Face of the New Generation.
For my self portrait, I wanted to make use of shadows to create a silhouette of myself as the main focus point of my image.
I gained inspiration from John Arsenault’s Italian Stallion.
I really like how the shadow of his silhouette is so carefully casted over the model’s body and I wanted to emulate a similar idea.
While researching, I was very attracted to old coloured chinese photographs taken by Albert Kahn.
I really like how the colours from the photographs are easy on the eyes but are not lacking in saturation.
Growing up, I always felt the pressure of being yellow-skinned chinese. I could never really understand why we were taught to follow certain “rules” and “traditions” that are outdated in our time. However, looking back, I realised that many children in our generation are so detached from our own roots that it is a sad reality to many, including myself.
The Cheongsam was a dress that was often worn by chinese ladies in the past. With the westernisation of our current generation, the culture of wearing cheongsam in daily life is slowly being diminished and it is is no longer the norm. The cheongsam represents the chinese tradition and culture that is slowly left behind, thrown onto the floor like any regular trash.
I chose not to reveal myself in the shot as I wanted my silhouette to fit into the cheongsam, showing how I do not feel comfortable in my own tradition and culture, even though I am authentically “chinese”.
I used only 2 props in my shot, a hibiscus flower and a cheongsam dress. I had to angle my camera such that it would capture strong shadows under the 3 pm sunlight. My camera was set to auto as it was bright enough to take the shots that I wanted.
I tried to imitate the colours that were developed then with older cameras. I played around with the colour balance to increase the greenish tones in the dress as well as the yellowish tones in the ground. I increased the contrast between the ground and the dress with curves and brightened the hibiscus flower while saturating the red tones with an adjustment layer.
Before:
After:
Drive files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SYS2KltUHo_DMOtwxW-T3YL6wuXghPTV