“Behind Our Facade”

Ike615

Back during the first week of October I went with my friends to First Thursday (it's basically a big art show that happens every first thursday of the month in Portland). At one of the art galleries a photographer was showing his work. It was nothing inspiring or even intriguing but it got me thinking; if something like this can be shown at First Thursday, there is no reason why I shouldn’t be showing my work at First Thursday and/or gallery. Then the roadblock hits . . . I realize I don’t have any work that would merit a showing. See, up until that moment I hadn’t really thought about my journey into photography as an artistic endeavor. It was more working for other people and trying to learn the technical side of it all. I thought for a couple days about what would be the best direction for me to go with this new artistic endeavor. Ultimately I decided I would start a book/series of photos. I wanted it to be something that was symbolic of my life thus far.


Growing up I was always a shy kid, or “reserved” as I liked to call it. I never really showed who I was on the inside, to the people around me. Over the years though, through learning to sing, participating in theater and choir, starting up my own business, etc. I have come out of my shell. And it feels quite amazing to be comfortable with who I am, around anyone. I now know what it feels like to fly because that’s what it honestly feels like when I hold nothing back and be the me behind this “facade” we all erect in public.


This is what I want to convey through my book/series. The working title is “behind our facade.” I will most likely be working on the series over the course of the next couple months. The possibilities are really endless though so it could potentially turn into a much longer project.


Today I kicked off the series with my first shoot. I shot with Lucy Lovette from Model Mayhem (great model to work with). She has a condo over in N Portland that looks like it could be in Europe and the basement looks like it could be an old jail in a Western movie. It truly is a great place to shoot. Below is a sample photo from the shoot. I took a lot of great photos though so it will not necessarily be the final photo I use.





Hopefully more photos to follow soon! I plan on updating this thread as I continue the series. I would love any constructive criticism and/or ideas to help me make this project the best it can be,


- Isaac Lane Koval

Ike615

reserved
(reserved for future photos in this series)

jeffreaux2

3 things.
I like the concept but here is my 2 cents

The poloroid paste is very pasty looking.....stands out as photoshopped in. Would it be possible to get your hands on an actual poloroid for them to hold and then just layer in a new image over the poloroid image? Might look a bit more authentic.

Two - I think if the text were written in their own hand it would carry more weight. It is easy to slip them a piece of paper that is cut to the dimensions of the bottom of the poloroid. Doesnt have to be the same size, just the same ratio. Then have them jot down in black ink their thought. This piece of paper can then be scanned and used to create a new photoshop brush that is totally resizeable and can be stamped in any color. There are several tutorials out there on doing this to create a watermark stamp.

3. You have placed the poloroid directly in front of her face....which is fine...I immediately liked the photograph, but I don't see where having her face in the frame would hurt the photograph as long as you are using that shallow of a focal plane. An out of focus face in there might be just as intense.

Again......my 2 cents won't even buy a cup of coffee, so take it for what it is worth!!!

And

Good luck!!!

System

looking forward to seeing what you come up with-

sounds neat to me-

good luck!-

Ike615

Jeff,

I very much appreciate your feedback.

1. I did use a real poloroid (in fact paid $22 for a pack of 20 yesterday) and then layered a new image over it in PS so I don't know why it is standing out as looking photoshopped in.

2. I completely agree. I didn't think about the idea of having writting on the poloroid until after the photo-shoot so I did my best with the fonts in photoshop. You can definitely count on some personalized hand written poloroids in the futre,

3. I've taken a bunch of photos of her holding the poloroid and this is one I just quickly picked out of the bunch to try out. It is helpful to have your opinion on it though. I'll throw up another photo later today with her face in it as well and we can see which one works better.

4. Your feedback is definitely work a cup of coffee for the amount of time you took to offer advice,

Thank you once again!

George,

Thanks for the positive feedback!

Chrissiebeez_NL

this looks like an interesting project. good luck and keep us posted because i for one are curious about your progress

wxwax

I'm looking forward to this. Promising start.

Ike615

Thanks all. I'm still trying to work out the details of how I want to eventually present all these photos so that they will have the most mass appeal, while still staying true to my artistic vision. I've contemplated the idea of having short essays attached to each photo. Or even something like http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ with the short sayings. Feel free to throw out any ideas, comments, or criticism. They would be much appreciated.

I eventually want to turn this into a book so if there is anyone out there that has had a book published or has publishing experience, your wisdom would be worth a lot to me, for at this point I'm not really sure where to begin with that aspect of my project. So far my only leads are finding photo magazines to send my work to and try to build up from there. So also if you know of any great photo magazines, send them my way.

- Isaac

P.S. To the forum moderators. Let me know if this thread doesn't really fit into the people section (for it is mostly words right now). Thanks!

wxwax

Isaac, you're good so far.

If this gets away from people shots and more into packaging the product, then we might consider moving it.

Cantfeelmyfingers

I'm a sucker for polaroids, whether they're in the photo or that's my media. I love it. The only thing I would really change is the writing also!