I wish to capture photographs of my family together in an unconventional way. Traditional family portraiture tends to have a specific style and setting: a large, lavishly-decorated room, with subjects of status and wealth also in the image. Everyone is impeccably dressed, and is super serious or happy and present at that specific moment in time. I want to create a modern family portrait that does not follow traditional convention. The final series will be photographs, but have aspects of painting, collage, and printmaking.

I will be only photographing family members who live with me in my home and those who I grew up with. They will all be collaged together using either digital help and/or cut-and-paste techniques. Furthermore, the mental state of each person will be shown in the image. Those who are most unhappy will have a distorted face (either by digital effect or paint layering). People who are happy will be left undisturbed. There will also be no signs of “wealth”, the room the photos are staged in will be empty or simply furnished.

The final photographed images will be black and white for the timeless quality they have, but they will be physically painted in color. Because it is uncomfortable for me to be super personal in my work I’m out of my comfort zone, which I think will give an interesting outcome. Photographing the different generations of my family and seeing how they interact with each other will be interesting as well.

I expect to have two large scale images (the final measurements are 13in x 10.5in). Final images will be shot as one photograph – the painting will be overlapped on top for color. The process will not be tangible but visual – all of the techniques were needed to create the portrait, but it remains traditional in a sense by existing finally as one cohesive image. For display I’d like the photographs to be against a white background. The foam board it is mounted on is 20in x 30in.

·       DSLR camera (B&W setting)

·       Digital manipulation (Lightroom, Photoshop)

·       Collage

·       Painting (Acrylic, Oil, Charcoal, Grease pencil, ink)

Identify and list the relevant study references for your research: artists, artworks, exhibitions; art historical precedence and contemporary works; books, essays and publications.

Artists:

• Sebastiao Salgado
• Henrik Uldalen
• Dan Quintana
• Francis Picabia
• Grant Wood
• Sarah Greenberger Rafferty
• Eric Lacombe

Art Historical Precedence/Contemporary Works:

• Grant Wood: American Gothic
• Sarah Greenberger Rafferty: Gloves Off
• Eric Lacombe: Anomalies
• Francis Picabia: Transparencies

[on blog]