Photographer Research - Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing 

Gillian Wearing is an English conceptual artist, photographer and visual artist. For one of Wearing's photography exhibitions, she decided to photograph strangers in the street, who were anonymous, and she asked them to write down a confession that is on their mind right now on a piece of paper, and hold it up for her for a portrait. Wearing wanted to focus on the idea that traditionally, people tend to hold their secrets and lives in and keep it all to themselves, but as our culture is becoming more diverse with the internet and social media platforms, people tend to be more open about small details of their lives to people they don't even know. This concept is quite political and controversial, because it could be seen as an idea around gay marriage being legalized, and how it is now more accepting to be LGBT. These images also show the identity of the people, as they are holding up a sign which indicates how they are feeling, what they are thinking about, what their life is like etc. and even though they are anonymous strangers, we know a little bit about them due to that message. Wearing has also captured a series of images of her, wearing masks of her different family members. 

This is a picture from Wearing's project called Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say, whereby she asked random people in the street to write anything they wanted down on a piece of paper, and hold it up for her to photograph. This is one of the most famous pieces from this project, as you would not associated the words "I'm Desperate" with a typical 'conservative' business-man wearing a suit. This photo caused controversy, but Wearing has created a lot of controversial art as she aims to make her subjects talk freely and openly about what they think and their own opinions. I particularly like these images because at first, you create a judgment of the person, until you read what’s on the sign, and a new, completely different judgment is made. I like the idea of this series because it is about internal and secretive identity, rather than appearance and behavior wise. 

This is another image from the same series. In this photograph, it is a homeless man holding up a piece of paper that says, "I signed on and they would not give me nothing". Again, this portrait is quite controversial because it is about the government not providing for the homeless and less fortunate. Therefore, this photo is incredibly powerful and the fact that the man is and has homelessness shows that he feels strongly about the subject. The background of the image also fits with the mans life and what he has written on the sign. Throughout this series, we not only get to know about the people in the portrait a little, but we also find out something they feel strongly opinionated about. 

This is a photo from the series whereby Gillian Wearing dressed up like people in her family, such as her sister, mother and father, and grandparents. In this photo, Wearing has mimicked a photo of her sister. She is wearing a wig, the dress her sister was wearing in the shot, and a mask. The mask was specially made for these images, whereby Wearing had molds taken of her family members faces, and then they were created as masks for her shoot. Although it isn't obvious, you can see from the holes around the eyes that she is wearing a mask, as the holes are bigger than her actual eyes. I like the idea of dressing up as somebody else and pretending to be somebody else, and seeing what you look like as him or her. I also like the concept of using masks to hide your identity. 

This is another photo from the mask series, but this is Wearing pretending to be her father. In this image, Wearing has used a mask modeled from her fathers face as an accessory, and has used an actual photo of her father as the 'inspiration' - which is why she is wearing a tuxedo, to make the image look even more realistic. Wearing also did this with her brothers and uncle. In these images, Wearing has to become somebody else - which links to my project idea and has also influenced me to experiment with masks. I also like that Wearing went to extreme lengths to make the images look authentic and real, using the same clothing and wearing wigs. 

This photo was influenced by Gillian Wearing's series of "Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say" as I wanted to use text/signs within my photography but wanted it to link to my next shoot topic, which will be Mental illnesses. I like the idea of using signs to express what you want too within a picture, so that the message is clearly identified for the viewer. In this specific image, I have a male holding a sign that says, "I hate my life", but he has smacked the page against his face, and the writing is backwards as the paper is facing the wrong way. However, I liked this because it shows how much the character just does not care, and it shows the true feelings of the words. I also made this image black and white to replicate the emotion of the image as well. Obviously, in Wearing's images you can see the characters faces, however, as I wanted to combine the use of signs and masks (as she also does when dressing up as her family members) I decided to ask my models to hold the paper in front of their faces. 

This shoot was influenced by Gillian Wearing's series of images whereby she dresses like, and wears a mask, to look just like people within her family. For instance, her mum, sister and grandmother. I liked the idea of using masks to "hide" identity or "create" new identity. Which is where this image came from. Linking to the Mental illness side of this shoot, the mask is the masking tape covering my mouth with a "smile" drawn on to it - which very much looks fake which is what I wanted. This is because I wanted to portray the feelings of depression and loneliness, but hiding those emotions with a "smile" in public. I also used Photoshop to edit the image and make the photo look older as this gives the image a creepy effect, which adds to the disturbing side of the shoot. 

In summary, Gillian Wearing's work is so versatile and unique that it has given me a lot of inspiration for my upcoming shoots. For instance, her Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say project has influenced me to let the photo speak for itself - rather than making the aim of the photograph so obvious. Within this series, Wearing has made the point explicitly clear. I also like the use of typography and writing within photography, as well as the backstory and how the shoot wasn't planned completely, as Wearing never knew what the person in the street was going to write on the piece of paper, which adds a sense of mystery as well. Furthermore, Wearing's use of masks has given me an insight into using props within my photography. Her images rein acting old photos of her family has influenced me to experiment with the idea. These images also diminish her own identity, as she becomes the person within the photo, e.g. her sister or her 18-year-old self.