Photography Final: The Sun Beard.

The Sun Beard

For my piece I used the box from a barber's set to take my images. The inside has a section that fits a length of film perfectly. I taped the film down while sitting under a pile of blankets. After shooting my images, I kept the exposed images inside a camera to keep them from being exposed again.

My first try gave me no images because my hole was actually too small. After I made the hole larger, it worked much better. 

I used Kentmore 400 B&W film. Because the film is so close to the hole, and the film strip is so long it gives the images a wide angle view. 

We had access to the OCADU darkroom to develop our images. 4/6 of my images turned out.

Our assignment required our images to have something to do with what our cameras were made out of. Since mine was made from a barber's set box, I took pictures of Andrew...who has a beard. However, without a viewfinder on my camera I had no idea where I was aiming at. So my final product actually does not feature any of his facial hair, just the hair on top of his head. 

I exposed 6 shots all together. The first set of Andrew facing forwards at three different exposure times. The second set was in profile, again for three different exposure times. I did this to ensure I would get an image because I was a little concerned I didn't have the physics right and was pressed for time.

For this reason, none of the images on my final image are the same. They are gradations of one another because they were all exposed for different times.

I chose the box at first because it was convenient, but after shooting I realized that my concept was kind of stupid and really cliche. For some reason there's an ongoing facial hair mania. I have socks even that have mustaches on them. They've become a really over-marketed image. For me, it was a happy accident that Andrew's beard didn't end up in the image. Though I like facial hair (a lot)... I didn't want my project to be part of the obsession.

I was pleased with the result, and that I managed to make my own camera and have discernible images turn out. 

I call it 'the Sun Beard' because when I was discussing my title options with Andrew I said:

"well, it could have something to do with Movember, or Decembeard..."
and he said, 
"I like that- the sun beard!" so that's what it is, because I think that's pretty funny.

xo
Hayley