Physical manifestations- Connecting essay 3

Artists image- Jose Romussi

My image

Jose Romussi is a photographer and artist who works around physically altering his images through the medium of embroidery.  His work interests me due to the way that he alters the meaning of the original image after is has been printed adding an additional sense of depth to the piece post-shoot.  The image I have chosen above features a woman in a studded headress turned towards the camera in a crouched or bent position.  The studded headers and feathers used create an appearance of power and resilience which is added to through the fact that the image is presented in black and white as well as the fact that the subjects hair is not perfectly maintained and is wearing a black tank top going against standard feminine standards.  This is all contrasted through the later additions to the piece of intricate embroidered swirl patters in pastel colours.  This detailing gives the image a feminine edge and the pastels contrast heavily with the black and white tones in the image helped the embroidery to stand out.  The viewers eye is drawn to the subject immediately as a result of the shallow depth of field used as well as the colour over the subjects face this also creates a mystery about the subjects identity as it is obscured from the viewer by the embroidery.

My image is very different to Romussi's as I choose to only really draw from the embroidery aspect of the image.  In my image I choose to position the subject facing the camera in a close shot position.  I also shot in the studio opposed to on location and used a black background whereas Romussi used a very light background which was accentuated by the colour contrast shown by the use of black and white colouration.  My image lacks this large tonal contrast however the use of a macro lens when shooting insures that the subjects features are still sharp and easy to distinguish.  I choose to create a far more simple embroidered design as I wanted to replicate the stitching effect seen in "Lips sealed" one of my earlier shoots.  I choose a black thread as I felt that it complimented the images backdrop and stood out well against the subjects pale skin (this was furthered though the use of a reduced saturation when editing).  The black thread also helps to draw the sinister meaning behind the subjects lips being sealed against her will and the fact that she is being forced by society to keep her secret.  This is why I felt that it was important for the subjects face to be visible opposed to the anonymous subject in Romussi's work.

If I were able to revisit this shoot I would likely print my image on a larger scale such as A3 to give me more room to embroider a design as I feel that this larger scale would allow me to add more detail to the image.  I would also consider using a thicker thread and possibly more than one colour to create a more intricate design.

To conclude I feel that this shoot was successful in that it achieved what I wanted to convey from my shoots title which was to create physical manifestations of the idioms represented in other shoots.  However the shoot did not fully replicate Romussi's style so this is something that I could revisit.

In conclusion I feel that that this shoot was largely successful with the coloration and positioning used creating a striking image.