Statement.

My aim was to produce a series of images that depict a story of stalking, watching a particular person who’s unaware its happening. I’ve looked at the use of camera angles, and sly ways to make it look as though the stalker is hiding behind objects in the images. The images were shot in the evening and were separated into two shoots. One being public (outside) and the other personal (within the home). I used a fill flash on night mode for all images, and in the editing stage reduced the saturation and increased the darkness to add to the sinister feel. I used Photoshop to add the [REC] symbol to the bottom of the images and also added a time to each image changing along the sequence. All the images until the last shot mostly hide the person’s identity until it is revealed in the last window scene shot.

Final Images.

I took this picture just to show how the final six images work together and how i will display them.

Editing Further..

These are just a couple of images so show how i used photoshop to add the [REC] symbol and also a different time to each image. To show the time passing through different situations as she is followed. I also makes it look asthough they could be still from a camcorde or CCTV.

The Shoot.

These are a selection of the different images from my final shoot.

Editing.

All the images where shot in the evening, so i used a fill fash on night mode. From there i then reduced the saturation of the original and increased the dakness to add to the sinister effect. Below are a few example of some of the begining shots.. of before and after of editing.

Before

After

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before

After

The Shoot..

 I was going to and had planned to go out and shoot locations before hand, but looking into how and why someone is stalked I wanted my final images to be as 'spur of the moment' and unplanned as possible. Even though I am following some who is aware of it. I decided on a route and the sequence of images I'd like to achieve. My model met me after finishing a shift at work, from their i asked her to pursue her normal route from their with me snapping in different situations that came up. With my split the shoot into two with the public on the street images first and then the more private within the household later.

Sandra Phillips on Invasive Looking - Tate Modern.

In this video Sandra Phillips talks about invasive looking in the Tate Moderns 'Exposed' exhibition. About using the camera in a sly secret way yet being invasive. She also talks about how the image given from a camera can depict a person in a way we don't necessarily see them.

Already Famous.

I came across this weird creepy video someone had posted on Vimeo. Its a short psychological thriller acted out. The Women in the video Selena a performer is being stalked, she talks about how she ends up recognising er stalker and knowing he was their following her. After a series of events she actually ends up meeting her stalker in a park.. It's not sure if she ends up killing the Man, but she ends up becoming the stalker and your left wondering if she was actually the stalker to begin with?! There are some really interesting scenes, although short would be good stills and work well as an image.



ALREADY FAMOUS from FEATUREZOO on Vimeo.

Exposed - Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera

The Tate Moderns 'Exposed'  past exhibition was the starting point of this brief. It looks at snapping images of people on the sly and without their permission, the main difference with my images is that I have a model that is knowingly going to let me follow them. Reading about the exhibition on the Tate modern website Tate Modern 'Exposed' The United Kingdom is now the most surveyed and watched country in the world.. It makes you realise just how much your every move is watched, and question what can you actually do without record or someone knowing where you are?! The exhibition looks a both amateur and press photography and the world of celebrity and images produced by cctv, it confronts these issues and their implications head-on.

Some Image Angles and Location Ideas.

These are just a selection on images found on Tumblr. They all hold the same theme to them of being stalked, watched and followed. They've also given me ideas and pointers of different angles etc. I like the idea of with my final images somehow having it look as though the stalker is hiding watching their stalker (As most stalkers generally are quite close to their stalker, and obvious most stalked will generally know their stalker), and to somehow make this clear in my images. This could be achieved possibly by Shadow's and working with the light, or having and object or part of something viewable within the images. Maybe having part of  a brick wall shown in the corner of the image to make it look as though your hiding behind a corner. Also looking at angles of images i don't think that the images should look perfectly framed or perfectly in focus, as someone stalking wouldn't necessarily care about angles etc.

Concept

I am pursuing the idea of images of someone being stalked.  From my previous statistics I found it interesting that most stalkees knew the person who was stalking them. This made it seem realistic that I could in fact document someone I already knew without losing realism. 
However, it is not really socially acceptable to stalk people, so I am going to recreate images trying to make them feel as real as possible, whilst also communicating a message through the mise-en-scene of the images. 

Location
I am choosing locations that invade the privacy of the subject, capturing them in intimate, personal moments.  The locations I have chose to pursue so far are:

Launderette
Clothes construct a part of a person's identity, and 'Laundry Day'is when they are shed to be cleaned.  Usually, Laundry is done in clothes that are acceptable to wear out to the launderette, but not what you usually feel most comfortable to be seen in.  Underwear are very personal too, and in the Launderette they are on view for all to see unless you are discrete.

