The title of 'mother and child' has allowed me to explore the relationship between my sister and her baby boy. I have concentrated my project on these two people and more specifically the child, Dylan. After researching the meaning of mother and child and its historic nature, I have begun to take my own photographs and produce responses to these historical artists. so far in this project, I have emphasises my feeling on the importance or portraying the child in its natural state. I hope this feeling came through when talking about the controversy over feet. I feel it is important to draw every aspect of the child and to draw them in each and every emotion they experience. One such photographer which shared this viewpoint is Magdalena Berny. Berny is an amateur photographer living and working in Poland. Her primary focus is on the observation of children through the lens, to capture the special moments of reflection, sadness, all of which is forgotten when taking photographs of children. I came across Berny's work on the internet when seeing the photograph of a girl with her chin rested on top of a wooden surface. I was surprised that a photographer had taken a photograph of a child when experiencing a moment of sadness. However, there was a certain beauty about the photograph. The fact that Berny chooses to go against social norms of photographing children is something I am truly inspired by. I like the idea of photographing a child in unusual compositions which are rarely seen in stereotypical photographs of children. In response to the artist, I captured my own photographs in her style. I observed my nephew, Dylan as he explored the various objects of the front room. I took inspiration from Berny's usage of a wooden surface and I managed to capture my nephew literally exploring the table through his sense of taste. I manipulated the photographs to appear black and white and this just captured the beauty of them even more. This is such an unusual composition for a child to be in, however it is so beautiful at the same time.
Following on from these photographs, I have also taken inspiration from various other artists including the historic Sassoferrato. I am yet to produce a response to his work and so I decided to use my nephew as a model in some way.
After visiting the fabric shop, I brought some ultramarine satin fabric. This has featured on the artist research page of Sassoferrato. I used this fabric as a prop in which to photograph my nephew in. Like the baby Jesus, I chose to take a picture of him with his naked torso. I wrapped the blue fabric around his lower body and observed him. It was very difficult to get him to sit still and so I often had to give him something to play with. Two of my favourite photographs in this series are shown on this post. The first is the one on the left. the folds in the fabric are beautiful and envelope the child in such a beautiful way. Notice how he is holding a remote control. this is a complete contrast to the historic paintings of the Madonna and child where Jesus is often depicted holding a lily or some other more symbolic object. This image perhaps reflects the technological era which we are now in. The second photograph which I believe is the best is shown below:
This image has everything I am looking for and more. The position of the light is perfect, it highlights his face and therefore his youth and innocence. The folds of the fabric are beautiful and appear to curl around his small and innocent body. This acts as a symbol of the mother, protecting and enveloping the child. I have also managed to capture his bare soled foot which ties in with my research of Caravaggio and the feet controversy. For me this picture unifies my concepts of looking at all aspects o the child, its natural form but also reflects on the historic nature of the mother and child through the folds of the deep ultramarine fabric.
This image has given me real inspiration for my final piece.
As a way of displaying all of my photographs of my nephew of which I will draw from, I have created a book. I made this myself using faux blue leather, cardboard and glue.
Within this book are various photographs of my nephew all taken using my Nikon L300 bridge camera. I have captured him during natural states of exploration with varying emotions. I hope to draw from these photographs in the style of the various artists which I research. I have annotated next to each photograph, explaining my thoughts behind the composition and context of the child.
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