Idea Experimentation

My Experience;

After my experience, I was given a booklet about OCD for me to read and fill in areas that were relevant to me. I have decided to take my experience as a starting point for my developments.

There is a cycle that is used to explain OCD which was included in my booklet. This is an important part of the condition, as it relates to OCD of all types and is something that I can base my work on.

Each section would be different depending on the person and their OCD needs, however, the main topics can give me a broad and open starting point for me to create some thumbnail ideas to start experimenting. I plan to incorporate elements of all 3 photographers to represent this cycle.

I have decided to use the 4 sections to the right of the cycle as a starting point to my developments.

1) Intrusive thoughts- This section will represent the beginning of the process, hence the beginning of baking the cake.
The setting will be in a kitchen.
I will use the warm colours taken from my chosen photographer Aldridge.
I will have a mixture of still life and wide angles in the kitchen.
I will be dressed in bright, contrasting colours to the background.
The aim for this section, would be for the compositions to show everything neat and orderly- showing a positive start to the process.
I aim to capture exact measurements within one composition- preferably on weighing scales- you will be able to see me within the composition, carefully analysing the still life. Within my expression, I want to capture slight anxiety and desire for the measurement to be perfect.
Another composition will include an overhead view, similar to Kleiner's work, of the ingredients that I will be using- This will be still life and I will not appear in the composition.
Lastly, another composition will show a front view of the table, this time I will be in the composition- It will show ingredients all layer out and me preparing to start to combine the ingredients together. My expression will show that I am not looking forward to what is to come- slight worry about things going wrong.
In all of these compositions, I would like the lighting to reflect Aldridge- also, my expression will reflect his work too- contrasting the bright colours that will be present within the composition.


2) Interpretation- This section will explore when things start to go wrong, (eg- when the measurements are slightly off.)
Within this section, I imagine the same compositions as the first section, however, creating an element of unbalance within the photograph.
The still life of the scales will be slightly off- I will then start to look worried.
The overhead view of ingredients, I will move something out of place, creating an imbalance within the composition.
The front view will show my frustration- some spilled ingredients.
This section will still present the warm lighting reflecting Aldridge.

3) Emotion- For this section, I aim to bring in more harsh lighting taken from my chosen photographer Sharma. This will reflect the emotion that will be captured by me. This section will reflect the distraction of things going very wrong. I will be throwing the ingredients around in frustration and anger, therefore I aim to capture the movement that I will be creating. I will also experiment with the angles that Aldridge captured within his work- for example, looking up and looking down upon the scene. My makeup will be running down my face and my outfit will appear messy. I want to capture the anger of the anxiety that has appeared when things slightly go wrong.

4) Coping Mechanism- This section will be the last section, therefore will represent the aftermath. The cake will be cooked and formed. I aim to produce still life photographs of the destruction that has been made. I will still use the harsh lighting taken from Sharma to create the dramatic mood to my photographs. Within the compositions , I would like to place a perfect slice of cake onto a plate with a cup of tea and fork, neatly placed within the centre of the composition- The rest of the composition will show to destruction and hard work that has gone into making this perfect slice of cake. This is to represent how I coped with the process and how much it effected me to achieve the perfect piece of cake.


Developments
Below are my first development photographs on the topic of OCD.
I took these photographs in the studio using my photographer Miles Aldridge as inspiration.
My aim was to capture the process of OCD and use baking to describe the feelings and emotions towards order.

The first 3 images represent the first part of the process. From these photographs, you can see that my make up and hair is neat. The bowl is placed in the centre of the composition. I appear to be measuring out the ingredients highlighting the importance of exact measurements. My expression becomes more intense as I am striving for perfection. I have captured some movement within the first photograph shown which relates to my artist Nik Sharma. I have enhanced the brightness and contrast similarly to my initial responses to Aldridge. For my first experiments, I have used the same 2 contrasting colours as I felt this was successful with my first attempts. 

The next section of photographs represent the stages as to where things start going wrong. I started to change my expression, and incorporate some movement within the compositions. Again, I have kept the same brightness and contrast as the previous section to keep the link to the photographer Aldridge. I used the sieve in one composition, and captured the movement of the flour. 

The last part of my experiments focused on the aftermath of emotions, here I wanted to illustrate how draining it can be to get everything right and to want to achieve perfection all the time.