Wear A Mask of Yourself- Final Result

When I first started trying to think of how I wanted to set up the scene for the Photo shoot I began with the idea of a humorous/ ironic piece. The idea of being in a place that represents health and vitality such as the fruit and vegetable section of a supermarket was going to be the contrast to the "dead eyes" however I found it difficult to pose or find any of the photos take that I really liked.

 I then went out of this idea of trying to make something funny and decided to create a photo that was more intimate, The head shot forces the viewer to look upon my face and makes my 'eyes' the focal point.

 The final decision I make for this piece was to have myself drinking within the image. The thought behind this was to look the viewer directly in the eye as I did something destructive.  Drinking alcohol directly from the bottle suggest no self control however the direct eye contact with the camera implies that I am fully aware of what I'm doing.

Make a mask of yourself-Experimentation

The development process of this was purely a trail and error method in the beginning. The first two attempts where focused on creating the shape of my pupils and making them comically large however after reviewing it when I was photographed wearing them they didn't look as well crafted or interesting as I wanted them to. 

It was then that I started to re think how I was going about creating the "dead eyes". Since I see through my glasses all the time shouldn't my mask incorporate them into it. And That is when they began being the windows to my "dead eyes"  It took a few attempts to get them to fit the shape of my glasses however even though they are a lot smaller that I originally intended they look much better because of the subtle way they have been added to my face to distort it and create the mask.

Wear A Mask Of Yourself-Initial Ideas & Development

I started focusing on my two most obvious attributes my hair and loud mouth however after experimentation on the composition of these features I realised it just looked like a mutated broccoli. I turned my idea towards Hyenas my favourite animal and an animal I heavily identify with, I started looking more at a more personal mask/ concept so I began thinking about my love of Hyenas, random historical facts and my brightly coloured hair which led onto further development focusing on the idea of binging all these attributes together.  

After putting all the elements together on a paper it became obvious that this was too busy and by having multiple different elements and ideas instead of one that I could focus on and develop I was taking away from the effectiveness of the final piece. 

I decided to focus on the idea of creating "dead eyes" I wanted it to contain a humours twist of instead of being just black wholes have skeletons in as they are historically symbols of death. At this point I began to practically experiment instead of theoretically because I would be the easiest and most effective way to see if an idea would work.