Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia

To start off my Identity topic, I have chosen the artist Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia. I chose her as she links to my sub-topic of hidden identity. I also really like her work, the way she creates it and the story behind it. Schmitz-Garcia began her studies in 2003 in Madrid where she picked Photography as an optional subject. She would spend hours taking her photographs and developing them. Through her photographs she attempted to represent borderline personality disorder.

The history of Scanography was founded in 1968, by one of very few firsts, Sonia Landy Sheridan, altering the photocopying process to produce imaginative imagery, rather than just copies. This is one of Evilsabeth's early influences. Using a combination of Xerography and “scanographers”, objects were placed on a glass pattern and allowed to capture and record fine detail with shallow depth of field.

In some of Rist's photographs, the figure seems frantic to escape from behind the scanner whereas in others they seem calm and almost emotionless and some even seem as if they are fighting and pushing against the glass. This may represent the photographer's own change in emotions and the way that she wanted to link her work to borderline personality disorder. It also reminds me of the fight, flight or freeze response concept

The fight, flight, or freeze response refers to involuntary physiological changes that happen in the body and mind when a person feels threatened. This response exists to keep people safe, preparing them to face, escape, or hide from danger (or maybe even from their own emotions).

Further analysis of the artist's work:

The representation of this condition particularly interests me because I have known people with this diagnosis. Therefore I found her work deeply moving. Symptoms of borderline personality include being emotionally unstable, having upsetting thoughts and acting without thinking. You also have an intense fear of abandonment or instability and you may have difficulty tolerating being alone, linking to how Garcia wanted to make it look like the person is trapped in a dark place (or inside their own mind). My favourite of the images above by Evilsabeth Schmitz-Garcia is the one on the bottom right of the gallery. I chose this photograph because of the way that the face seems almost like a liquid. I like the way that the scanner captures the face's movement. Garcia's work also makes me think of how these beautiful faces have been made ugly and disturbing just by being slightly distorted, again linking the artist to my topic of hidden identity. Additionally, I would like to explore beauty standards and how society perceives individuals. I also like the fact that the photographs have a hint of colour, in this case green. This makes them appear as if they have been submerged in water and gives the images a supernatural feel. In the piece at the top in the middle of the gallery, The face looks like it is being pulled backwards and engulfed into the darkness surrounding it as the hands are pressed against the scanner in the foreground and the hair is further back. The positioning of the hands on the scanner makes the image more recognisable. One element of Rist's work that I would like to take into my own is the depth and the way that this makes the person look trapped behind the photograph. This is, in my opinion, the most successful thing about her work as it creates an intense feeling of entrapment and in some of her photographs, the motion appears to be frantic.

Photoshoot Plan

Here is my photoshoot plan that I created to visulise the idea of my photoshoot. It also helps me to plan and have a second option incase things go wrong.

Contact Sheet:

To start off with, I followed the first step of my photoshoot plan. I took some photographs of myself using portrait mode on iPhone which has a stage light setting. This means that my face was lit up while the background became black. This links to the artist Elizabeth Smitz-Garcia because of the low key lighting she uses to make her images eery and gruesome. After this, I printed out my favourite of the images from the photoshoot and placed it on the scanner of my printer. When it started to scan the photograph, I slowly moved it across the glass surface. I attempted this method three times. Each time I retried, the outcome was better than the last. I then decided that my back up option of putting my face directly onto the scanner might be more effective. As the scanner moved across my face, I would slowly tilt my head. As you can see each image looks like part of a journey with each one getting more developed. I then moved on to using my mother as a model. One thing that I wasn't expecting was that the scanner makes jerking motions rather than one smooth motion. This creates columns down the face. At first I was disappointed, however, now I think that it is actually more effective and makes the pictures stand out more. The artist that has inspired me looks at borderline personality disorder in her photographs (which links back to my topic of identity and the subtopic that I chose of the mind). After reading this, I researched the disorder and decided to name each one of my nine photographs after the nine personality disorders. (you can see these below).

My Photoshoot:

In my opinion this photoshoot worked very well. As you can see from the gallery above, I have named each image after a different personality disorder. This links to both the artist and the subtopic of hidden identity that I have chosen. The photographs also look as if the faces are trapped behind glass (or the screen) which again works well with the idea of identity.

Highlighting Success

The image on the right (named 'Antisocial') Is also, in my opinion, one of the most successful. This photograph was made in a different way to 'Paranoid'. To create 'Antisocial', I used my original method of taking the picture first and moving that image around on the scanner. I like the fact that there is a lot of negative space.

I think that this photograph (named Paranoid) is one of the most successful of the shoot. This is because I really like the way that I look as if I am trapped behind a clear screen. This makes the image both eerie and frantic.

The reason I like this photograph (named 'Borderline') is because of the way that it looks like the face transitions from one mood to another. On the right hand side, the eyes are covered by dark shadows which creates a sinister impression.

First Developments:

Colour Developments:

To create these colour edits, I used photoshop to add hue saturation and colour. I like the way that the colour brings out the depth and darkness of the background of the image.

Highlighting Success:

I chose these two images out of my colour experiments because of the way that the colour strengthens the depth (as I explained above in my 1st development annotations). I really like the way that the filter on the image on the left makes the face look like it is underwater.

Overlay Experiments:

2nd Developments

Here are some edits that I created by overlaying some of my colour edits on top of each other and lowering the opacity. I think that these work really well as it adds to the sense of it being in the mind and transforming from one thought to another. However it makes the images too busy and confusing.

I chose these two images from my 2nd developments as my favourites because of the way that they look as if the emotions are changing. I think that maybe in the future I could use colours (colour theory) to make it easier to differentiate between the two.

