Semester 2 – Advertising Module
January 2017
Task is to take anĀ ordinary mundane, everyday object and put some extra into the ordinary. Ā I got a plastic cup; ordinarily used for vending or dispensing hot drinks, water, refreshments et al. Ā Create a series of images that could be used in an advertising campaign, albeit without the text, either studio shot or a location of your own choice. Ā Respond to the challenge like it was an advertising brief and in addition collaboratively assist others in the production of their objects; a yellow rubber glove, plastic hook, yarn of wool and a washing up brush. Simples.
On the day of the brief we were given the opportunity to be spontaneous and inventive with our objects, much more difficult than you would have thought, as can be seen from the above images!
February 2017
Powerpoint presentation (Ā PPCupĀ )Ā to pitch some ideas, including;Ā Idea 1: Creation of work for a magazine similar to the New Scientist, Planet Earth, The Marine Biologist and the environmental impact of plastic cups; create scupltures of sea creatures (studio) by melting the cups, using fairy lights to enhance/add to the creation.
Idea 2 was to create portraiture using myself and fellow students, studio based.
Idea 3; to take object to outside space and attempt to be inventive with its use.
My presentationĀ was shown to the group by fellow student AM; I subsequently deliveredĀ the presentation for his hook ideas. Ā Feedback and ideas discussedĀ and I decided to go with portraiture initially and then perhaps the outside location in addition.
February 2017
1st ShootĀ Contacts from the shoot in February; opted to go for black and white; simple object and simply lit. Ā Thinking about tension; the push and pull; in someway wearing the object creatively.
As I am in the below images with student AM the Ā shots were taken by anotherĀ student,Ā RR.
March 2017
2nd Shoot I am not sure where this next idea came from; somewhere subliminal, no doubt from the chemical intoxication that’s going on in my life just now. Ā I had melted a cup to see what it looked like back in February and loved the shape it became so I had kept it amongst the objets d’art that emerge from various projects. Ā I like the idea of the cup becoming the light and thought this would work well as it was white and opaque. Ā I had intended to use another student to be in the shoot but it evolved into just being myself and having students AM and IC assisting in the creative revolution that was occurring! Ā Small thing; I love the way the light highlights the fingertips on the hand holding the melted cup. Ā Electricity, light? I am almostĀ seeing a religious connotation in the chosen two images in a strange way, maybe its the poses, hence my caption of a quote by American scholar and myth studier Joseph Campbell.
3rd ShootĀ During discussions about research and ideas for our projects we were shown the work of photographers published in Ordinary Magazine,Ā whichĀ is a quarterly fine art photography magazine “featuring over 20 artists from around the world who are sent one ordinary object, which comes as an extra, to make it extra-ordinary”. Ā Issue No.4 was socks and this must have been embedded in my mind as this next shoot evolved similarly.
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Again, its that tension element mentioned early on in the project. Ā Student IC donated her lovely feet for use in these images. Ā I wanted to get sock marks embedded onto theĀ bareĀ skin of the ankle but they were not obvious as were not tight enough once removed.
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April 2017
4th Shoot I subscribe to Lens Culture which is great for seeing a huge variety of work from emerging and established photographers. Ā Annelie Vandendael (Lens Culture Emerging Talent Award 2016) and her projectĀ Sois BelleĀ inspired this next shoot. Ā The use of colour in her images tempted me to stay with the blueness of the original images but ultimately I felt I should stick with the black and white theme I have chosen.Ā Ā Although I could envisage theĀ blue one used for a bottled water campaign, possibly not!
I had the assistance of AM taking the images as I was yet again in them. Ā The images without the hands holding them are the strongest and work better.
May 2017
Little bank holiday trip to Eastbourne and along came the cup. Ā Tried a few seaside location shots but ultimately they needed quite a lot of refinement/re-shooting and time being close to final project submission I decided not to pursue them. Ā I have put the images on with severalĀ favourites.
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5th ShootĀ Referring to shoot one about creatively wearing the cups in some way led to this final shoot using IC as model and AC and MS assisting with the fan, lighting, model making, etc. Ā Referencing the Apple iPod advertisements and using the cups to imitate the headphones works really well,Ā very happy with the final images and this one was a great team effort as well.
An additional shoot was done using a gas mask and the cups were the canisters that are usually placed on either side of the mask. I can’t show them here as they are not appropriate but they are in the project submission itself. Ā In the meantime here is a picture of something similar, in fact its aĀ Swedish civil defence Forsheda NBC F2 A4 Gas mask & filter!
This blog post is part of the submission for Advertising Module, Semester 2, BA (Hons) Photography documenting visual overview of methodology of final outcome.
Fiona Macphee 