Jo Hislop
Jo Hislop is a graduate of photography at UWE and was suggested to me for her subtle portraits of peoples hair. Unfortunately I could not find a website for her work and instead went through old Bower Ashton posts and twitter accounts where her work was posted previously. I found these three images which were enough to inspire me to continue photographing portraits, but incorporate different styles, so that the focus is also on just the hair as well as the person. After looking at these images I want to photograph hair in every sense, from hair in the drain in the shower, to hair falling off the side of a bead, and eventually filling the whole frame with film. The images of the back of peoples heads close up inspire me to create images where the person does not exist, as if it were an inferred portrait, and sit them alongside the portraits I have already taken, and still life interior shots of objects used to construct ones hair. After looking at her work I have decided to shoot these images to show off the different shapes hair make and colours they create, and my next step is to shoot these alongside the other images, using my shooting strategy and the 150mm so all the images can sit visually alongside one another.
Martha Treeves
After looking at Jo Hislop's work, it reminded me of a woman I knew when doing A Level photography in sixth form college and I found this project of hers called "She", which focuses on the subject of female consent. The subject of the project does not inspire my project, but more the actual images she created, where she uses hair as the focus of the image rather than the persons identity. Obviously my project is on the subject of hair and how you manipulate it to create your own personality and identity, so looking at images of just hair, which is used to hide the identity of women is intriguing. I like the idea of incorporating images of people with the hair being the main focus to show that hair can both indicate and hide ones identity, and it depends on how one uses it. These images also inspire me as they use subtle backgrounds with natural light which follow suit with my previous images and shooting strategy. It makes me believe that I could create beautiful incidental images of hair, and inferred portraits, in the same style as my composed portraits, in order to create a varied body of work, focusing on the whole subject of hair rather than just subtle portraits.