Intent
For my Final
Major Project I am going to document, true stories that demonstrate an area of
injustice. I will produce a body of work that aims to instil hope in humanity
and reveal the beauty that is often overlooked. For this project I aim for all
my work to be soul edifying with the intent to Inform and explore justice and
challenge perceptions.
A major influence of my FMP is in response to my trip to
Romania. My A level art project ‘Wonderland’ was based on my visit to Romania.
It showed beauty of life in people who can be overlooked.
I believe that my motive behind this project is my faith
that my illustration will focus on demonstrating Gods love for one another.
My personal and professional objectives are to use my
creative and visionary skills to make a difference and to speak in to people’s
lives. I hope my work empowers the subject as they share their story and
challenges the audience. I also hope that I may be able to work for a charity
or organisation and raise its profile.
I intend to do this by informing and educating my audience
in a personal and relatable way whilst encouraging them to be challenged by and
explore their perceptions on the subject. Not only do I want my Illustrations
to be meaningful to the viewer. I also have a second intent that is aimed
towards the people who I come in to contact with and the stories and
circumstances I will be illustrating. I hope to empower these people’s lives
through the connection they have to the work and the connection that they have
to it.
By looking at real events and circumstances I will illustrate
a celebration of life by showing the beauty in what others may seem as ordinary.
Who is my audience?
I would like my outcome to be for everyone having an open
audience and wide sphere of influence. However I think that my specific audience
should be for adults with influence who can make a difference. These could
include politicians, charity workers and fund raisers. Although some of my
resulting art work may not be suitable for children I want to use techniques
that encourage adults to see the world through children’s eyes. Children are
generally more naive and less judging. I aim to try and show a childlike view
on problems. I plan to experiment how I can use children’s views to influence
my artwork.
Type of Illustration
For my research project, that is going to inform the outcome
of my FMP, I aim to experiment with ways in which I record information. I plan
to use a mixture of creative outlets; film photography, collage, diary keeping,
facts, journalistic drawings and emotive pieces, to thoroughly document the
life, lives and environment. Through the documentation I hope to show and
change the audience’s perspective. I will also analyse the effectiveness and
outcome of the work produced by identifying the best style to capture the truth
and meet the needs of the subject and the audience.
Methods
The filmmakers, photographers and illustrators who have
documented, subjects with the intent to inform and change perceptions have all
been successful in their methods of documentary. I hope to understand what
makes this method successful.
Born in to Brothels, is an Oscar winning documentary that accurately
portrays what it is like for children to live in Kolkata’s city in the brothels
and red light district. When Zana Briski encountered the world of the red-light
district she came across the children. She taught the children photography and
gave the children cameras. This firstly empowered the children to dream and
helped them to aim for a better life and secondly enabled Zana Briski to bring
her audience an honest view into their lives. Ten years on from the documentary many of the children
filmed are now studying film art or medicine at university. I recognise this success was not just
as a result of the documentary but also a testimony to the relationships formed
between Zana Briski and the children and mothers. I will need to build good relationship
with the subjects.
All of the photos included in the documentary where taken by
the children and through this the audience take a look in to a Child’s view of
the place. The photos are discussed in the film and composition and structure
is something that the children aim for to strongly show the difference in
culture. I hope to use composition as a strong influence on my project.
Another example of a documentary where different peoples
lives are displayed to inform the viewer is ‘Life in a day’. This is a
collaboration of film of eighty thousand submissions from across the world
creating a chronological record of the happenings on the 24th July
2010. This time capsule encompasses the importance of a well informed
documentary in particular stressing the importance’s of the time and date on
the outcome as well as how a large accumulation of film was needed to produce a
full story. Through this I have realised that I will need to produce a large
amount of documentary drawings and keep records of my primary research.
The French
Photographer JR gave a TED talk about ‘whether Art can Change the world?’ JR
talked about how he instils hope in the Broken Women of society through posting
the portraits of women stuck in difficult conflicts in Countries like Brazil
and India. JR pastes his pictures on the walls depicting culture and showing a
freedom of expression.
‘In some ways Art can change the World. I mean art is not
supposed to change the world to change practical things but to change the
perceptions. Art can change the way we see the world.’ JR then goes on to
elaborate and say that ‘Actually
the fact that art can not change things makes it a neutral place for exchanges and
discussions and then enables you to change the world. ‘I think illustration can
be a way of showing a new perspective by producing a platform that initiates
discussion and even can break the barriers between the subject and the
audience.
