Project 5: Traditional Regalia

In this project, we have to produce three prints of subjects in traditional regalia:

- one of my own culture and two others of my own choice

- each image must show clearly a traditional regalia

- each image must be a close up shot of section

Project 5: Traditional Regalia-Final Prints

This is my first final print. In this photo, I tried to show a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. All Muslim women are supposed to wear a hijab and so it is very traditional in those countries. The model, unfortunately, is not a Muslim so I couldn't bring that effect. I tried to show the traditional regalia through the model's face. Her gloomy facial expression expresses the lack of freedom that Muslim women feel. In Photoshop, I burned the model's face a bit and erased the model's eye-liner. I also got rid of her spots and made the photograph a bit warmer in tone.

This is my second final print. In this photo, I showed Japan's regalia, the fan. Even though it is a very contemporary fan, it still shows Japan's traditional regalia. The model is also half-Japanese and so, it was better to show this. In Photoshop, I made a halo around the model's head to hide the blurriness and also darkened the model's hair color to make her look more Asian-like. Her gesture is also very traditional. She is holding the fan like how they do it in Japan, and is hiding her face with the fan. Japanese dancers usually hide their face with the fan to give a sense of elegance.

This is my last final print. In this one, I showed my home country, Korea's traditional regalia. Hanbok is the dress that the model is wearing and it is a two-piece. Hanboks are usually very colorful and so it was important that I showed this. This was the only picture that had the full body. Since it shows the full body, I focused on the posture. The model has her hands together in the air and this is the first thing you do before bowing. Koreans bow to the elders to show respect. I did not do much editing to this picture because all I had to do was brighten the areas with shadows.

Project 5: Traditional Regalia-Printing Compositions

This is the original copy of my first final print. I asked Barbara to be the model for this picture and so took these photographs in the media lab. It was quite dark in the room and so, I used ms.dele's flash to make it lighter and less blurry. Because my camera's flash was broken, all the photographs tended to come out blurry. This was the least blurry one out of all and I used photoshop to edit the photographs. I'll explain the editings on the final prints section.

This is the original print for my second final print. As I already told ms.dele, I was not so crazy about this print because of the fan's color. However this is the contemporary version of Japan's traditinal regalia and so, I continued to work with this. Just like the one above, this picture was blurry, and so I tried my best to hide this through Photoshop. There was no extra lightings except the usual lights of the room that the photo was taken in.

This is the original copy of my last final print. This was taken at home and I had to fix the lighting so it focused on the subject. However since the lighting was from above, the shadow of the subject's arm was too dark. I also did something to this via Photoshop. The model was my mother, and she did not want me to take any photos with her face in it and so I only took photographs of the clothing.

Project 5: Traditional Regalia-Image Bank

Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer that is renowned for her works with celebrities. She is one of the most famous photographers in the world. She started her career at the Rolling Stone magazine and her photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was what pulled her into the fame. She has three children and she raises them all by herself.
This photograph is called The Roots, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2000. This is also another type of portrait photograph, but with more people. This also relates to our current project, Traditional Regalia. The subjects in this photograph represent their environment and what they enjoy doing. Even though the postures are not as formal as other photographs, this is a good example of showing one's culture.
William Hogarth
William Hogarth is an English painter and printmaker, born in 1697 and died in 1764. His works ranged from realistic portraits to comic style series of pictures and they were also sometimes satirical as they mocked the politics and customs then. He started off as an engraver, engraving coats of arms, shop bils and etc. Then he started painting and also started painting portraits.
This painting is called Fallstaff Examining His Recruits. I chose this painting on purpose because it looked similar to the one by Annie Leibovitz. The similarities are that there are a lot of people from the same background and it represents the background they come from. The difference in this painting, there are people of high authority recruting people and the house that they are in and their poses all show that this was an important meeting for them. Unfortunately, this painting is not a good example to show traditional regalia.

Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton is an English fashion and portrait photographer, born in 1904 and died in 1980. Not only did he take photographs, he also designed costumes and stages for theater. He first attended Harrow but transferred to St.John's College and studied history, art and architecture. In addition he continued with his photography and eventually published one of his photos on Vogue magazine. His photographs are renowned for their elegance, glamour and fashion.

I chose this photograph because it did not only relate to our current project, it was quite different. It does not represent a specific country, but the model's pose and general appearance look like as if she is a queen of a country. Her hands laid together on top of her crossed legs and her facial expression show her elegance.

Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady was an American photographer, born in 1799 and died in 1826. He is known as the "father of photojournalism" and took a lot of photographs of important historical personalities during the 19th century. His parents were Irish immigrants and had to go through the civil war. He took many portrait photographs during the civil war and his photographs were a great help for the historians studying the Civil War.

I chose this photograph because it is a very good example of a regalia photograph. This portrait of Abraham Lincoln represents the United States of America and his posture also shows this. This portrait's black-and-white and overall mood come as very patriotic and serious.
Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer, born in 1815 and died in 1879. Just like Mathew Brady, Cameron also took portrait photographs of historical figures in that time period. She started with photography coincidentally and late(when she was 48). Her photographic career only lasted for 11 years; however the photographs that she took during this 11 years had a great impact on modern photography.

I chose this photograph because it is quite different from the others. This portrait is also from a very long time ago, but its overall characteristics are very different from the ones by Mathew Brady. If one did not know when this was taken, he or she may have thought that it was a contemporary portrait.

Project 5: Traditional Regalia-Theory Notes

Physical poses that typically represents importance in classical paintings

In classical paintings, the portraits are mostly either head-shots or a semi-shots. Therefore it is quite difficult to see their poses. However in the portrait of Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci, the viewers can observe that her legs are together and her hands are laid together on her lap. Moreover in all of these portraits, the subjects' heads are to the side(mostly to the left from the viewer's point of view). They have a poker face with no emotions. These same physical poses show that the society then was very strict and even the arts had to follow the rules.

Physical Poses that typically represents importance in contemporary photographs

In contemporary photographs, poses in portraits have become much more free and the portraits are not restricted to only head shots but also full shots. As can be seen above, various effects are added to the portraits and the subjects are not restricted to only one pose. They can sit down, stand up or jump around. Also their faces show emotions and emotions have become the essence of portraits.

Project 5: Traditional Regalia-Diary Entry

Good
With this project, we did not need to be at the dark room because we only used the digital cameras. This was very comfortable and easier for us because developing and print out the prints take quite a long time and few trials. With digital photographs we did not have to go through any of those. Moreover the process of taking photographs, despite the works, was quite fun as we got to witness other country's cultures and some of their traditional clothings.
Bad
Even though I had fun with taking these photographs, it was quite difficult as I had a problem with my camera. My camera's flash broke and so most of my pictures came out very blurry. I tried my best to hide this via editing on Photoshop but I will have to find a way to stop this as soon as possible. Also I could not find that many people willing to model for my photographs. I was also tired of asking fellow students from my class and if I asked another friend, they weren't very helpful. I hope this works out sooner or later.