Experimental Portraiture

This is one of those times when the process is definitely much more interesting than the final product. For my most recent photography class assignment, we were told to research some artists that have done unconventional things with portraits, and use their work as inspiration to transform our own photos. During my research, I found too incredibly inspiring artists, Matthew Brandt ( http://www.matthewbrandt.com/works/portraits/ ) and Lucas Simoes ( http://www.lucassimoes.com.br/desretratos ). Seriously, if you are bothering to read this, you should really check them out too.

So here is what I made:

My main piece used a photo I took of my friend Nick at a show (check out the post Boontunes March 4th, 2017 to see the original photo). I edited the photo to make it pop-art-ish, then I poked a bunch of holes in it, then I used chalk pastels to emphasize those holes. Originally I intended for the back of the photo to be the main focus, but I ended up liking both sides pretty equally.

Studio portrait of Ethan, cut up and put back together

Photo of Nikki doing her thang, printed on the back of photo paper, smudged, then transferred onto orange tissue paper

Paul Sing(h)ing printed on the back of photo paper and smudged while still wet

Nidhee in a cemetery, printed on the back of photo paper, smudged while still wet, plus some wire

Nidhee in a cemetery plus peanut butter plus my dog

Paul looking all majestic and such, crumpled up and soaked in water, plus tissue paper, plus some acrylic paint

Paul looking all majestic and such painted, then burned

Daniela being an actual model at "the view" drawed over with chalk pastels, ink, pens, markers, other stuff

Daniela being a model folded a lot

Nick doing his thing, cut up and put back together

Studio portraits of Ethan edited heavily in Photoshop, then sliced up and layered

Studio portrait of Ethan with its eyes stabbed out with wire (don't worry there's no hard feelings, he thinks it's cool)

Studio portrait of Ethan folded

the end. Thank you for reading I love you a lot.