Smudging Make Up
For this shoot I wanted to bring in the research from both Martha Rosler's, Semiotics of the Kitchen, and Bettins Von Zwehl's Rain. I wanted to explore the idea that even if I as the model to smudge her make up, in a way the Rosler rebelled against the kitchen, would she still look beautiful at the end. After reading Richard Brillaint's Portraiture, I learnt more about how people want to be seen in art. I wanted to show that even when I ask the model to make her self look bad, she would still do it in a nice, and careful way.
I think my expectations were right. As the model is also a make up artist, she knew exactly where to place the make up, and suggested places she could smudge it on her face. I did not guide her into were to place it, or how much to smudge it. I only asked for a quite blank facial expression, the rest was her decision. I didn't want to influence her in any way, she did ask if things looked ok, to where I agreed.
All the strokes are very carefully made, and in a straight line across her face, and all her expressions and body language seemed to be very posed. I think the studio environment would affect this, and the fact we were not 100% comfortable with each other, something that I feel would change in a later shoot. I really like all the images that I captured, and feel I was able to capture the theme that I wanted. The model was definitely a lot more careful that I expected, but showed how she wanted to still look good in the pictures. Everything was placed and put in a certain place, in a certain way.
Her reaction to the images wasn't one of unhappiness, which i believe means she felt happy with the way she looked. All my research has backed up this idea. I haven't yet decided if these images will be my final images, as I have shoots planned for other themes.
