My Concept

My idea is to document dwarfism. As a person with dwarfism, this is a project I've always wanted to do. I want to shoot as many different people as possible and create a book that documents all different types of people with dwarfism, age, race, sex, and families. I don't know that many people with dwarfism myself, so getting models is going to be a challenge, but I think following quite a few people with dwarfism is going to do me some good. I did a project last year with someone called Caitlin, who has an Instagram blog by the name of @asliceofcait. The project I did was a documentary-style video where we met up in Shoreditch, asked her questions about her life and filmed her. It was my first time meeting her, and we got along really well. She already said she was more than happy to be part of this project.

I was unsure about doing dwarfism at first because I didn't know if people would be up for modelling for me. Then I decided to message a few mutual friends on Instagram, and I got a few messages. 3 out of 6 people I've messaged so far, which honestly was more than i expected.

For this project, I'm going out of my comfort zone by meeting lots of new people and photographing them to try and put myself out there more.

I think this project is going to be one i continue after I finish university.

Rosie Matheson 'Boys'

My inspiration came from one of my favourite photographers, Rosie Matheson, especially her series on 'Boys'. Boys is a series in which Rosie looked a modern masculinity identity.

Men Crying is a series that gives a unique and personal perspective of famous actors. Wood's wanted to portray a different side, a much more vulnerable side to the actors, who we normally play as much more masculine or hard man images.

Presentation

Feedback I got from Geraint and Ellen was really good, and they gave me a lot of good suggestions 

They gave me a few photographers to look at:

-Richard Avedon

-Aly Tomlinson- Old Ravensbourne student who did a series called Lost Summer which was of people in the graduation outfit at home because they couldn’t have a graduation

-Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee

Another topic we discussed was self-portraiture, as this would be more personal.

We discussed having a portable studio for actual shooting because it would be more practical with the models being in different locations. 

Similar lighting, as to not have to much of a different with each model when they come together 

Another suggestion Ellen made was interviewing the models by recording them and have that become part of the book.

We also talked about not just doing it a studio but doing it at locations around where the models live. This will be more contextual.

12th March-Lydia Herefordshire and Caitlin Forest of dean

Dwarfism

Dwarfism is a condition characterised by unusually short height. There are 2 main types of restricted growth: 

-Proportionate short stature – a general lack of growth in the body, arms and legs. 

-Disproportionate short stature  – where the arms and legs are particularly short

Alys Tomlinson

'Lost Summer' was a series during covid when a lot of teenagers did not get to go to their prom. Alys captured these in their gardens and local parks.It was a collection of 44 portraits.

Kaylynn Deveney

Bill Owens

This week I had a chat with Ellen; she suggested two photographers, Rineke Dijkstra and Bill Owens, who do documentary-style photography with text that either the photographer or person has written, which I think is a really interesting way of doing it. She suggested I take a notebook to each shoot and give them 20 minutes on their own to write/draw what they like. 

What your Story?

We also talked about self portraiture, which I'm going to hopefully do this weekend in the same way I want to do the other shoots.

Rineke Dijkstra

Larry Clark

The Perfect Childhood

I decided to email some charity to ask if any member will be intrested in getting involved. I surprisingly got some people email back. 

I emailed

Restricted growth association (RGA)

Little people uk (LPUK)

Dwarf sports association (DSA)

Oh so small

People I've got so far 

I've got quite a few people who are up for modeling for me.

The tricky part is trying to figure out when exactly to shoot, working out how long it would take to get to them, and working out a schedule.

Moodboard

I want to focus on contextual images

Notebook

The idea of taking a notebook along with each shoot is so that each person can write a bit about themselves. I don't necessarily want them to write about their disability, as I want to show how, visually, they are shorter, but mentally they are the same as everyone else. But if people end up writing about their disabilities, I'm not going to stop them, as I want them to write what they like. I also think, for my book, i want to have their actual handwriting, as i think it gives more context. I'm giving them a lot of free rein of how much or little they write as i think it gives context on the person and whether they are more introverted or extrovert.

Shoot 1 

Lydia

This was my first shoot. I wanted to try as many of my ideas as possible, As this was my first shoot, and that way I could understand how the rest of the shoots would go.

My ideas include a backdrop in the living room, sitting on a couch or table, and going outside.

I was able to do all my ideas, and I think the photos looked really good. The issue i had was with the studio lights and the camera, The sensor in my camera was playing up and making the image really over exposed. 

After my first shoot I came back and took notes of what went well and what went wrong. I've decide on 4 main shots i want to get with each person and how i need to do it.

Shoot 2

 Caitlin

I did this shoot straight after the shoot with Lydia. I didn't think this shoot went to well at first and was planning on going back to reshoot. Due to busy schedules on both ends it wasn’t possible. So I decided to look through the images again after shooting some other people and thought they weren’t too bad and that I would use them for my final project. The things I didn’t like about them were that I wish I had gotten more full body shots with the backdrop and also shot outside. Shooting outside on this day was not possible due to the rain. It was a really good shoot, though, and I kept with the idea of shooting on the couch, as that was what I knew had worked earlier in the day. The couch shot with her in the middle of the couch with the two pillows either side contrasts with her really well, especially with her red lipstick. I was worried that this shot couldn’t work as I couldn’t  get the full couch in shot.

Shoot 3

Amelia

Shoot 4

Etienne & Rhonda

Shoot 5 

Ellie

Shoot 6

 Maisie

Shoot 7

 Charlotte & Jonathon

Shoot 8

Myself

Photo book title ideas

Final Layout

I decided to go with ADAPTING as my title as i wanted a one word title that gave a overview of this project at what it all about.

"Adapting a series on how people with dwarfism have adapted to today world"

Model Release Forms

Final Thoughts

This whole project I've enjoyed so much. It's gotten me out of my comfort zone, meeting new people challenging myself. I believe i will continue this project after submission. It got me noticed by a few people in the community, which has led more people to want to be involved. I think I've learned a lot from this project about myself and made a lot of new friends, while also having my challenges along the way :)