Connecting Essay 1

This photograph was part of my domestic abuse shoot for my personal comment unit. The idea of this photograph was to show how domestic abuse doesn't just affect a women mentally but physically as well. I have shown the mental side to domestic abuse by positioning my model to have her hand over her face this is to represent how she is hiding herself from reality as the abuse she has gone through has affected her confidence hugely. Also by having a shadow of black covering her eyes suggest that her life is very dark and negative. I began the editing by adjusting the curves and levels. The physical abuse is represented with the cuts and bruises that I have edited on. I done this by using the burn tool to create the bruises and also changing the opacity of the colour purple to have a hint of purple in the bruise this made it more realistic. I also used the burn tool to create a swollen lip and black eyes this made her face look more rough and by again blurring and changing the opacity of the colour red formed a severe look to the cuts. This editing stage took me a long time this was to make sure that the bruises and cuts looked very real and accurate to how women look like in real life. This is a very disturbing topic however by applying the disturbing side to domestic abuse allows people to see why domestic abuse needs to be helped to stop. I chose a black background because the lighting I used for this photograph was the spot light. I used this because it only shone over my models arms and a section of her face creating the rest of the photograph to be pitch black surrounding her. This conveys how she has no escape from the negativity in her life. In the end stage of my editing I changed the hue and saturation to a hint of red this is because red has the conation of blood and danger therefore suiting my topic very well. The costume of my model was a black top this was very important as I needed it to camouflage in with the black background to make sure that only the damage and her face and hair stand out.

This photograph also shows domestic abuse in photography. This photograph was used as part of a campaign to raise awareness for women who are suffering with domestic abuse. Vasil Germanov's idea was to place this photograph and a series of photographs in a Bulgarian fashion/beauty magazine to see if the public recognise this as abuse or not realise the photograph as they are too indulged in the beauty models in the magazine.The photographer has specifically chosen the model to wear a red dress as women stereotypically are known as a sexual figure and red has the conations of blood, death and danger. The model has been put in a fashionable dress with all her makeup and hair professionally done and to contrast this is a black swollen eye. The abused swollen eye is very graphic and has been applied by hand and edited to show how women are disfigured by their brutal injuries. The photograph has been edited very sharp and there is a clear difference between the beauty and the abuse. This photograph glamorises violence and the message that this photograph is saying is that domestic abuse ruins a women s beauty and self confidence of her appearance. Beauty is an important thing for many women and once its ruined they become very distressed. This photograph contains no shadows and this makes the photograph look very professional as the main focus is on the severe pain from the abuse. The model has been edited to be very pale which allows her skin to stand out from the black background this makes her look very cold and vulnerable through the weakness her skin portrays. The framing of this photograph is very good as it shows her chest upwards this was a good decision to make because then her face is shown very close up. If the photograph was a full body shot it would take the affect away from her swollen eye, hair and makeup.

These two photographs connect because they both express the same message of domestic abuse. This message is that domestic abuse ruins a women s beauty and that it affects a women both mentally and physically. Both of these photographs use a black background and have used the colour red as a conation of death,blood and danger which all are possibilities in domestic abuse. Both photographs are very graphic and deep which could disturb many consumers. However both photographs show the reality of abuse and raise awareness for people who forgot about how awful domestic abuse is. Furthermore both photographs are taken from chest upwards this is because it doesn't show any distractions to the photograph and allows the brutal injuries to be the main focus. Overall I feel that these two photographs connect very well and even though the models have been captured in different positions the message behind them and the colours both photographs use show a huge connection between them.