A Level Photography: Perception, Culture and Identity

Concluding Updated on January 5, 2022

This A* CIE A Level Photography project was completed by Freya Dumasia of Macleans Higher, Auckland, New Zealand. Freya achieved 92% overall for A Level (89% for Every bit) and was awarded an Outstanding Scholarship for NCEA Level 3. Her piece of work depicts a young Islamic adult female wearing a burqa and explores issues related to civilization and identity.

Two of Freya's sketchbook pages are included in our new book: Outstanding High Schoolhouse Sketchbooks . This volume has high-resolution images and then that fine details and note are clear, making it an excellent resource for students and schools. Larn more!

There is ofttimes the perception that Photography is an easy high school Art subject; that those with a good heart for composition tin snap a few shots, tweak the dissimilarity and overlay a filter or 2 on Photoshop. This projection is a reminder that that those who excel in A Level Photography do far more than. Freya's photographs are the result of deliberate compositional choices, sophisticated employ of her SLR camera and use of an innovative 3D installation to nowadays her concluding work. Instead of relying on digital manipulation to remedy or create photographic works, Freya focuses upon the magic that occurs in front of the camera. Her images are intriguing and haunting: a project to remember.

Freya's A level Photography portfolio consists of four x A1 prep sheets, a sketchbook and concluding piece.

Freya was kind enough to allow united states of america to interview her about her work. Her responses are below:

Please give us an overview of the themes and ideas behind your A Level Photography project.

Freya: I was born in Dubai, a country rich in faith that intrigued my interest in the Islamic culture. I am interested in using photography equally a tool to reframe perspectives and emphasis the fashion in which a cultural prototype within guild has been constructed through the media. I desire to raise awareness within the viewer of the manner newspaper coverage and online access to electric current events manipulates our views and opinions of Islamic civilization. My photography aims to limited the way the media distorts, blurs and shows a selected view, and to explore the way this process can result in the loss of individual identity.

From the outset, the photographs inside Freya'due south A Level projection are deliberately composed. These initial works are hitting, symmetrical compositions, with stiff dissimilarity of light and dark. Crucial aspects of the subject matter are clearly introduced: the black material of the burqa, the intricate patterns of the burqa veil, and the hit optics and glasses of an Islamic girl.

The girl in my photo shoot is a friend with a unique eye colour. I wanted the viewer to be immediately fatigued into my piece of work through her hitting eyes. The moving people helped me communicate her alienation through vision. I zoomed in on the people because the blurring world around her showcases the way she stands out within the crowd. It gives the opportunity for the viewer to feel more than connected to my piece of work as they can see themselves as the oversupply. The focus on the lens represents the fashion we scope closer into her life, beneath the blackness. The viewer is in the daughter's position – this draws the viewer in and helps to emphasise the blurry view y'all proceeds from someone else's perspective (as through the media). The imitation, contradistinct image is ultimately confusing and turns reality upside down (as shown in the round shape created by a macro lens towards the terminate of the offset sheet of preparatory work, which inverts the epitome). The spectacles act equally the limited frame of the media that shapes our view of the earth. Lastly, the TV screen (printed upon an OHP plastic sheet) reinforces the influence and power media have over civilisation.

Moving well beyond ordinary 'signal and click' photography, the images of a moving oversupply in these A Level examples are blurred, distorted and inverted through circular lenses.

The blurred background of moving figures in this photograph takes on a painterly quality, helping to emphasise the serenity, stillness of the primal figure. This is a photograph of the girl continuing in front of an overhead projector screen upon which crowd scenes have been projected. Artistic approaches to photography, such as this, aid to lift Freya'southward A Level Coursework project out of the ordinary.

Showing the distorted, blurry views through lenses, this beautifully composed photograph explores ideas related to perception: the fashion an individual frames their view of the globe.

Here Freya combines the different subjects she has investigated in her A Level Photography project: blurred crowd scenes (abstruse paintings of light), distorted views through glass lenses and a motionless image of a girl wearing a burqa, looking at the earth with clear, unflinching eyes.

