Who are we behind the masks that we wear?
Identity is a recurring theme in Andreas Poupoutsis' work. He use the face as a canvas.
“Metamorphosis” would best describe my creative process. He is influenced by Cubism, shapes, shadows and textures. Creating beautiful and abstract images intrigues me. Andreas is fascinated by people’s faces and especially by the transformation they go through in photographs. We are complex and unique individuals with our own experiences, fears and losses and use our life experience to view the world. Being true to ourselves is one of the most challenging thing we can do and Andreas portrays this successfully within his work.
“Metamorphosis” would best describe my creative process. He is influenced by Cubism, shapes, shadows and textures. Creating beautiful and abstract images intrigues me. Andreas is fascinated by people’s faces and especially by the transformation they go through in photographs. We are complex and unique individuals with our own experiences, fears and losses and use our life experience to view the world. Being true to ourselves is one of the most challenging thing we can do and Andreas portrays this successfully within his work.
Through loking at Andreas' work I was curious as to know where he gets his inspiration from "As for my fascination with faces, I have always been intrigued by abstract portraits, every face is unique in its own way and that sparks my imagination. At the same time I’m always looking for ways to transform that uniqueness and go deeper into analysing the identities of people." his process is always different depending on the project. It all starts out with an idea which then turns into small sketches- he always has a diary in which he writes down all the ideas. Pre-visualising the shoot is also very important to him and the search for the appropriate materials, textures, and urban locations are needed. I have realised that Andreas prefers studio work due to all of his work in a studio and this may be because he has more control of the light and can create the dramatic scene that he wants.
MY RESPONSE.
Here is one of my best responses that I think has been successful, the photo-shoot for this image can be found here. For this response I used a white piece of material to wrap the head very tightly and then project my Arabic writing about self-identity and how identity is portrayed within the Middle East over the head. The facial expression of the face can be seen through the material, although this was hard to achieve, I think I was able to do it by exaggerating the expression on my models face and not using a very thick piece of material. The face looks like it is screaming with the mouth wide open, screaming to be let out and have the freedom to reveal their identity which is very powerful. There is a dramatic difference between the original image and this final image because I have used Photoshop to edit it, on the original image the writing was not standing out and clear so I increased the contrast on it and added a rough effect to add an alarming touch to the reader. For the people that are not able to read he Arabic writing, they will still be able to tell the meaning behind the image through just analyzing. Simple touches such as blacking out the background and increasing the white have made the overall image look intense.
I was pleased of the first outcome, so I decided to develop it further by incorporating another successful technique to this piece of work. I printed the image onto a transparency and scratched words relating to the image onto the picture, in different sizes and covered all of the back background, I liked the way the white looked against the black and the concept of adding more words to the image. It demonstrates more anger and force to the final appearance.
Furthermore, I decided to take the second response and develop it further in the dark room and experiment with a different result. The above image was the outcome. I ended up with the colours contrasting, so the parts that were black such as the background turned white and the white writing turned black. For the first attempt I exposed the image for too long under the natural light, and the writing over the face didn’t come out well because it was already dark. So when I tried it again I left it for only 3 seconds and was pleased with the result when they were developed. I think the journey of this response was interesting and fun, I resulted with different outcomes that all worked really well.