Connecting Essay Four

The images below are from a photographer based in London, James Russell Cant. He worked on a project where he wanted to portray teenagers in London and raise questions on the portrayal of the subject and the dangers of the subject positions that are presented to children. He does this by capturing an innocent looking subject with a happy facial expression but also capturing another picture of the same subject with a neutral expression, and editing the image to take it look as if they have been caught on CCTV for committing a crime. By doing this, his work illustrates a theme of youth and identity, showing how easily young people can be stereotyped or even influenced by other around them in their own society. He has achieved this by producing a bright, attractive image of a subject, by using an appealing background such as the one below, he is able to add the element of colour to his work, however, the portraits have blurry background. This is done deliberately so that the viewer focuses more on the actual subject rather than the scenery; although the background is essential in giving out a happy and innocent impression of the subject, the photographer wanted minimal attention to be payed on the scene from the viewer - this has been achieved through wide aperture settings, such as F3/4 and longer focal lengths. Cant then photographed another portrait of the same subject but at a higher angle to give it a CCTV footage feel - the image was then editing in order to look as if the camera was a low quality and to make the scene look rough and more dangerous. The clothing of the subjects say the same, this is so that the viewer can see that the subjects are exactly the same in both image but yet, have completely different identities. 

This is my picture from my shoot, which was inspired by James Russell Cant. I followed his technique by photographing my subject with a decent background, using low aperture, which was F3. This allowed my photograph to look bright and show off the expression on my subject's face. For my second image, I found a rougher scene, which would reflect my subject's personalty and make him look rough and give out a bad impression to the viewer. Once on Photoshop, I added clouds in order to make the picture look as if it was taken with CCTV, I also added scanning lines by adding a pattern so that I can put emphasis on the whole idea that this was caught on CCTV - this is so the viewer can see a big difference between the two images and understand the stereotypes on young people in society. The angle in which I took the photographs also changed so that I can give out different impressions. For example, for the first image, I used an angle where the viewer will be ale to see my subject's face clearly and this allowed me to make use of his facial features in order to make him look innocent and adorable. I then used a less attractive angle for the second image, where half of my subject's face is hidden, disconnecting the viewer with my subject and creating a whole new personality for him.

Overall, my image is extremely similar to the one from James Russell Cant as I replicated his images for my shoot. However, there are some differences, such as the use of facial expressions - in my first picture, my subject is smiling and he has rougher facial expression in the second picture; I've done this on purpose to show the difference between personalities and emotions between the two images, in order to emphasis on the theme of identity on society. On the other hand, Cant has kept his subject with the same facial expression in both pictures; this is because he wanted to keep his subject as similar as possible, even in the exact posture so that he can really highlight the way viewers can develop two different impressions but for the exact same subject. The lighting used also differs as the photographer has used a warmer, brighter light so that a happy and calm atmosphere is given out. In my picture, the lighting is not as warm or as bright, this is because I did not want the lighting to interfere with my subject and make some of his facial features less noticeable.