The colour selection gains the viewers attention, as the reds slowly come through the stark blackness with the crowds and textured sections (in the middle of the second preparatory sheet). The warm colours invite the viewer and create a comfy atmosphere, before moving into the blue and eerie blackness, to showcase her loss of existence. The white infinite was used to create a sense of loneliness and alienation.

Even when using unpredictable photography techniques, such as intentional blurring, using slow shutter speeds, Freya makes sure that the colour scheme (reds, dejection and black) links in seamlessly with her projection.

More experimental photography ideas: Hither Freya has printed an A3 photograph of her subject area'due south eyes, which has then been photographed (a photo of a photo) on long shutter speed. In Freya's words, this 'displays the double identities she has, equally her culture speaks for her rather than her speaking for herself. The result of multiple eyes represents the multiple perspectives created by the media, which are repeated mass produced images'.

Which photographers (or artists) did y'all study and how take these influenced your projection?

To see the reality of [culture] yous need more than than just sight; you need vision – Peter Sanders.

Freya: To me, vision translates into multiple perceptions, viewings or interpretations. To sympathise the complexities that lie under any culture and the rituals and community which strive to be kept alive is challenging. It takes an try to respect and explore these hidden complexities, which I take explored through framing devices and selected vision. Sanders' photography uses dissimilar angles to draw in the viewer. In like ways I use perspective to portray a negative aureola well-nigh how wrong it is for the media to manipulate such a culture with deep history and tradition attached to it. I accomplish this past limited use of colour (ruddy, blue and black), strategically placing lighting and using overlay techniques (such as the texture of static on a television and framing of glasses).

Lalla Essaydi focuses her work on Arab female identity in 19th century Oriental mode. Her images show women covered in a repeat pattern, merging into the wall with the same pattern. My images capture the texture of fabric, like Essaydi, just exercise not hide body parts; rather I place more emphasises on the girl's face and hands. The black fabric I have used is ane that the media typically uses; an epitome we are used to watching on television.

Some of the most captivating images within Freya's portfolio are portraits taken through the burqa veil: a fine mesh of bandage shadow and intricate blueprint. With soft blue lighting, the shadows 'communicate the way the civilization imprints onto her peel.'

It is of import that a CIE Art & Design projection develops in a visually coherent way. This image reintroduces the girl's clear, captivating gaze, making visual connections with the initial photographs taken in Freya's A Level Photography portfolio.

Photography is a visual linguistic communication often used to manipulate certain masses of peoples, cultures and identities – Greg Semu.

Freya: I wanted to explore the manner the media 'projects' an epitome. The beauty of Islamic culture has been submerged due to the controversies over the burqa. The media shapes and cuts things to accommodate their ain purposes, often for political reasons. I have used movement to depict confusion and depth of field and pixelated close-ups to showcase the misunderstanding of a culture.

Davis Ayer projects images onto the naked bodies of women to create the effect of 'perfect tattoos.' I accomplished a like outcome in my photography on the 3rd sheet of prep work, portraying the manner the media implements printed judgments on this culture, which stay in peoples' minds forever.

These images are the unplanned issue of experimental photography techniques. Taken in the classroom using natural lighting (on a cloudy day) Freya stock-still her photographic camera to a tripod and, with a slow shutter speed, zoomed the lens in and out at a boring pace, while taking the photo of her notwithstanding model.

Your project includes an exciting array of photographic techniques and creative approaches, such as intentional blurring and baloney of images through lenses and screens. Explain how these techniques helped to support and communicate the ideas explored in your project.

Freya: I intentionally blurred my subject affair to communicate submerging of culture and loss of individual identity. My third sheet of prep work focuses on the veil, with the girl blurred in the background, and then switches to her in focus and the veil blurred. This technique helps to highlight the fragile netting and beauty of the burqa. The transferring of the veil onto her peel mirrors the permanent imprint of opinions of media and others' perceptions upon her identity. The burqa becomes no longer a choice of clothing but a potent representation of who she is.