Highlighting Success:

Developing My Ideas:

To continue with my project I would like to create some experiments which have shattered glass or ice over the top of the image. I would use ice, as it continues to add to the idea that the person is trapped. Placing or overlaying cracked ice would create the impression that the person is drowning or is stuck. This links to the project of hidden identity as it represents how the person is feeling. On the left is an edit which I created to visualise my ideas. I would like to explore this both physically and digitally. I created it by overlaying an image of glass that I found on the internet - In the future I will take the image myself. Usually we associate broken glass with danger so this gives the photograph a chilling feel.

Rather than placing glass physically on top of the image, I will crack and scratch into clear plastic. I could either do this randomly to imitate shattered glass or I will scratch in words. For example I will scratch the name of the photographs onto the plastic.

Physical Developments:

Here is a contact sheet of my physical developments (my favourite ones have a heart in the bottom left corner). To create the photographs, I placed a sheet of clear plastic over the top of the original scanner images. I then used scissors to scratch words into the plastic. The words that I chose were the names of the photographs. For example on one I wrote 'Paranoid'. I then used another sheet of the plastic and scrunched it up in my hand before placing it over the top of each of the images. I did this because I think that when the plastic is shaped like this it reflects the light in interesting ways to create a shiny texture. I think that both of these techniques worked well. When done together, however, the picture becomes too crowded and confusing. When I edit these photographs I will make the contrast higher in order to make the writing stand out and make the shine sharper.

Gallery:

I really like the way that these photographs turned out. In my opinion the texture is very successful. To continue on, and create my second photoshoot, rather than putting the clear plastic onto the image after the photographs have been taken, I will put the plastic on top of the scanner as I am pressing my face onto it.

Highlighting Sucess:

My favourite of the three photographs is the one on the bottom left. This is because of the the way that the light hits the crumpled plastic in just the right way in order for it to look like it is part of the image below rather than just having been on top.

I chose these three photographs as my favourite physical developments because of the way the light hitting the plastic and the words on it compliments the photographs beneath it. I also like the way that the word paranoid is scratched into the plasic as it looks like it was done quickly and franticly. However in this development, I think it would work better if I had crumpled the plastic as well as scratching it.

Second Photoshoot

On the left is my contact sheet of the photographs. (The three which are circled are my favourites). I took them using the same method as my first photoshoot however this time I used a crumpled up sheet of plastic over the top of the scanner to create a shining effect. As you can see, towards the bottom of the contact sheet I have included some cropped and more zoomed in images.

In my opinion, this photoshoot wasn't as good as the previous one however I think that when I edit them I can make them better.

The colour is different in some of the images as my printer ran out of ink. Even though it was an accident, I think that it worked very well and makes the images more interesting.

The shimmers of light and the squished face reminds me of the artist Pipiloti Rist. Maybe I could study her to continue on with my project.

Above are the photographs that I have cropped slightly to show more interesting angles and to show the viewer the details without the distraction of the rest of the photograph.

Highlighting Success

First Edits:

I chose these three photographs as my favourites from the photoshoot. I like the one on the left because although it was an accident, the colour has been tinted green. This makes the face look as if it is under water. The other two photographs are very similar and give the impression of frantic movements . I am really happy that I have managed to keep my photographs to the theme of hidden identity. These photographs show this particularly well. They convey how the person is trapped inside their own mind and is trying to escape. |In the future I would like to continue with the idea of hidden identity and explore how people blend in with the crowd.

Highlighting success:

These are my first edits that I created using photoshop. I decided that the original images looked better when cropped so I decided to do this along with using adding colour and contrast. I think that this works very well together as some of the photographs were too busy and confusing. The colour adds emotion to the gruesome and strange photographs. I think that these photographs still help to convey my idea of hidden identity and the artists idea of personality disorders.

On the left are my favourite of my edited photographs. I chose them because of the emotions that they show. The image on the top right looks as if the person is underwater maybe even drowning. I also like the edited photograph at the bottom because I like how it is mirrored. Maybe I will attempt this technique again in my next edits.

Developed photoshoot

The vertical lines and stretched faces of my photoshoot reminded me of a filter used a lot on social media. I decided to take a small photoshoot using it to continue to progress and experiment with my ideas from this project so far.

On the right are the two contact sheets. The ones that, in my opinion are most successful have a small heart in the bottom left corner of them. I tried to make the faces in the photographs similar to in my original photoshoot where the faces are squashed against the glass of the scanner and I think that this has worked quite well. As you can see, some of the photographs have a black background and some have brown. When I edit the photographs I will try to make all backgrounds black however if I cant I will just have to make sure they are one solid colour with no shadows or tone.

My photoshoot

Colour Developments

Above, you can see a gallery of edits that I have made using procreate (a digital drawing app). I added colour to a layer above the images and used layer blending options to change the opacity of it. I think that this worked very well and added an extra dimention to the photographs. I also made the background of some of the images black to make the face stand out.

These colour edits reminded me of the artist Jens Hesse and the glitched lines in his work. On the left are two examples of his work, which, in my opinion, are very interesting. This is because of the way that they show movement as if each section of the image was captured at a different time. It is as if the viewer is looking at the images with blurred vision. The glitched lines in his work are influenced by digital distorted satellite signals. He uses oil paints on corduroy to get an extra distorted effect. One element of his work that I would like to take into consideration when creating more of my own photographs is the idea of movement within a still image. I also really like the way that the faces and features are all still visible despite being extremely distorted but just not in enough detail to be identifiable, linking back to the theme of identity and how it is hidden.