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Expressions 2: All Dressed Up & Nowhere To Go

Digital Photography, Photography, Storytelling

The first artist I have chosen to focus on in relation to my work is Rosie Hardy.I discovered Rosie Hardy's work on Flickr when I was researching for ideas on my photoshoots and found that she had produced a set of photographs which which followed the same basic idea that I wanted for mine. She had taken things that already existed and made unique and artistic interpretations of those things.In this particular set of photographs, Hardy has taken different fairytales and made modern day versions of them by mixing them with current ethical, economic and life problems such as drug abuse, domestic abuse, eating disorders and global warming. For example, the picture below follows the theme of Goldilocks And The Three Bears placed with the issue of bulimia, saying that after Goldilocks ate the three bear's porridge, she felt so bad about it, that she purged it into their toilet. The picture above is in the theme of Puss In Boots and her secret life as a postitute. In the caption she left under the photo on Flickr, she explains the issues being that a lot of prostitutes, around 78%, have been threatened with a weapon and physically harmed. Also, she noted that a lot of prostitutes had been previously abused by a care-giver. So, not only are her photos visually impressive and there has been immense concentration given to the small details, they address current problems that the average person maybe wouldn't really think about until they were to read the statements with the photographs.Hardy's set of photographs put fairytales in a very different light to how they are told to us when we are younger; it shows the darker side of them, pulling them into a form of reality close to our own.
All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go
This photoshoot was originally going to be for "Dressed To The Nines" but after taking and editing the photos, I realised that they didn't really match the saying that they were meant to go with. So I changed it to be "All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go". The story that I formulated to go with these photos was about a girl who had recently been asked out on a date. The date night has finally arrived and she puts on her best and prettiest dress for it. At half past 6, she is ready to be picked up at 7. Seven o'clock comes and there is no one to pick her up, so she makes herself a cup of tea and awaits her date, thinking that he must just be running late. Another half an hour later and she realises that he isn't going to show up, so instead of getting upset over it, she decides to do all her household chores to take her mind off the of the situation, still wearing her best and prettiest dress.
I tried to match some of my photographs to those of vintage pin up girls from the fifties but make it more ordinary to suit the fact that regardless that the girl is in her best outfit, she is still an ordinary girl who does normal household chores. To constrast the glamour of the dress and fancy shoes with the mundane task of hanging up washing, I put my models bottom half into mose of a pose, whereas the top half is more natural as if she wasn't posing at all.