Narrative

Kalle Gustafsson


Series of photographs called Speakeasy















 Another series of Narrative photography that has caught my eye.
The last smoking picture made me want to do an idea of someone smoking a stick or a pen to make the idea of smoking humorous.  Models have been portrayed to make smoking look glamorous and sexy, like it doesn't cause harm at all. That's fine. To me though I think it's wrong, I'm not saying people shouldn't smoke, but to advertise it to be glamourous is wrong.  I know that women started smoking as a sign of freedom during the time women gained rights.  I used myself to do the series of photographs because I couldn't find anyone while the idea was fresh in my head. I love Cindy Sherman's work. I love how she puts herself into different characters and calls them 'untitled', which gives you ambigous ideas about her work. I wanted to attempt getting into a character like she does and putting my point across using myself as a character.  By downplaying the effects of smoking, models are convincing young girls that, in order to be attractive, you need this "stick" between your fingers in some cases. In this shoot, I wanted to play on the idea by using something like a pencil or some lipstick, wondering if "smoking" these random objects  could be seen as "glamourous" like how smoking is presented by this models.  Also alot less harmful. I just really wanted to make a joke, as you would never see professional models posing with a lipstick in their mouths.

Here is my attempt. I don't know how she did it because I felt really uncomfortable doing it.

This was a quick idea that came into my head when I was inspired by seeing models making smoking appealing. I then wanted to do the same but not smoking a real cigarette, I was pretending to smoke lipstick, an eyeliner and a paintbrush. My comments on my photographs then become humorous as i'm taking a serious thing and making it light hearted. As no-one is going to smoke an eyeliner pencil.





 
 
 e.gs of how smoking is portrayed as "sexy" and "glamourous".


I want to do this shoot again and use other people and actually have more control over the camera and be able to direct better.   Also thinking of doing a similar shoot with a male pretending to smoke something silly and pose like a these models do. I think it will be quite funny.








Cindy Sherman













  "Working as her own model for more than 30 years, Sherman has captured herself in a range of guises and personas which are at turns amusing and disturbing, distasteful and affecting. To create her photographs, she assumes multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, stylist, and wardrobe mistress. With an arsenal of wigs, costumes, makeup, prosthetics, and props, Sherman has deftly altered her physique and surroundings to create a myriad of intriguing tableaus and characters, from screen siren to clown to aging socialite" MOMA.