Final Project Statement

For this final project I chose to create impersonal composite images of clothing that I created with the use of photographs of artwork and clothes from my own wardrobe. The art that I chose to use was selected on the basis of color. I wanted to keep a unifying theme of earthy tones, such as olive green, brown, and yellow ochre.

            One of the most challenging aspects of this project was the shooting. My ideas for the outfits were based off of my own clothes, and I did not feel comfortable or even willing to dress someone in my own outfits for this project. At the same time, I also did not think it was right to have someone else take the pictures for my own photography project. In the end I chose to be both the shooter and the subject, taking dozens of images of myself by using a timed continuous shutter release.

            My original idea was to simply create clothing against a pretty background, with most of the work on Photoshop. This morphed into an idea that had much more thought into it. Instead of slapping images I like onto clothes I took the opportunity of having myself in the images to incorporate fitting props. For example, I held a Campbell’s Soup can in the image where I used Photoshop to turn Andy Warhol’s portrait into a pattern on my black and white striped dress. Some of the artwork is not so clear and functions more as a design, such as in my image in which I wear the brown sweater and green tights, with my back to the camera. For this image I placed a picture of Henri Matisse’s very abstract 1930 sculpture, Back, IV. (Naturally a sculpture of a back should go on my back, I figured).  In another image I placed Emil Nolde’s 1909 painting of The Last Supper upon the front of my black tunic as I made a somewhat religious pose and held a muffin and cranberry juice as substitutes for bread and wine. In the image where I put Edouard Manet’s 1863 painting Lunch on the Grass I held a picnic basket and in the image where I made a pattern of Piet Mondrian’s minimalist 1912 piece, Apple Tree in Blossom, I surrounded my feet with apples. I held and pretended to play a guitar in the image where I placed Pablo Picasso’s Three Musicians three times across the front of my sweater, contorted myself into the most dance-like posture I could muster in the image where I placed Andy Warhol’s 1962 piece Dance Diagram upon my skirt, and made a pattern of Picasso’s 1905 work, Family of Saltimbanques, which I felt fitting because the subjects of these piece are supposed to be traveling circus performers who would potentially use a backpack. In the image of me wearing boots and wielding a spade I used Willem de Kooning’s 1950 piece, Excavation as a repeating pattern, choosing to hold a spade due to the association with excavating. Finally, for my image in which I am licking an envelope I placed Mr. Darlington’s Still Life, a 1890 trompe l’oeil upon my shirt with consideration of color I changed my shirt and the objects in the still-life, namely the envelope. Overall this was a fun, inspiring project that made me realize that clothing design is far easier on Photoshop than in real life.