Yet another creative photography technique used in this A Level folio: this image depicts the girl holding an image of a static-filled tv set printed onto clear plastic flick (OHP transparency). This is an extension of earlier ideas of photographs within photographs: an exploration of the way perceptions are shaped, distorted and framed past the lens through which they are seen.

As Freya's projects develop, the compositions get more resolved, communicating her ideas with a quiet and moving clarity.

In my 4th prep sheet, I question the style individuals within a civilisation can lose identity. The girl'due south pick of clothing not but speaks for her, only also the media, which assumes her thoughts. The blurred layers diminish her presence. As she wears the burqa, more controversy arises and more negative opinions generate. I blurred her to denote how people judge her fifty-fifty if they do not know what she is like without her burqa or what the burqa represents. The inclusion of the television connects to media. The image of the boob tube screen is powerful considering the outlined figure is placed directly in the centre. The viewer immediately sees it and, fifty-fifty though they practice not know what is backside the TV, they assume it is her with the burqa.

There was minimal digital manipulation with my photographs, as I only used Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 to adjust dissimilarity, effulgence and levels.

This is i of my favourite images from Freya's A Level Photography project: eerie, undulating colour – an infusion of shadow and light.

Drawing from the blurred photography techniques explored earlier – tedious shutter speeds, projected lite, and camera zoom – Freya extends the illusion of layers and depth, reinforcing ideas of multiple viewpoints and an inability to discern truth amongst a hodgepodge of media perception.

Your last piece is beautiful, contemporary installation: a photograph enclosed in a dark box. Delight provide us with some additional information nigh this piece.

Freya: The terminal prototype is of a thick black border that is surrounded by crowd of people. If y'all walk past the box, the crowd is all that you will see. But if you expect into the box, through the view hole, y'all are immediately confronted by the girl's eyes. I strategically did this and so that the viewer would be shocked by a set of eyes staring correct back at them. The view hole is designed every bit a directly slit going beyond. This places you in her shoes because the view of her world is only through her optics, the same width and height as I have cut as the slit. When you place your face on the view hole, information technology covers your confront in black except your eyes, just like a burqa.

Freya's final A level Photography piece consists of a wooden box placed on a set of drawers, within which an iPod plays an original soundtrack of churr (a recording of a oversupply at a nutrient court) and Standard arabic prayers. One side of the box slides up (see top left photo), assuasive admission to ii lights that are placed beneath it. These lights accept blue cellophane attached, and so that that the photograph (printed on tracing paper) is lit by a blue glow. The very top of the box lifts off, assuasive access to the whole photograph. Once assembled, a black sail is draped over the box and viewers identify their eye confronting the hole in the lid to view the piece of work.

An outstanding conclusion to her project, this final image (viewed through the slit in the box) brings together a rich array of experimental photography techniques in a captivating composition. Surrounded past an abstraction of blurred figures and motility, you are immediate captured – unable to await away: a young daughter's eyes meeting your own.

Freya's A Level Photography sketchbook can exist viewed in the video below:

What advice do you have for other high school Photography students who wish to gain excellent grades?

Freya: To choose subject area matter you lot are passionate about, because that passion will translate into a loftier standard of work. Although the almost important part is passion, you also need to exist organised, with good fourth dimension direction right from the start! This allows room to experiment in dissimilar ways and to choose the virtually constructive and explicit ways to communicate your ideas. As a result, the all-time images will assist you reach those excellent grades.

This last paradigm shows Freya's NCEA Photography Scholarship board. This is a New Zealand qualification entered by the elevation candidates in Level 3 (Twelvemonth 13). Freya was awarded Outstanding Scholarship for this projection; the highest class possible.

Freya used a Catechism 550D SLR camera (chapter link) with 55-250mm and 18-55mm lenses for this projection, besides as a 58mm macro lens, with studio lights and tripod.

This is the 3rd project we accept featured from the Macleans Higher Art Department. If you found this commodity helpful, please share information technology using the social media buttons below!

Amiria has been an Art & Design teacher and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for 7 years, responsible for the grade blueprint and assessment of pupil work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Fine art & Blueprint Coursework Assessor.

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Source: https://www.studentartguide.com/featured/a-level-photography-identity

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