship as sisters; as a couple they act, model and dance together around the city of Paris. They consider themselves 'inseparable'. Daniels captures the twins in and around their local town of Paris, exaggerating an 'unnatural' appearance in an everyday area. A documentation of their everyday life- going shopping, dancing etc. I find the work of Maya Daniels intriguing as many people cannot relate to Monette & Mady's story, that being 'having an identical twin'.
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Ultimately, this makes her style of work seem unnatural or unconventional, appealing to those who have never seen such a peculiar or rare existence. ‘To be a twin is provocative- it asks questions, it asks questions about singularity, it provokes singular people, it disturbs them because they’re not used to seeing two people, two individuals who are almost identical. People are not used to that’ - Monette & Mady, from ‘My Other Half’ directed by Maya Daniels. The soft lighting used throughout the collection of photos consist of a mixture of natural and studio lighting. Both are used in specific ways (directed at their faces) to highlight the intricate, identical details of both subjects, even down to their makeup and wrinkles. The consistent use of pastel tones within each photograph create a sense of purity or delicacy. I interpret this as Daniels' way of expressing the fact the twins do not need extravagant, bold coloured clothing to stand out as they do this already, attracting attention simply based on their genetic makeup.
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Monette & Mady (2010) - Maya Daniels
Though the majority of Daniels' photos were captured outdoors, on the streets of Paris, this image displays the twins in a studio setting. Takakura's photograph was noticeably captured against the green nature of the forest. Whilst Takakura's costume choice of a striking red dress and matching shoes almost go against the more subtle and subdued tones in the background, Monette and Mady are photographed in pale pink and white which compliment the white studio backdrop quite nicely. The gentle colours create an element of purity or intricateness as well as the holding of hands, establishing a strong, interpersonal relationship between the two sisters. Contrastingly, Takakura's 'twins' are in fact, not so genuine as the photographer has used cloning to create the effect that there are two individuals in the photo. This adds an element of fantasy to her work. On the other hand, Daniels documentary style of work illustrates a pair of real twins as she explores the context behind their unusual appearance.
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Hannah Maynard was one of the first photographers to use multiple portrait exposure. She was a Canadian photographer born in 1834, most well known for her experimental style of photography. She is considered as one of the pioneers of this abstract form of artwork. Takakura's technique has stemmed from the likes of Hannah Maynard.
I aim to use a mixture of both Takakura and Daniels' work to inspire my first development. I aim to use Takakura's cloning technique to duplicate the subject but make the pair appear as realistic as possible and genuine using the same documentary style, like Daniels' Monette and Mady series. |
No Speak
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I am intrigued by French photographer, Me&Edward's metamorphosis style of work. Here, he manipulates the traditional appearance of the body by merging different bodily parts. The uneasy, confusing though fascinating project is intense and perhaps a little graphic. I am drawn to this unusual form of photography as it goes against the 'normal' portrait. What was once an ordinary photo has been digitally distorted to completely alter their appearance to the point where they are almost unrecognisable. When asked why the photographer uses this pseudonym he replied: 'Because I like to think that everyone "hides" behind a mask. And concerning myself, I wanted to dissociate the self-photographer and the self-feeling. The ego-feeling is the one that we see in my photos, the one that becomes a symbol more than a human being, it becomes representative.' I found this to be rather reflective of his work as seen on the left- it could be interpreted that he intentionally 'hides' the identity of the model. I believe Me&Edward goes against conventions of traditional, everyday studio portrait in several ways. The slightly lower camera angle is an interesting choice as it usually presents the subject as holding more power, perhaps looking down on someone. Due to the title of the piece 'No Speak', we can gather that the subject feels depressed which is further emphasised by the dreary pale, subdued tones.
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Me&Edward's 'Soulless', as depicted on the right and my creation on the left have multiple similarities. I have used the photographer's technique and have made the subject faceless. This could perhaps represent a loss of identity or recognition. Nevertheless, his photograph was captured in a studio setting. I chose to take photos of my model in a corridor in monochrome which further enhances the frightening or slightly ominous tone of the piece. Both images have positioned the subject in the centre third of the frame to the create balance or symmetry within the photo. I enjoyed using metamorphosis throughout this project as a way of altering my subjects' facial appearance.
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Cindy Sherman is an American photographer born in New Jersey, best known for her conceptual portraits. Besides her more popular works, over the past couple of years Sherman has used the Facetune and Youcam Makeup apps to edit the set of images below. She has used Instagram to post these distorted self portraits. She has edited certain facial features in order to create this peculiar, fantastical collection of selfies.
'The Art of the Selfie' - ongoing project |
Ulric Collette is a French-Canadian photographer who explores genetics within in the appearance of family members. His project titled "Genetic Portraits" combines the faces of cousins, siblings, daughters, sons etc to analyse the similarities and differences between them. The artist splices together the two studio-captured images in Photoshop, creating the surreal resemblance. “I need to take a lot of pictures in a controlled environment of each model, compare the picture to one another, chose the right ones and stick them together in Photoshop,” - Ulric Collette
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Audio Transcript
To speed up the audio dubbing process, I felt the most efficient way of recording was to create a transcript of everything said in the overall video. I split up the footage into headings such as 'Jaime V.O of Mum' or 'Jaime V.O of Dad' and typed the audio. Whilst recording, I had my headphones (attached with a mic) plugged into my laptop. I had a split screen of the transcript on the left and the video playing on the right. I then pressed record and spoke over the talker as closely to the original as possible. This is something I found difficult initially and I tried different methods of copying the person's mouth movements exactly, to remembering lines, to speaking normally and matching my audio with the video afterwards. Studying the intonation of my parents' voices (the rise and fall in a voice when speaking) made the audio look even more realistic. I found some audio (my voice over of my parents) worked better than others as I closely matched the ways in which the person was speaking- how wide they open their mouth, intonation, volume etc. I felt this project worked successfully as in some audio it almost looks as if it is the original voice talking when in fact, it is my own voice. |
Part of the transcript from the interview of my mum.
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