What Is Campaign Photography? Campaign photography is pictures about a campaign, using photography to get a point across and get people aware of the topic of the campaign. Campaign photography is a well known topic because many people of all ages are interested in it.
Research: Stop Smoking:
Research: Anti-Self Harm:
I really liked this text because it tells a story that I think could relate to many self harming people. It's interesting because the designer made the poem detailed but to the point. In just a short space of writing it has a lot of information because the writer used short but bold sentences. Also even-though it rhymes it also makes sense.
I really like this image because I think it tells a story and is very detailed. It tells us about how much pain this person was going through to do this to themselves. The person in the image is giving the answer people want to hear when asked the question 'are you okay ?', when they're really not because they want to hide the fact that they self harm. People cut themselves in places they can hide because they don't want the cuts to be seen. I think the photographer has chosen to make the image a bit blurry so that the writing only stands out as the focus point is on the writing. The photographer may have picked this specific black and white effect to show the person is feeling really dark and sad. I think the effect is perfect for this picture because even though we cant see the actual cuts colour, we know it's going to be blood so it's red, because of how the photographer took the image and changed the effect.
This picture unlike the rest, doesn't really stand out to me because it is all words and there is no photograph to catch my eye, it is too uninviting as it has "SUICIDE" written in large capital letters which is most likely to put off anybody who is going through the situation and would like to seek help. The black and white shades are a wrong choice of colour as they are comfortless towards the viewer.
My Ideas For Self Harm Campaign Photography: · It is learned that it makes you feel better because when you cut, your brain releases endorphin's, which are chemicals that make you feel better temporarily. By cutting, you train your body to crave these endorphin's especially when you're sad or upset or angry or even just feeling lonely and have nothing to do. · Self-harm is not a mental illness. · Self-harm is not a trend nor is it just ‘attention seeking’. · Most importantly, it is not easy for a person to stop self-harming as it becomes addictive.
Plan For First Shoot: My plan is to have a student in school doodling in their school book in lesson with words, for example; Alone, Tired, No Friends, Arguments, No Family, Depressed, Blood, Pain. This would show the student is feeling alone and is in pain. I'll take pictures of their book, of them writing in it and of the classroom. The angle I will be taking the picture from is birds eye view so the student looks small and represents that they are alone.
First Shoot:
Worst:
This is my worst Photograph because my model is smiling when she is supposed to be straight-faced, feeling alone. But when she is smiling it looks like she is happy so it is sending the wrong image. Also the angle this photograph is taken at is not the look I was going for, it is over exposed and the book with writing is not seen clearly.
Best:
I really like this photograph because it shows the girl is in class where her classmates are doing their work but she is distracted and is instead writing suicidal thoughts/words in her school book and none of her school mates have noticed. She has isolated herself and is not interacting with what's going on around her, not focusing on her work due to the fact that she is feeling alone and inconsolable. I have taken this photograph from a medium angle but a large depth of field.
I used Photoshop to edit this image with text to show what the Campaign is representing. Here's what I did:
Plan For Second Shoot: My plan is to have a student in a classroom being singled out b a teacher and is going to show that the student is alone. She could tell her parents/siblings who may not believe her which is why she then begins to self harm. I will then photo-shop the image with text saying 'ADULTS ARE ALSO BULLY'S'.
Second Shoot:
Worst:
This is my worst shot from this shoot because the focus point was not set and the camera lens was also very dirty which I didn't realise until after taking a few shots. Also my student model wasn't looking in the correct direction.
Best:
I really like this picture because the teacher and students facial expressions and body language is exactly how I wanted them to. My student model (Neelam) looks scared and feels small which shows she's uncomfortable with the situation and feels like she's in danger; Neelam also has her hand on her head which gives the impression that she's overwhelmed/stressed by the position she is in.
To improve the picture I used Photo-Shop to edit it. These are the steps of what I did to get the final piece:
Plan For Third Shoot For my anti-self harm shoot my plan is to have a male sat in the corner of a completely dark room with a white display board behind him which is going to be photo-shopped to a black board and I will photo-shop words in white onto the picture describing how he feels. I'll also have a flashlight on top of him only like a spotlight. I'm hoping to do the exact same setting but with a female sat down to show that both genders do self harm even though they most likely wont show it.
Third Shoot:
Worst:
This is my worst shot from this shoot because I captured the moment at the wrong time and the shot isn't what I planned it to be. My model's arms with the cuts from the self harm are not visible and her emotions are not what I needed to express her loneliness as to why she is self harming.
Best:
I chose this picture as my best because I think it really shows what emotions shes feeling (sad, depressed, alone). It also has the perfect exposure, after I struggled quite a bit trying to set the lighting dark but light enough to be able to see the model, I tried using a spotlight but it was too bright so I turned on some smaller spot lights and closed the blinds to achieve the correct amount of light. I wanted it to be quite a low angle but for the viewer to be able to see the models full body to read her body language.
Using photo-shop I improved this image, here are my steps:
Final Pieces...&Improvements...
Evaluation: All of these final and improved photographs I have developed further to increase the intensity of the campaign and to create a touching effect on the viewer. If I was to do this shoot again I would make sure the model (Neelam) hasn't got any stickers on her blazer and would make sure she's wearing plain black socks to go with the gloomy theme. On my second picture I would zoom out more to get a full picture of the setting. My teacher and student photograph is one of my favourites but if I could do it again I would improve on the positioning of them both. During this Campaign Photography topic I have stuck with one theme, a gloomy dangerous feeling. Whilst researching about the subject of "Anti- self harm" I have learnt a lot that I didn't know, for example I always thought people could stop feeling depressed and stop self harming, but as I kept researching I now know that is not the case for most. I have used photo-shop to develop my final piece photographs further, but mainly with my last shoot, I had to photo-shop the child line logo as well as the main picture itself. If I had more time I would have liked to try a more complex shoot where the model cuts herself and there is fake blood coming out of her wrist, the razor covered in blood falling out of her hand, using a fast shutter speed to catch the razor falling.