Dough as flesh

I’ve had illness after illness, crisis after crisis, including writing my dissertation which has taught me how easily you can become a hermit when there’s so many words to write. 🙂 These images are some more experiments, baking and experimenting how dough could be flesh. I’ve also been doing some writing apart from my dissertation which I’ve put a little glimpse of below. Let me know what you think, I love hearing others thoughts. 🙂

Just one thing stands between us.
Part mother, part child, part other.
Like the spare pastry left once the gingerbread child has been cut out. All that holds us together seems to be the apron strings tied above my waist.

Jasmine Gauthier

The Kitchen as a Womb Experiments

Here we have a selection of some of my experiments so far this term from looking at the kitchen and especially baking as a way of conceptualising the creation of a child. Let me know what you think, I’d love some feedback. 🙂

Fleeting Other

Here is at last a final edit of a piece called Fleeting Other; looking at pregnancy, the female form and the experiences of pregnant women in their lead up to motherhood. I wanted to explore how women see one another as well as how they see themselves; the forms suggest growth, proportions and perspectives. The work also touches on the isolation of experience of each of the women despite the solidarity as mothers.

Do let me know of your thoughts on the work. 🙂

Pregnancy Series Continued VII (On Location with the Women II)

It’s about a week before I have to have all my images up on the wall and today was the last shoot before that. The girls were wonderfully co-operative and we managed to get the shoot done in an hour which was an achievement in itself. The images above are just a snippet of today’s shots, none of them are touched up or anything but I thought I’d share them with you all.

You’ll get the final line up etc in the near future. 🙂

Pregnancy Series Continued VI (Location Shoot III) Plus Creative Boom Feature

Man, that’s a long clumsy title, I do apologise.

As ever I’ve been busy researching locations, artists and writing lots. If anyone is interested I might include some of it on my blog, even though it’s not made for this purpose.

Last week I was surprised and pleased with a wonderful feature on my work by Creative Boom, do check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/london/lookbook/jasmine-gauthier/

Here are some more location scouting photographs that I find interesting for various reasons.

 

Pregnancy Series Continued V (On Location with the Women)

So here is the first shoot of hopefully a few more of my pregnancy series without a name yet, I was focusing more on the interactions between the women, leaving some to their own devices and others where I intervened. These are just some rough shots to add to my growing collection of content. Photographing such a large group outside, especially with the weather like it was, was a challenge but good fun.

Tell me what you think, of the project as a whole so far or of these images in particular, I love getting feedback.

Pregnancy Series Continued IV (Location Shoot II)

 

More photography from location scouting, these locations have something extra special about them and I can’t wait to shoot in them. More photographs to come soon!

Pregnancy Series Continued III (Location Shoots)

As I was photographing inside the women’s homes, I was so aware of what was around me and with how much I wanted to escape that and seek a blank canvas. As I thought about it, I realised that perhaps I could focus more on the anticipation of motherhood rather than the boredom side of it and look at photographing in areas of play for the future children, looking at recreational grounds and playgrounds. I’m also photographing these places at a time of change, when light becomes dark, it’s a temporary stage of the day that happens and then quickly passes and I’m fascinated about working with it. Some of these locations are strange places, far away from homes and some are rundown or forgotten, all of this is looking at ideas surrounding the fears some women go through.

There are further location scouting images coming up next.

Pregnancy Series Continues II

Sadly I’ve been unwell for over the last few weeks but I have been working as much as possible. Here are some photographs of my latest shoot a little while ago but soon you will see posts of some new shoots in recreational areas, moving away from the domestic into the open.

Hellen van Meene

Perhaps I’ve illustrated this post with too many images of Hellen van Meene’s work but her work is both exquisite as well as huge in quantity. Hellen’s way of portraying her subjects (often female as well) from what seems all sorts of backgrounds is something unique. The images are just as much about her than they are about the subjects themselves, yet I’m still mystified by her.

She also has a sense of boredom and playfulness in the work, plus she has photographed pregnant women (by the looks of it adolescent pregnant girls), which is naturally of interest to my series. Perhaps there is something in the fact that all her images are in square format, is this what makes her stand out and for images to be so much more recognisable. Personally I think it comes down to her subjects, the ones she chooses as they all have a certain strange quality to them. I know there is something to be said for her use of natural light over artificial light which is what I like to focus on myself. In this project I have solely used natural light so far because it lets you focus on the model and the composition and the results are so beautiful.

Some of the portraits, they clearly have experimented with exploring the surroundings in the most subtle gestures but they make the portraits all the more beautiful. There is something to be learned in her work about light, her guiding of the model and colour palette.

http://hellenvanmeene.com/

http://www.amadelio.com/vlog/2007/09/21/vlog-videoblog-hellen-van-meene-global-photographer/

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/a_conversation_with_hellen_van_meene/

http://visualcultureblog.com/tag/hellen-van-meene/

http://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/hellen-van-meene/index.html

http://www.contemporaryart.com/yancey-richardson-gallery/hellen-van-meene/