Dina GoldsteinGoldstein is a photographer with a background in editorial/documentary photography. She does photography to evoke feelings of shame, anger and shock, and empathy as she often offers an insight into the human condition.
This photoshoot is of two models designed to look like barbie and ken. The main obvious colours in the poster are pink which is the main colour associated with Barbie. This has very feminine connotations, or for Ken quite camp connotations. I think through these photos Goldstein tried to show that Ken is gay, but has to act straight, maybe representing some young men today, and how pressure from society influences people to think being gay is something to hide, and so keeps people from coming out. I like this series as it shows a childhood toy shown in quite a negative oppressive way, which is maybe something I would think about doing. Also all the pressure children are given to look a certain way would make me want to look at Barbie in a more detail, and in a realistic way. So for my replication I will show the difference between a normal womans figure and Barbie's figure. |
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DollsThese photos on the right are of dolls made to look more realistic by having them do something lifelike, but whilst still keeping them looking plastic. This is a lot like my actual project idea, as I had planned on getting toy dinosaurs, soldiers, dolls and any other toys, and putting them in an environment where they would be if it was a human soldier or an actual dinosaur, and so I have been quite inspired by this work on dolls.
When replicating this style, I will get dolls, and put them all in realistic places, on a swing or in a park bench. I had thought about placing the doll very near the camera so that it looked as if they doll where life-size, and just plastic unlike the human models I would have them talking too. However, I may do this for experimentation, and after looking at this work, it works well just with using dolls, and no humans in the photo. |
The photo on the left of the doll with pink hair looks quite serious and intense. I think it is supposed to look realistic, but still obviously of a plastic doll. The fact that the doll has big eyes, and extremely smooth skin makes the photo look quite surreal and almost scary. Also, the way the doll has been placed taking up most of the photo makes it look more realistic, as if she had emotions and was thinking about something. The proportion of her eyes on her face is completely unrealistic, as they take up most of her, this is something I will try to show how unrealistic it is to look like this, and how it is something that some young girls aspire to look like, which is unrealistic and so eventually demoralizing for them, and so dolls children play with should be more realisitc.
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Barbie Doll ReplicationFor this, I took photos of the whole body of my model, in a pink barbie like dress. Then, I edited them looking at a plastic barbies body, and tried to replicate it as closely as I could. I done this to show how unrealistic a barbies body is, and how it isn't healthy to look as thin as she is, so that girls wouldn't compare themselves to such an unrealistic image.
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This is the photo of my models face, where I tried to use the same measurements that a plastic barbies face has, like the size of the eyes compared to the nose, and the cheeks bones and distance of her eyes apart. I done this to show how looking like a barbie doll is very unrealistic, and girls shouldn't idolize them and try to be as thin as them or look like them, because it idolize look as good as the person looks normally. For example, my model looks a lot more attractive before I photo shopped her to replicate a barbies face. To do this I bulged her eyes, and shrinked her nose slightly, then used colour balance to change the colour of her hair, eyes and lips.
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Kind of toys I plan on using... dinosaurs, soldiers, trains, barbies, film dolls, action man, ducks, toy cars
Toy Animal Photoshoots
Objective: To take photos of toy animals in an environment where the actual real animal might be found. So that they're found in a realistic environment, but they still look plastic, by how unrealistically small they are, nothing like the real animal they replicate.
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For this photoshoot I brought plastic toy animals and dinosaurs, then researched them to find where might be a realistic place to find them. Then I found places to put each animal and done a small photoshoot of each toy, only using natural light as I wanted them to look as natural as possible, without any editing or artificial lighting. I tried to take a lot of the shots as if the camera were peeking through the grass, although I wasn't able for all of them, I wanted to give the illusion that you were watching real animals in the wild, and didn't wan't to disturb them.
Some photos I looked at for inspiration...
After looking at this photo I decided to use a lot more soldier than I had originally planned. The way they are all lined up, their helmets create lines leading to the building behind them, which looks like a religious monument which makes you wonder how many of these men are religious, and whether they have any faith in thinking they are going to be coming back, or will die in war. This representation of the photo makes it seem like a very depressing atmosphere, as it is almost as if these men are walking towards their death. However, it also it quite a hopeful photo, as there are so many men that it makes them look very powerful and strong.
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This photo I also really liked. I love the way the men are positioned in the photo, emphasising just how many of them there are, and how most of them are watching this little boy run after his dad. It makes you think how many of the other men have sons and daughters they are leaving him behind, and so the photo carries a lot of meaning. Also, since there are must be hundreds of men all dressed the same, it again connotes a brotherly bond between all the men.
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This photo was one of the ones I tried to replicate with the toy soldiers. I watched a documentary where Don McCullin talks about this photo and found it very inspiring. He said that the injured man looked like Jesus being taken down from the cross. After this, this photo represents a lot more when I look at it, like how much soldiers have done for us, and are as appreciated as some might say Jesus is, and obviously they both have done a lot of good for the world. Because of all of these connotations, I decided to try and replicate the photo, as although mine probably wouldn't replicate Jesus as I have limited control over what I make the soldiers do, it would still show a brotherly bond between them.
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Soldiers Photoshoot 1
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Soldiers Photoshoot 2
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Soldier Photoshoot- Ao4 Mini Final Pieces
For these pieces, I chose the best war type photos out of the photoshoot, and desaturated them first on photoshop. Then I played around with the brightness and contrast so that they looked like older photos, similar to the Don McCullin war ones I had looked at. I put a reddish brown tint of them so that they looked old, and more realistic from the time they could have been taken. This was quite an easy process, and I am happy with how they turned out. In the first photo where the two men are holding up an injured man in the middle, I tried to position them so that they replicated the Don McCullin photo above. Some of the other photos I tried to take the photos from a position that a photojournalist would at the time. For example, in some of the photos, the foreground is of mud but its is blurred and out of focus, as a photojournalist probably would be hiding away from all of the action, and thats why some of the photos are taken from a low angle. There are also a few from a slightly high angle, where it looks like the men are aware of the photographer, and are positioned for the photo, like the ones where they are all lined up and facing the camera.