Selected shots from shoot three

I feel that these shots are very important within my series as although they may be controversial,  they tell a huge story when viewed alone, as well as create a whole new narrative when placed with the rest of my shots. They are very voyeuristic and personal, and I debated about whether using them in my final edit, however, I think that they portray my idea greatly and show the realities of the transition from childhood to adolescence.

  

The dolls in these two photographs, I feel, represent the clinging onto childhood and playfulness that my sister still contains, but is slowly losing. I thought that there was something quite sinister about the dolls, their faces and the way they all look identical; it reminded me of Ilona Szwarc's series 'American Girls' that I studied earlier in the project, as each doll is dressed differently and can be customised, yet all of them really look the same. I feel this irony is very important for the subject area that I am portraying, as 'identity' is a large concern for young girls, yet they are being presented ideas of what is considered 'perfect' which they will continue to compare themselves to for the next couple of years.

This photograph is a metaphor for many things within my series. The water connotes change, motion, renewal, reflection and transformation. The sky/clouds connote concealing/revealing, dreams, doom and gloom, oppression, as well as change and transition, but also hold the optimistic metaphor "every cloud has a silver lining". I feel that this image would work well within the series and also help break up the shots of objects and portraits. When editing this photograph, I want to adjust the levels and curves in order to make it slightly brighter as I feel it is a lot darker compared to the other images that I have taken in my series, and would aesthetically fit better into the series if the exposure was slightly brighter.

Overall, I am pleased with these shots from my third film. I believe they will work well within the series to stop the entire project being only portraits. I want to experiment with using these and my other photographs as diptychs and see which ones work the best when paired together.