Project Context

Just want to make clear what my projects about so I have broken it down into this:

The context of my subject area is of a contemporary nature, dealing with issues and representations in today’s society. The investigation through still images will be broken into age categories/stages from young girls to older women. Each category will be a mini-series; the end product will be a series of photographs that connect together through the context.

‘Too Much, Too Young?’

Stage one – Girls aged 3

From as young as 3 years of age little girls are already looking up to women, and through play interpret being young women, often they play with cookers and irons and push babies around in prams. They also like to play dress up wearing Mummy’s shoes, jewellery and make-up.

Stage two – Girls aged 10-14

This part has been completed with a series of six photographs of girls aged between 10-14. The girls are set in children’s environments such as playgrounds but are dressed and have make-up on to make them appear older than there own age.

Stage three – Girls aged 15-17

Girls in their latter teens struggle to fit into society; they are neither adults nor children. It is a time when a girl is still trying to figure out who she is and where she fits into society. The mass media is harsh on teenagers often accusing them of misbehaving, the reality is these girls are not girls and not women and are trying to find their way in society, adhere to peer pressure and understand a more grown up world.

‘Young At Heart’

Stage four – Women in their 20’s & 30’s

Women in their late twenties and thirties often revert back to adolescent tendencies through role-play and dressing up. It is often seen that they dress up on nights out and hen-do’s and go to school reunion style events. Sub-consciously are these women trying to re-live their youth?

Stage five – Women 40+

There are some women who are over the age of forty where the phrase ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ spring to mind! The concept is to capture this with women models of this age to dress inappropriate for their age as they are trying to appear younger. These women are seen wearing short mini skirts, leopard print and showing cleavage which society would interpret as the women trying to be more youthful.

Sam & Gemma

These are my best shots from my second schoolgirl photoshoot, I currently don't know which I will use as I feel I need to see more photograph's from the series coming together. I am pleased with the shoot and am sure that one of the above photograph's will be in the final series.

I am intending to shoot 6 images from each age group.

Hannah Starkey

Using actors within carefully considered settings, Hannah Starkey’s photographs reconstruct scenes from everyday life with the concentrated stylisation of film. Starkey’s images picture women engaged in regular routines such as loitering in the street, sitting in cafes, or passively shopping. Starkey captures these generic ‘in between’ moments of daily life with a sense of relational detachment. Her still images operate as discomforting ‘pauses’; where the banality of existence is freeze-framed in crisis point, creating reflective instances of inner contemplation, isolation, and conflicting emotion.

Moira Lovell - After School Club

Moira Lovell's series shows young women from school-themed nightclubs and returned, still wearing their fancy dress, in front of their old school gates. Lovell didn't direct her models, letting them choose their stance and pose, there is a certain uniform to their posewhich is balanced by the uniformity of the composition.

Through the adoption of an alternative persona, this nightclub phenomenon seems liberating, and yet highly socially controlled. Dislocated from the night-time context of fancy dress, the women appear unsure of the role they are now to play.

Lynsey

My first photoshoot of women in their late twenties and thirties, The concept is Women in their late twenties and thirties often revert back to adolescent tendencies through role-play and dressing up. It is often seen that they dress up on nights out and hen-do’s and go to school reunion style events. Sub-consciously are these women trying to re-live their youth?

These are currently my favourite images from this school girl shoot.