Window
The construct of the window shows an intimate part of the subject's life as it is a window into their home.  This is the area in which they should be most comfortable and true in identity.  It also constricts them within a certain frame.

Angle
High angle gives the impression of the CCTV, which is good for invoking ideas of being watched and no knowing.  However, this seems a very mechanical viewpoint.  I still would like to incorporate this angle, but producing in the image the way in which the viewpoint is elevated above such as is seen in 'the Stalked and the Stalker' showng the point as being above onthe escalator. 

Low angle gives the impression of someone looking up at someone in a secure place.  This would work better for the window image as it shows a distance between the subject and the stalker.

Lighting
...

Research - Facts on Stalking & Criminal Harassment

• More than 1 in 10 women (15 years of age and over) have been victims of stalking in Canada.
• Obscene phone calls is the most frequently reported form of stalking for female victims.
• Most stalking victims know their stalker.
• Over one third of stalking victims reported stalking to police.
• 1 in 10 stalking victims sought out a protective order against the stalker - of which almost one half were violated.

Panopticon Design & The Begining of Surveillance.

Looking into the whole subject of how easy it is the be watched, followed, stalked and photographed but be totally aware. I came across the ponopiticon prison designs which were designed and introduced in 1785. Designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham. They allow an observer to observe all the prisoners, without them being in the know that they are being watched. One architect described the building as the "sentiment of invisible omniscience". Jeremy Betham described the design as "A new mode of obtaining power of the mind over mind in  a quantity hitherto without example."

The design and idea is described as the birth and starting point of surveillance in society. The use of photographic surveillance began in 1913 with taking pictures of people in hidden disguised locations. The first use of cctv was in 1960 by the metropolitan police in Trafalgar square.

The stalked and the stalker.

Looking on DeviantArt I came across this image posted by Bruce Bachand (hermeneia4life). This captures the idea i suggested of having the camera acting as the stalker eyes, watching their stalker/victim following them. This shot was taken in the Granville Street Skytrain Station in Vancouver, Canada. The idea surrounding this image is of a past event that happened 10 years ago, Robert William "Willie" Pickton a convicted serial killer. Murdered 26 women he stalked prostitutes. and drug users from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and then killed them, severely mutilating their bodies and rendering their bodies in a meat rendering machine. Robbing the women of their voices, their lives and their dignity. Link to Robert Pickton.

'Exposed'

As an idea for the 'Exposed' Brief, I've thought about having a series of images that depict the idea of someone being stalked and followed. The image i have in mind is of a sinister feel, quite creepy. I also like the idea of having all of the images in black and white to add to this. Taking it further in the editing stage, when the images are shot and finished, I'd like them to look as though they are screen snap shot stills from CCTV. Possibly editing them to not look completely focused with a grainy feel. Also i like the idea of having the date and a REC (record) sign someone with the green button like it would if it was a still from CCTV. I aim now to do a test shoot to get a feel for camera angles and working out suitable locations.

This image above is just a snap shot from the Metropolitan Police's website, but it gives an idea how Ive explained in the editing stage adding date and details from when the situation was supposedly being filmed.

Barthes and Photography.

I just brushed up on Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida, as I remember reading in it before about aspects of candid photography that are relevant to the 'Exposed' brief.

There seems to be an issue in candid photography about identity copyright, whether you can morally take a photograph of a person without their permission.  It can be seen as invasion of a person's privacy. Obviously in terms of celebrity and paparazzi, this issue is slightly different, but a celebrity still has a point at which paparazzi becomes less harmless and more an issue of invasion of privacy.  This is accompanied by legal issues, some of which we have seen in the recent year over Google street view, capturing residents homes and actions when they don't want them to be seen. 

How this is relevant is to the brief is to do with permission.  Maybe to morally take a candid photography, we have to make the subject aware of the photographer and in agreement to have the shot taken, but a what point does that stop becoming candid, surveillance or voyeurism?

Barthes puts across the idea that is the human's subconscious instinct to 'pose' when they are aware of a camera focused on them, which is why many people feel insecure about the Big Brotheresque nature of CCTV culture.  They never know when their image is being captured, so do not have the choice of how they appear.

This difference between awareness and ignorance of the captured image could be something to base my project on.