LILY HALLIDAY
Y O U T H
F R I E K E J AN S S E N S
S M O K I N G K I D S
To further refine my ideas and begin my research into influences from others on children, I have researched into the photographer Frieke Janssens who captures incredible photographs of young children smoking.
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Janseens work instantly captures my eye as it is something I have never seen before. He takes the aspect I have been researching in my previous artists to a new extreme, making it appear as if the children within the photographs are actually smoking compared to simply pretending to smoke. The threat of the possibly of smoking is no longer there, and has already taken hold. Compared to Mann and Mark, Janssens sets his photographs against a simple cold blue background instead of setting his photographs on open fields and street corners. I find that even though this aspect doesn’t create as much narrative in the photograph, it is still very purposeful in creating a dramatic effect to warn older individuals of the effects smoking can have on others, including young children.
The inspiration for Janssens 'Smoking Kids' series was down to a YouTube video of a chain smoking Indonesian toddler...
I find the whole concept of his work and inspiration shocking, the effect that I want to portray within my work. From research I have found that this child is not the only one and that it is said in Indonesia that 1 in 50 children start smoking at the age of 4, with there being no minimum age for buying cigarettes.
Janssens states how the video questioned notions of smoking being a mainly adult activity..."Adult smokers are the societal norm, so I wanted to point the viewer's focus on the issue of smoking itself. I felt that seeing children smoke would have a surreal impact on the viewer and compel them to truly see the acts of smoking rather than making assumptions about the person doing it." I totally agree with what Janssens is saying and believe that children smoking creates such an impact due to the fact that it isn’t an everyday occurrence to most people. I believe Jassens photography works perfectly within my theme, emphasising the possible result of parental influences on their children.
S M O K I N G S H O O T
To work in the style of Jassens, I have planned to carry out my own shoot. To help with my experimentation, I researched into the process Janssens went through to create his work and how he created the smoke effect. I found that he didn’t physically make the children themselves smoke for safety and moral reasons, but instead used incense sticks to create smoke within his photographs. As within his photographs he dresses the children to create different 'stories' and effects, rather than creating this through the photos location' the use of the incense stick within some of his photographs is suitable due to the fact that it appears to be old fashioned. Although, I wanted to move away from this aspect and leave the idea of dressing the children to create a narrative behind, and within this experiment focus solely on the smoke itself using a simple cigarette to suit the 21st Century. Therefore, I plan to use the cigarette simply as a prop and the incense stick to create the smoke. I hope following on from this to edit the photographs together to make it appear as if the cigarette is lit to give a realistic, shocking outcome.
​I found the shoot successful in creating the effect I wanted. Similarly to Jassens, I attempted to create a dark background that would allow the smoke to show up more clearly, as well as making the editing process slightly easier post shoot. Although you can see the outline of the black background in a selection of my photographs, this won’t be seen once I have edited the best photographs and therefore doesn’t matter. I have also included all of the photographs from my shoot, even the ones that appear to be the same. This is due to the smoke in each photograph being of a different position and quantity, which will allow me to experiment more during the editing process to see what is successful and unsuccessful to come about the best outcome. I found that the incense sticks worked incredibly well in creating the perfect amount of smoke, like a cigarette making the possibility of the edits appearing more realistic higher. As for the cigarette, I burned the tip outside ever so slightly to make it appear as if it was actually lit, again to make it more realistic. I also asked my model to carry out a range of positions that would allow me to see what works best and experiment further with the position of the smoke. The only main problem I came across within the shoot was that because my model is unfamiliar with smoking, the actual hand positions shown in the photographs aren’t as believable. In a selection of photos my model appears to be very stiff and unrelaxed whilst holding the cigarette making it slightly unrealistic, overall reducing the drama and effect of the photo.
E X P E R I M E N T S
I have chosen to edit this particular photograph due to the fact that I found it was one of the best expressions I captured. The emotion shown is very dark and sad which I would like to continue exploring in my photography. I believe if the emotions shown were anything else, the subject I am exploring wouldn’t be as extreme and effective. It is pointless exploring such a dark subject with such a young age and showing expressions of happiness...
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The main problem I have found as I mentioned before is the fact that my models appearance is so structure a stiff, especially her hand making it appear fake. I believe the photograph would be a lot more effective if the models pose was more relaxed and natural. I also find that there is too much of a contrast between the appearance of the model herself and the cigarette. Even though the smoke and cigarette are real, I find them very theatrical compared to the neutral model. To neutralise this I attempted to darken the tones within my models skin, emphasising the imperfections on her face making the effects of the smoking more realistic and believable. Later on I hope to experiment with this more to refine my edits and make them appear more lifelike. Overall, I have found this particular experiment purposeful in showing me how to develop my ideas and refine my processes.
Within this edit, I have experimented merging a different smoke photograph. There is a possibility that the theatrical appearance of my first edit is down to the appearance of the smoke itself as it is very curled and in my opinion appears edited. Although, I have found that I actually prefer the smoke in my previous as even though it is curled, its position if more realistic.
Within this edit, I have also focused a lot more on the position of the smoke itself and edited a photograph that shows the cigarette within my models mouth creating contact. I have done this on purpose to explore whether adding physical contact of the cigarette and the young girl’s lips makes the image any more dramatic. In my opinion it does...
​ To refine my ideas using photographs from the same shoot, I have selected an image that focuses more on hand postures and angles rather than the expression shown. As I want to explore both aspects but don’t have a photograph yet that incorporates both I find this is necessary. Like before, I have also experimented using a different photograph of smoke to merge into the other photograph.
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I have found the position of the smoke in this particular edit successful appearing more realistic than the previous edits. As well as this, I have also experimented adding a black and white effect solely to the smoke. Initially, I thought this would help make the smoke appear more realistic creating a different effect to my previous edits. But, I have found that this has been less effective as the original colour of the smoke was physically real and therefore didn’t need to be altered. I have still found this edit purposeful as it has shown me what is the most effective within this particular technique and outcome so far in my project.
To experiment further with the smoke itself and attempt to make it appear less fake, I tried adding a black and white effect to it. I also found that initially once I had added the original image of smoke that the background colours didn’t match up which is an important aspect whilst blending the layers together to give a seamless finish. Therefore, once I had added the black and white effect I matched it up to the background of the opposing photograph. I still found that this didn’t match up, and made the background image even darker. Once I had done this it made the merging process a lot easier.
Overall, I found that I prefer the original blue smoke over the black and white smoke as I found unexpectedly it is more realistic. I have found these edits successful in portraying my ideas about influences on children and believe they are visually effective. But, I dislike how I have left behind the previous aspect of open spaces that I was capturing within my previous shoots. Although, this aspect may be suitable to leave behind if I find an alternative effect or technique that is able to emphasise the meaning to my photographs...