After a recent group tutorial, I expressed my concerns to my tutor Rick about the Who’s Who assignment; I have anxiety and am very shy and nervous around new people, therefore I have really been struggling to approach strangers and ask to take their picture for this assignment. I have made numerous attempts and trips with the intention to take these kind of images, such as around the university campus and in Manchester city centre, but each time I have unfortunately been unable to produce any images. Therefore, Rick very kindly said that if I absolutely couldn’t approach strangers, then I was able to photograph friends and family if it made me feel more at ease. Although my images were successful from the scheduled workshop where we approached people on campus in a group, I was told that using this images for my final pieces would appear lazy and would give the wrong impression that I hadn’t undertaken any work on this assignment in my own time, therefore I was determined to get some more visual development images produced.

With this in mind, I reverted back to my previously made Pinterest boards to find inspiration for a shoot for this assignment, this time using familiar faces as the subject. The idea that stood out to me the most was a series of square images which are very close-up to the person’s face; effective images of the person’s unique facial features such as eyes, nose, hair, lips and unique markings on the skin such as moles, scars and veins. I instantly knew that this idea would make a perfect set for my final four images as each image would tie in with the next, and I find the concept so fascinating of how each person on this planet has their own unique, individual features that are nothing like anybody else’s; they are a combination of two individual’s features, and even though many people have siblings or twins, still no two people are exactly alike.

Below are some examples of the work that inspired me and the kind of thing that I aspired to produce:

 

I thought that it would be interesting to photograph more than one person to not only choose the most successful results, but also to explore in more depth the individuality between two very different kinds of people, varying in both age and gender.

My first subject was my mum, an “older” female who would give a unique perspective for her demographic. I chose to heavily photograph her eyes as she has a very rare condition called “Heterochromia” where the iris in her eyes are two different colours: one green, and one blue, although this does not affect her vision. This added further depth to my project as I was producing results that were showcasing a very unique trait. I also photographed her hair as it is a less common hairstyle, and people often say that they can recognise her from far away or remember her simply due to her unique hairstyle. I also tried to photograph some of the unique markings on the side of her face, such as a blue mark that also isn’t often seen.

Here are the original images:

 

The next day, I chose to photograph my boyfriend who would provide a completely different perspective from a young, male point of view. We have been dating for a long time and therefore I also felt more comfortable taking intimate photos of his face, and I feel that the romantic connection also provides me with a deeper insight into what makes him unique, as I often admire his individual features when looking at him. I chose to photograph his eyes as they are often known as “the windows to the soul” and everyone has unique eyes, his being a beautiful shade of brown. I also photographed his hands as each person has their own individual fingerprints and prints on their hands, and people often say that you can tell a lot about a person from their hands. Other features I photographed were unique markings such as moles, scars and veins in the arms. I also focused on his beard and hair as these are both ways that people choose to express themselves and show who they are through their appearance.

These were the results:

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Then, I edited the images of my boyfriend as I felt like these were more successful. I chose to make them black and white so that they would clearly appear to make a set of images that all belong together, and cropped them into squares to focus more closely on the individual features being photographed, and remove any distracting backgrounds. I think that I will choose my final images from these photographs.