Sarah Deragon - The Identity Project

Deragon is based in San Fransisco and is predominantly a portrait photographer.

The Identity Project was her first personal project and it launched in January 2014. 

This photography project seeks to explore the labels we choose to identify with when defining our gender and sexuality

These images were taken in New York and are all accompanied by text giving the viewer a small insight into how they view themselves. 

Testing with the projector

Contact sheets

Test shoot

I wanted to use different types of backgrounds to see what effect they all gave. All the locations were places I had been and shot myself therefore making them personal to me. I thought that putting them over the model would create a fun effect making her immersed in the photograph, I thought this could represent a moment in time re living the memory. I decided to use text with my image last minute but I'm glad I did try it as I think its a really good way to put a message across and I could incorporate text into many different ideas.

I then used an old photo I had took of the model and placed it behind her to show two different sides to her and to represent that people have many faces.

Freya Dumasia

Freya was an A level student who chose to do her final project on her identity, Her work depicts a young Islamic woman wearing a burqa and explores issues related to culture and identity.
   

Though I personally can't relate to her work it gives a strong indication of how 'overlooked' she feels by society and something that I think is very relevant at the moment.

Identity.

In psychology, sociology, and anthropology, identity is a person's conception and expression of their own and others' individuality or group affiliation.

I have chosen to do the theme 'identity' within my project as I think it is a broad subject but one that everyone can relate to, whether its their own identity or a similar struggle with their identity. 
I also think it gives a lot of room for experimenting to find out the best creative way to put this idea across, I wanted to use this idea within the surrealist movement as I think that when it comes to figuring out who you are what you want to do and where you want to be your mind is often a jumbled confused mess and using surrealism and an abstract technique can help put this across in my images.

Experiments

Taylor Swift!

After seeing one of her latest music videos 'Style' I realised how much it inspired me with my own work. Using double exposure techniques she is often montaged onto other backgrounds during the video to give a surrealist effect,

This is a clear indicator on how 20th Century Surrealism still inspires people today.

I love the idea behind this video. You rarely see a music video edited in this style and I love how it fades in and out of the actual landscape. This is something I will definitely use when I come to shooting my own work.

Ralph Gibson

Gibson is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualisation and surreal juxtaposition.
"I exist on a few bits of order extracted from the chaos of reality"

I like the unusual angles he uses to show something that has always been there in a different light. The high contrast also makes it look less 'real' but still believable as to what it is that is being shown.
In his photos the subjects very rarely look into the camera, making the viewer feel invasive on the photographs yet still intrigued at what is being shown. I think this subtle technique Gibson uses really encourages the viewer to engage with the photo which is something I want to achieve in my own work.

Pinterest

Bill Brandt

Brandt was a British photographer and photojournalist. He became known for his images of British society for magazines such as: Lilliput, Harpers Bazaar and Picture Post and then later his distorted nudes, portraits of famous artists and landscapes. He is widely considered to be one of the most important British photographers of the 20th Century.
A surrealist to the end, Brandt brought a distinctly European gaze to bear on his emphatically English subject matter and, in doing so, showed his country and its people in a whole new light.