Anderson and Low

In the national portrait gallery in 2009 I came across an exhibition called Champions by Anderson and Low, the collection was of nude portraits of famous athletes at there highest peek in physical health. Beautifully photographed in a studio with soft lighting that highlighted the strength and confidence in each picture. The bodies in the pictures looked statuesque as the athletes where caught in poses of flexibility, agility, strength or speed relating to their sport. 

This series of images are an Aids awareness Champaign saying that even people at the highest of physical fitness are vulnerable to aids. The message was small caption at the side of the gallery meaning you only read it after you have taken in the exhibition, suddenly the people in the photographs who looked so strong and statuesque became exposed and vulnerable in their nudity.

These images like the images by Kristy Michell are subtle representations of illnesses. I would like to look at shooting projects in this way. So the issue underlined the images but didn't consume the images. 

Ankylosing Spondylitis     

Ankylosing Spondylitis is an illness that is very significant in my family. My sister who suffers the most from it's effects helped on the Campaign "Walk my ass off." were she got all her friends and family to put on a pedometer and record there steps over a couple of months. I along with many other suffering form A.S participated and we all completed the amount of steps it takes to walk to the moon.   

The images above are what was used as the adverting for this campaign. As you can see they are not very good. A.S is not a very well know illness and this is why the group wanted to make some noise and show that with determination and will power they could do anything...like walk to the moon.

 I feel this campaign would benefit from my manipulated images. To have a literal illustration of people walking to the moon.. The two images below are examples f the type of imagery I would like to create. I would like to produce images of people holding each other up and supporting each other on the quest to the more. Dragging each other up onto the moons surface. 

On the Other Hand

Either I would like to produce magical images to grab peoples attention which is what A.S needs. Or I want to photograph those who took part as astronauts to commend there achievement. I would do this as a personal project rather than for my FMP as it is straight portraiture and I want to do something more for my final project. 

Winstons Wish

Looking into Charities that need help with there advertising images. I loked into one close to my heart with Winstons Wish charity. The support children who have lost a parent or both parents deal with the greif. I feel this is a really important charity as those who don't have someone strong to take care of them like I did could head down the wrong path.  

I feel this charity could benefit with an image inspired by Peter pan the boy with no parents but who still did impossible things and defeated enemies with his own strength. I could use the children to create an image like the one below. 

Alzheimer's

Looking into Campaigns that I feel would benefit from my style of images I looked towards the Alzheimers adevrts. I mainly came across images of old faces looking confused. This isn't a great way to bring attention to an illness that consumes so many peoples lives. 

The Good...

These two adverts are the only good images I found for the campaign. The left I think is a good concept but not very cleverly executed. It wouldn't show up strong enough as a billboard or bus shelter but the idea of the rubber is great for advertising in a different way. The rubbers where distributed with the words if you lose your memory you lose yourself, which is great way to get the message out. 

These are the best images I have found on the topic of Alzheimer’s.  “Reflections” photographed by American photographer Tom Hussey.  Adverting The Exelon Patch that is used to help people with Alzheimer’s disease.  The posters are meant to showcase patients remembering their younger selves. This is a really clever Ad as it's takes aspects of the disease and creates visually interesting images that draw you in and you immediately understand what they are representing. 

I am inspired by these images and feel I could develop something really strong for my final major project with the underling issue as Alzheimers. The disease lends itself to my images as I can create worlds around people and they are the symptoms that alzheimers patients present. An illness that affects the mind in so many ways and is very topical as a current issue. It also does not have strong campaigns to support the people or problems and yet it affects so many lives. Althsimers effects can change the way the victims see the world. They get suck in the past, see strangers, hallucinate and get lost in there thoughts and don’t recognise the world and people around them. This gives me a lot of scope to develop ideas for this campaign.