Outside the world of Film and photography journalists and
illustrators are used to change perspectives. Here are some examples of
illustrators who successfully illustrate with the intent to inform about apart
of the World on location.
Robert Weaver was dedicated to capturing the changing social
and cultural climate of his time. This illustration is a particularly strong in
mid-century depictions of African Americans. Robert Weaver explains why
documentary illustration has an edge over the photographic as an illustration
although simple can show layers and suggest movement. "Life is not a
single snapshot, it is a series of events that are chain linked and proceed
frame by frame."
Robert Weavers images in the 1950s were in magazines
that were competing against the visual images of television. Magazines
found to differentiate themselves from black-and-white television coverage and
photography was to feature colour illustrations of a topical event.
Typically, these illustrators would draw or sketch on the spot and their
expressionist art style was able to capture the event in an alternate way
to a photograph or television. I hope to bring this area of work back in
to fashion by giving people images that stand out from stock photographs and
documentaries which we can sometimes get desensitised to.
Urban sketchers is an art movement and
collaboration of illustrators from across the world who solely aim to capture what they see from
direct observation, telling the true story of their surroundings, aiming to
show the world a drawing at a time. I hope to take on the challenge of becoming
an Urban Sketcher and may be able to broadcast my work through the use of this
outlet.
I am going to achieve a higher level of drawing by
practicing, researching and observing the use of composition in viewpoint in
others and my own work. Through the advance drawing model I found that adding
composition and view points to my images added structure and meaning. Adding
this layer to my observational people drawings will help me to show the new
perspective.
Wartime propaganda has a similar intent to my FMP;
instilling hope and encourages people in difficult situations. This is achieved
by the clever combination of text with a well constructed a symbolic Image. The
composition of this piece, aimed at encouraging women to work in the factories
of Britain, gives a powerful message of the importance women could play in the
war effort. The wide welcoming arms act as pillars to the sky that the planes
are in. Its aim was to increase involvement and pride in women involved in the
war effort.
Propaganda also shows how typography and language can be
used alongside an image to influence a population. Without the text the image
could mean many different things it is the use of text that gives meaning to
the images.
John Heartfield
a pioneer in the use of art as a political weapon uses photomontage in Germany
during the Second World War. A good example of how juxtaposition is used to
create a powerful message to change perception is in this famous piece, Middle
Ages and the Third Reich. In the Middle ages prisoners were broken by wheels.
John Heartfield depicted a man being broken on a Swastika. However this
depiction is not a true representation of real events of World War Two. I want
to portray the truth through illustrating real situations.
Lastly many of these photographers and journalist had to pushed
the boundaries of society in order
to be successful. We are living in an era where people want their voice to be
heard when social media give such a freedom of expression. I believe people
don’t know how or what to listen to as everyone is their own journalist. I will
need to push the boundaries further and speak up for the areas of society who don’t
have a voice or don’t know how to have a voice. I will need to use to the
strengths that technology and a modernising society brings
What
The outcome of my FMP is to have an outstanding portfolio of
work that firstly informs, educates and then influence the opinion to stimulate
and enable change in people’s lives.
To be successful in this project I need to identify a cause,
earn trust of the subjects and create a true, honest reflection of their life.
Depending on the subject matter I may need to work alongside charities. I will
email and contact charities asking if they can get behind one of the projects to
give me a safe and influential way of meeting my subject. Some example of
charities are; Hope for Justice, International Needs, Tear Fund as well as
local smaller charities that assist the homeless like The Garage or The Ark. By
May I will then need to arrange a few weeks during the summer to spend time working
with a charity to research, meet charity workers and people they serve, gain
their trust and be welcomed into their lives to enable me to give a true and
reflective portrait of their lives.
I strongly believe that you have
to earn a right to comment on or judge or give a perception of something or
someone. I aim to love first and foremost which comes from my faith and
relationship with God. I hope to be able to live and gain an understanding of
what it is like to live ‘below the line’ experiencing poverty in a way that
allows me to comment on it.
As my subject begins with the people who I meet and the
stories I encounter my work is unpredictable in physical outcome it may take
the form of a book, exhibition, animation or journalistic approaches such as
the use of a media and technology. Although through the extensive research and
experimentation that documenting I hope to identify a suitable medium that will
be consistent in style and approach. I plan to use composition as a starting
point for my documentary and journalistic drawings. I hope to be able to
produce outcomes similar to war time propaganda through the use of text
alongside realistic portraits of the subject.
Bibliography
https://depressionintrospection.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/depression-overawareness-and-overmedication-week/#comments
