M.A.S.H: Self-Portrait Photography III

Sunday 7 November 2010

Self-Portrait Photography III > My Veil Shoot

Following on from 'Self-Portrait Photography I featuring Lara Jade' and 'Self-Portrait Photography II featuring Josefine Jönsson' where I'm researching artists and experimenting for my graphics project 'Who Am I?', I've decided to take some more conceptual self-portraits of my own. Self-portraits are one of the best ways to practice and get started in any photography involving people and portraiture. You are in control of you own expressions, angle, pose, lighting, so ultimately the photograph is all yours. Seeing Lara Jade's self-portraits from such an early age inspired me to get shooting and be creative with portraits. I believe creative self-portraits shouldn't be 'how pretty I can look' without any meaning to it, there should always be a story and self-portraits in particular, as you're conveying yourself through a photograph. I've been trying to 'shock' and show people that I'm not afraid to purposefully taking an ugly photograph of me if the concept is more important than outer beauty. I've posted some pretty dark photos on Facebook and DeviantArt and some of my friends have called me scary, freaky etc which is the reaction I want to get!

This shoot is the most explicit to date and with fashion magazines revealing bodies more and more and suggestive poses now; nudity is very much accepted as part of art especially in Europe.

Apparently this reminds my mother of 'The Way We Were' album cover by Barbra Streisand.

The theme for this shoot was to show a juxtaposition of two sides of me. Exploring sexuality & faith. I'm from an Islamic background however my close family don't practice Islam as my brother and mother are Atheist; me on the other hand, I'm finding my spirituality and believe there is God somewhere. I've currently decided to settle on calling myself a 'spiritual agnostic' however this is most likely to change as I explore further.

The veil is in reference to Islam where women wear hijabs to cover themselves up; the meaning of hijab is modesty, privacy, and morality. Of course I wanted to contrast the meaning of a hijab with explicitly. I believe all women should have the right to feel sexy, regardless of religion, status, colour etc.I wanted to take these shots in black/white to create deep shadows and a more mysterious effect which wouldn't look as good in colour.