Evaluation

For my final major project, the equipment I used was a Nikon D3100 camera with a 18-55mm lens, a bounce and black reflector, two flashes each with a soft box, white and black Colouramas. The theme I was focusing on was Dance, which I narrowed down to Ballet. I wanted to tell a story with my images, the effect that ballet has on a dancers life. There is the passionate side that sees the dancers really letting themselves go with the music and enjoying their performances. It is all about their dancing and their body. This is what I have tried to get across with my silhouette images. You can't really see the models features because that isn't what you focus on when watching a ballet performance, but her body and her poses are bold and very striking and it is the first thing you notice when you look at the images. I chose to keep the bit of colour in it because I feel that it represents the passion around the dancer like an aura. I got a lot of inspiration from Nick Knight for these images. He produced a series of silhouette images with a lot of colour in them and I really liked the effect they had. If I was to do the shoot again I would take the time to find a professional ballerina to model for me because then I would be able to get shots of them on pointe, something my model was not able to do as she was not a ballerina. I chose the quote "dance is the hidden language of the soul" by Martha Graham because I think it fits with my story and my images really well. Because to dancers, ballet is their heart and soul and they use their body to communicate to the audience and to express themselves, like it is their own language. 

The other effect is the one that takes over the dancers life, the "dark side" as I call it. After watching the film 'the black swan' I realised that this dark side is very real in the life of a ballet dancer. The pressure to look good and be the best really gets on top of them and it can make them ill. To show this in images, I used a black backdrop and low key lighting to create a dramatic effect on the image. I think the image as a whole works really well, however I feel that the image looks a little bit grainy in some areas and if I were to do it again differently I would try to overcome this and ensure it is of a better quality. 

I now plan to print my two final images and hang them in size A2 frames at our end of year exhibition.