Ascent: Chapter 2 : The Reflection of Self

Last Friday has admittedly been the most ambitious shooting days so far, working on both shoots for the Ascent chapter in one day which was a challenging process and very tiring! Lauren is travelling from Northampton to photograph the project so I felt it was best to be super organised by shooting both ideas for the concept in one day.

The first concept for the 'Ascent' chapter focuses on reflection; Reflection of the conscious self through a semi-conscious mind, reflecting on the thoughts and feelings from the day and channelling each through the inquisitive nature of the dream. Dream theorist J. Hobson explores Freudian theory surrounding the 'I' within a dream state. The 'I' becomes a self executive role within the dream, and is driven by instinctive emotional force. According to Hobson,

'Dreaming is a reminder that we have very powerful instincts, emotions and even inclinations of madness that then become suppressed when awake'

Steven Meisel, Form and Function, Vogue Italia, 2009

Steven Meisel, Untitled, February 2009

Steven Meisel has been a strong inspiration for this concept as much of his work focuses on the portraiture of two subjects/models channelling one vision. Often the models he works with have a certain similarity between them which I find to be aesthetically emotive and interesting.

Steven Meisel, Vogue Italia 2011

I have used twins for the first of two concepts within 'Ascent' as they not only convey the obvious mirrored facets of the face, they also address the conscious and subconscious visionary of the self through physical and psychophysical means. The twins are identical however when analysing the images, it was clear that their facial features and expressions were less than identical, which I find quite fascinating. The idea of initial instinct about something or someone becoming blurred is intriguing as it suggests that the eye does not always see what the mind feels and vice versa. 

Make up and hair design for the concept is symbolic of the notion of 'ascending' into the unknown by using hair fibres weaved into the natural brows and into the hair structure. I wanted there to be a sense of subtle infinity within the hair design in particular, which I think has been achieved. Both of the model's hair was very long for me to work with which was great, so I fixed a polystyrene structure to the head and worked with the shape to create a layered 'shell' shape to the hair. My original plan was to fix both of the model's hair together in order to create one hairstyle onto two heads however of course this was something that I had to work with on location. I used flexible wire to do this but it didn't really turn out as well as I had visioned it to look, however being on location was a contributing factor to the height of the hair. Having said that, I am very pleased with how the pre-edited images have turned out as the hair has an unnaturally natural aura about it. 

Make-up design has been kept very fresh for the base with a tinted rose pink blush on the apples of the cheeks to bring the skin to life. The girls have a great youthful glow so I wanted to enhance this in my images. I decided that a white eye line would be most effective in giving the images that etherial look as well as a certain edge for the black and white edits. The concept of LINES is prevalent throughout the first two chapters in symbolising lines of thought and instinctive force  and this is made more explicit through the make-up and hair design.

Lauren has sent me a preview of one of the edits from the shoot which I absolutely love (pictured below). It really captures the sense of encapsulated growth within the concept and the idea that the unconscious self is beginning to take control of the conscious without realisation.

I also set off some coloured smoke grenades which worked quite well apart from some difficulty at the start with setting them off! The directions stated to 'pull firmly, drop and run...don't be a dick with our products' so I took their advice! Although it didn't make a bang and seemed fairly harmless so by the third attempt, I was holding the grenade in place to try and get the perfect shot, maybe not advisable but I'm still alive and well. The used grenades acted as a pair of gloves for the models in between shooting so that was a double bonus. I bought purple, green and blue smoke however the last grenade failed to go off (the blue) which I was saving until the last as I thought the colour would be most effective...so that was a big shame. Nothing that a little bit of PhotoShop couldn't fix though no doubt. I'm really looking forward to seeing the edits now and choosing my favourites to create a mock up layout of my book.