Fear.

In this shoot I wanted to portray how the emotional side of mental illness impacts us, I wanted to show paranoia and how we can be afraid of what is not there. 

In these images I firstly took basic images of myself, I then took separate images of my arms reaching and grabbing. Then I added the two together to create this type of image where someone appears to be being attacked by a series of arms. Out of all these image this is my favourite one because of the positioning and number of hands, the image is not too over crowded it is simplistic. 

This image relates to more fighting your demons, instead of hiding away from your fears you face them . Again this is a very simplistic image because there is only two objects present, however I believe it has a strong symbolic meaning. If you face your fears then you wont be afraid anymore. 

Once again in this image I have showed someone shying away from the hands reaching out to grab them. With a mental illness many people can believe that surreal and non realistic things can harm them, however in reality non of it is true. I believe this image shows this as it clearly shows fear even though many of us would not be afraid of arms or hands. 

Abuse

In this shoot I wanted to look at how mental illness can be a form of abuse, however I wanted to look at the victims rather than the abusers.

In this image I firstly began by adding bruises to the face through using the paint brush and applying different colours to the facial area. Then I decided to add an effect onto the whole image as I liked the way the poster edge effect made the image more surreal. 

In this image I simply added different tone using the brush tool around the eyes,mouth and cheeky. I wanted to make the bruises look old and look painful on the skin. I creating this image as it allowed me to experiment with what tones worked best on the face. 

Plans for the next shoot.

In my next shoot I will be looking at three aspects of mental illness, these will be violence and paranoia. For violence I will show how someones violent outbursts can have an impact on another person, I will show the bruises left behind by violence. For paranoia I will show how someone feels trapped and everyone is after them, I plan to show a series of hands and arm creeping in to grab someone. And finally for the third I will be showing a traditional and surreal view of mental illness. In the past when someone was mentally unstable they were seen as being cursed, this is why I will show levitation to represent this. 

Skinny vs fat

In this shoot I wanted to focus on weight and how it can become a mental illness, in todays society weight is a massive focal point but when does it become a form of mental health problem. 

In this image I wanted to show how many women's perceptions of weight is many focused on being super skinny like the super models they see in magazines. The stick thin arms and waist has become a iconic image which many women aspire too. However is this a healthy obsession or is it a form of mental illness. I believe that extreme dieting and anorexia to achieve a height is a form of mental illness and should not be encouraged. I wanted to show through this image who a obsession caused by mental illness can become extremely unhealthy and un-natural. 

In this image I wanted to show how someone can view their own bodies in a negative way, they may look completely different to they way the think they are. The form of mental illness linked to weight it when the brain makes you believe you are a different size than you are in reality. This can lead to eating disorders on both ends of the scale, I have tried to show this in my image. For example someone may be skinny but views themselves as fat, or vice versa a fat person believes they are skinny and healthy. 

In this image I wanted to show how a mental illness also to do with weight can be denial, obesity is a growing problem and many fail to acknowledge this. In this image I wanted to show how someone may be overweight but happy because they believe this is normal and healthy.

Face shoot.

This is one of the images where I did not remove the face in the background, this is because I thought the surreal symmetry of the image worked well. I like the way that the expression on the actual face is exactly the same as the on the paper. I also changed the image to black and white so that the focus would be taken away from the colour and the focal point would be a facial features.

This is one of the images where I have removed the face in the background in order to leave a blank and empty space. One of my favourite qualities of this image is that the paper is wrinkled which means the image of the face is distorted. The distortion adds a bit more excitement to the image and it shows how mental illness can distort someones personality and make them feel completely changed.

Once again in this is another image where the face has been removed from the back drop, I like this image because it looks like the image on the paper is fighting the rip. The face looks shocked and the hands look like they are trying to stop the paper from coming apart. This shows that some people can fight mental illness with support and medication, people can fight disorders.

In this image I wanted to show how someone hides behind their features instead of showing who they actually are in life. From the outside someone may look normal but on the inside they could be over come by some form of mental disorder. You can only tell with a few physical disorders but most only impact your inner thoughts.

Work Record.

What I achieved

I believe that this shoot went really well and I achieved exactly what I wanted from these images. I firstly took head shots of myself and then printed them out, then I held them infront of my face and ripped them. Then once on photoshop I edited out my face in the background of the image. I achieved the photo’s I wanted and gained some extra good ones which also fitted in with my split personality theme. 

This is one of the images that worked the best, I was able to remove my face from the background but still making it look realistic. I love the way it looks like the happy personality is gone and there is nothing but an empty space left under it. This was just the image I wanted to portray a split personality. 

This is another image from the shoot part of me things this is a good image but the other part believes it is not as good, I am split. This is because if it was just a snap shot of the face instead of the whole body it would have looked better. However the hands in the photograph really set the image off. 

Idea development

For my next shoot I am going to be looking at eating disorders as a mental illness, I will be looking at what effect it has on the body when someone does not eat correctly. I will be doing this shoot from home and using make-up techniques to enhance the look of anorexia. I want to make it seem as it the body is decaying because of a lack of food. 

Hand.

This image I took on a summers day out on a shoot, however I wanted to image to look cold and dark not warm and vibrant. So I selected the branch which looks like a long skinny set of fingers, I then in-versed the selection and made the background black and white. By doing this the branch stands out a lot more and highlights the intensity of the branch/hand.

BARBIE.

This is an image from my shoot of a Barbie doll where I have made my own interpretation of Mariel Claytons work. In this image I used to glowing edges tool to create these tones and intense outlines of shapes, this image works well because it is so powerful and surreal.

Dolly.

In this image I firstly began by adding different tones around the dolls face to enhance it, for example I added red tones around her eyes. This made the doll look more creepy , then I wanted to split the doll up and not have a specific focal point. I have showed all the features of the doll in this image but in an alternative way.

Woods.

I captured this image in some woods during the day, however I wanted to achieve a dark scary image. So I darkened the image and added a lens flare as the moon piercing through the tree's to create a larger atmosphere for my image.

Plans.

What I plan to do 

In this shoot I plan to take images of myself in the studio, I will take a piece of paper and rip it in-front of my face and take general shots of my face. Then on photoshop I will transfer my face onto the ripped piece of paper so it looks like I am ripping my own face in half. This will represent schizophrenia or spilt personality disorder. I may have trouble with the editing techniques but it will allow me to experiment with photoshop which will allow me to develop my work on this further in the future. 

What I plan to achieve

In this shoot I plan to achieve images which show split personality disorder or schizophrenia disorder. I want my images to just be simplistic and not dive too much into meaning of the disorder but show someone simply splitting themselves in half. And maybe showing that they are a fragile person who is easily torn apart. I want my image to look just like this where the background is clear so that it actually looks like he is tearing his face apart.

Spin.

I created this image through slow sync, I wanted to show an interpretation of mental illness. Through keeping the body completely still and just moving the head I have achieved an image which shows someone loosing their mind. However this image shows more of a personal side to how someone faced with mental illness may feel.

Smash.

This is a picture from my "smash" shoot, I completely removed the dolls head and love how the ridges of the chin and neck compliment the image. Also I added darker tones to the seems and edges of the dolls body to make it look more old and worn. I believe this image works so well because it is so simplistic.

Best work so far.

Here is a slide show of my top work so far.