In the Style of Southworth & Hawes
Original work:
My rational behind “Portrait of a Chinese Woman in Nine Oval Views”
Before I started taking the pictures, as I was reading it was a photography studio by 2 people. They must have collaborated and did the lighting, posing and ideation together in some sort of way. With that in mind, I engaged my boyfriend to come together to create this photo.
While looking at the photo, we realised she was kind of the stereotype of beauty at that point in time: plump, white, neat hair. so we wanted to do a Chinese take on it. But instead of a Qi pao, we wanted something that fit the colour and “simple” look, so I wore a white shirt with the mandarin collar.
For the background, instead of photoshopping it, we realised a corner of his room MATCHED IT! a very wonderful find indeed!
At the same time, we were also referring to the original image at the back. We tried to take it according to main picture, then top, and then move down like a clock, but it wasn’t really in sequence, so I suspect that this picture was deliberately posed and matched with the background between the white and black area proportions.
After taking the pictures, and editing on Photoshop to create the 9 frames and the old rustic look. I was missing that grey metallic effect. So after consulting with Prof Meridel, she suggested that I try to do it on metal or transparency on metal to give it a kind of reflective surface. That was what I did.
Printed on Transparency, bought an metal plate from Art friend, an ugly frame from Daiso.
After cutting up the plate to fit, I realised the frame didn’t look very old, so I sanded it down a bit.
With this, my asian version of the original portrait by Southworth & Hawes is complete.
