picbod# catch-up; Building the frame

Whilst still in exile i continued to try and work through my motivational black hole and tried to find some inspiration.

When i become lost of directionless i try to take a few steps back and have a go at something i wouldn't usually consider. A few weeks beforehand we as a group had visited painter Paul Wrights studio and done some work on illustrating and drawing. I had a look through his work as i quite like his style and decided that his work would be my start point. I knew pretty much straight away that this was a dead lead. It would be something to help pass the time and keep my sketchbook ticking over but would have very little bearing on my final piece.

I found a few portraits that Paul had talked about in depth in a talk last year where he multiplied himself in his portraits. He explained that he was trying to form a triangle in the portrait to the left and that he had become increasingly interested with how people viewed his work and how the work viewed them. This is why the Paul on the right is looking directly at you and something struck me about it. It made me honest in a way, the gaze had caught me and i felt i was dragged into it a bit.
I decided i'd have a go at the double portrait idea myself and began by shooting myself in around 30 different poses slouched over the couch in my living room. I tried to build a picture from the various poses of me and at the time i was not really fussed about my scruffy appearance or that the camera maybe a stop out of slightly out of focus. I didn't really care about the lighting either, all that was important to me at the time was that i was continuing to take pictures. (The cat was just good timing, not planned)

pic: 1
pic: 2
pic: 3
contact sheet (mini)


Here's what I came up with, it was a fun exercise but i'm aware nothing more will ever come of it. I've included one page of the contact sheet to give you an idea of the poses i was going for and so you can fill in the blanks so to speak. Would be interesting to see what Paul thought about it, maybe i'll get the chance to ask him one day.

During this week and any week i feel lost my reading focused on people such as William Eggleston and around Gus Van Saint and Zach Braff films. Im consuming literature and movies at an alarming rate at the moment, however its all pretty scatter bombed until i finally decide on a direction to push this project forward.