LILY HALLIDAY
Y O U T H
L A U R E N C E D E M A I S O N
To find new ways of introducing the aspect of smoking into my work without physically showing a cigarette itself I have researched into the artist Laurence Demaison. I found my simple smoke shoot very visually effective but found that the individual photos by themselves didn’t portray my theme and the message I am trying to put across as well as they could. Therefore, I want to bring this smoke effect into my own photographs that will add more subject to my photograph and making the meaning more clearly to the viewer creating a deeper, more intense effect.
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I have researched into two types of Demasions work that are visually similar but using different techniques and processes. For the first two photographs focus on a higher volume of smoke, coming from the body of the individual. I believe this would be hard to recreate, especially on my younger models for safety reasons. I believe this type of smoke would have to be created with some sort of bomb, rather than other sources that I have at hand.
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Whereas, I believe the second type of work Demaison focuses on is a lot more realistic for me to re-create. The smoke within these pictures could be created the same way I have in the past using incense sticks or burning wood etc. There is a possibility that this is unsuccessful within my work, but I am willing to experiment with my ideas to create a thought through process and an effective outcome to match my ideas so far.
I N I T I A L E X P E R I M E N T S
To initially grasp the concept of this technique, I have decided to edit the smoke over the face to see whether the outcome if successful or not. I then plan to follow on to physically capture the smoke in the photographs.
Before taking my own photographs specifically for this experiment, I will first experiment with the technique over existing photographs from my project so far. Even though this won’t produce the same effect as Demaison, it will still be purposeful in showing me the process I have to go through. As I have already experimented layering smoke over photographs so far in my project, I believe this technique will be easy to carry out.
Although I have found these experiment easy to carry out as I had initially thought, I have found the outcome unsuccessful. I found that the edits weren’t visually effective and didn’t help to emphasise my theme, but cover up the photograph itself. I believe each experiment appears to be very unrealistic, an aspect I want to stay away from in my project and ideas development. To further experiment, I tried a combination of smoke effects that varied in width, opacity and shape as well as a black and white effect, but found all of them unsuccessful.
I have also experimented layering a smoke image over the original photograph and reducing its opacity. Although, as I expected this technique is unsuccessful and does not work effectively in the style of Demaison.
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Overall, I have still found these initial experiments purposeful as they have shown me that I must refine my photographs and processes to work in the style of Demaison.