My portraits

I did some experimenting with different Photoshop techniques and enjoyed the result of each image if I'm honest but when it came to deciding on my final one I went with the simple black and white one which no other added effects other than brightness because I think the other images, the ones with the techniques wouldn't fit as well in a newspaper due to their creativity, not only this but I feel as though the heavily experimented images look too similar to the existing Anonymous photos.

'Anonymous' - Images and Propaganda

In order to get an idea of the overall look that Anonymous go for I've been looking for some photos that they distribute in order to get their points across and also images of how the public see them.

I noticed that a lot of the images express the same statement 'Knowledge is free. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.' I could use this bit of text in my images as it seems to be very common and portrays a strong message of which describes what Anonymous believe in.

Anonymous are very casual with their words and how they express themselves, they don't act too serious yet still manage to get the point across that they mean business. I like how relaxed and sort of humorous they are, this approach along with the fact that they're very much online based and use social media sites makes them seem like a youthful group. I can see why teenagers and young adults would want to join this group, maybe that is their target audience when wanting people to join.

The images I came across are quite scary and very mysterious, they use a lot of dark tones and often block black and white, this combined with the already creepy looking mask make for a quite disturbing and very intimidating feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUheQQd-i_s

The link above takes you to a Youtube video showing a compilation of things that Anonymous have done.

My portrait idea

Since the majority of my research has been based around the online hacktivist group Anonymous then it would make sense for me to find a member of this group and take a portrait of them but as their name is 'Anonymous' and they have no single means of contact, I doubt this will be the case so my mission goes on to find someone who either believes in similar views that this group follow and spread or locate a person who has acted in the same or similar ways in which the members of this group act, even if it's a less dramatic and more subtle way of acting.

I love the idea of using the Guy Fawkes mask in my portrait as it's widely used in Anarchist protests and is a large symbol for Anonymous. After finding my model I will take shots both with the mask and without to later on decide which works best with what I'm trying to achieve.

'Anonymous' - Who are they?

An image commonly associated with Anonymous.
The "suit without a head" represents leaderless organization and anonymity.

-Anonymous is an online hackivist group which largely consists of users from multiple image boards and internet forums.

-In 2003, user of an English-language imageboard website called 4chan began using the term anonymous when refering to themselves as a collective. User registration on this site is not required and users who do not identify themselves are given the label anonymous. In 2004 a 4chan administration manipulated the site to force every user to being displayed as 'Anonymous'.

-There is no 'official' way to 'join' Anonymous other than to simply want to join as there is no leadership, no ranking, and no single means of communication.

-The Guy Fawkes mask has become a well known symbol for Anonymous. The character developed as an internet meme called 'Epic Fail Guy'. Protests against the church of scientology in 2008 were done by Anonymous wearing these masks to protect their identities from church. The character was then adopted for it's wider protests against authority.

-Alan Moore is a novelist who wrote 'V for Vendetta' which is illustrated by David Lloyd. It's a story set in a dystopian future in the UK from the 1980's to about the 1990's. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself 'V' works to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people he encounters. 'V', an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask begins an elaborate, violent and intentionally theatrical campaign to murder his former captors, bringing down the government, and convince the people to rule themselves.

-When thinking up a persona and image for 'V', Alan Moore said: ''Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those Papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? He'd look really bizarre and it would give Guy Fawkes the image he's deserved all these years. We shouldn't burn the chap every Nov 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament.''

-Anonymous have protested and acted on many things just as internet censorship, scientology and government corruption. In April 2012 in protests against government extradition and surveillance policies, Anonymous took down government websites in the UK and left a message on Twitter saying: ''It was for your draconian surveillance proposals.''

-''We anonymous just happen to be a group of people on the internet who need - just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn't be able to do in regular society...That's more or less the point of it. Do as you wish...There's a common phrase. ''We are doing it for the lulz.'' - Trent Peacock, The face of 'Anonymous'

What is an Anarchist?

Well when we hear the word 'Anarchy' we think of chaos, thugs, no control, but I wanted to go further than the initial thoughts because taking the obvious route in a brief is boring not only for the viewer but for me too, I like a challenge and I like to feel like I've achieved something new rather than portrayed something everyone has already seen before.

Anarchy:
-The absence or no recognition of leader
-A state of disorder
-No authority or a society with a violently enforced political authority
-Lawlessness within society
-Political disorder
-Society without a publicly enforced government
-Someone who has cheated out of society in some way

I kept on seeing a lot of photos of protesters when searching for 'Anarchists' so then typed in 'Anarchist protesters' and came across an image of protesters wearing the 'Guy Falkes masks', this interested me because some of our friends once turned up to our house party wearing these masks so something familiar at this point was a positive thing. I thought this would be an interesting topic to take forward so I carried on with my research into it.  

Editorial brief 1 - Portrait of an Anarchist

We were asked to being a magazine or newspaper from a specific list so we could later on analyse them for different purposes. I brought 'The Nursing Times', I merely chose this because it was the cheapest magazine I could find but later on realized it had an influence on what I wanted to do. At one point during the session, our tutor said ''Did you find anything in your magazine that you were surprised to see?'' and I had done. My magazine was full of images of nurses posing happily, mostly just head shots and I found the occasional piece of medical equipment but the one image that did capture my interest was one of a ballerina. I saved this image and stuck it on the wall after the tutor asked us to find interesting images to show the rest of the class. The image was so interesting because it was aside a piece of writing about healthy posture. Out of all of the bits of medical information I had seen in that magazine, I didn't once stop to read about it apart from the information beside the ballerina image. I thought using the ballerina along side something related in the sense that ballerinas have good postures yet unrelated in the sense that an image of a ballerina is not medical, was a very clever and interesting technique to get a reader to stop and find out what the article was about. I kept this ballerina image as inspiration but now it has seemed to have been misplaced. Later on during that session I accidently came across another image of a ballerina, this time in 'The Sunday Times'.

This time, the article was about ballerinas and how strenuous their dances are and how much impact the body receives whilst they're dancing. All of these findings about ballerinas were starting to become that of a 'sign' for me so as it was our first briefing and I was excited to crack on, even before knowing what our first upcoming assignment was yet, I thought I knew that I wanted to do something ballerina related no matter what.

The brief we were given could hardly have been more opposite to relating to ballerinas. 'A Portrait Of An Anarchist.''. Obviously the first thing that came into my head when hearing the word 'Anarchist' was the punk era and I couldn't stop thinking about Johnny Rotton. After getting this out of my head by doodling silly pictures of 70's punk stars I began thinking whether or not I'd be able to include my initial love for the ballerina idea into this anarchist theme. The days went by and I was slacking a bit because I was too caught up on trying to think of ideas of how to create some sort of 'Anarchist Ballerina' idea until I expressed my 'what seemed to be plausible, some how' idea to my brother who immediately burst out laughing and disgraced my ambitious plan...My initial thought to his response was ''I'll show you, I'll find an anarchist ballerina some how'' but then I thought about how silly I sounded so gave up the idea all together! I guess I'll save the ballerina idea for a more suited brief.

Editorial photography

Where is editorial photography being used and how is this work commissioned? 
Editorial photography is often the photography that supports the written word by being the image next to an article or some other form of related text in magazines, news papers, websites, brochures and more things along those lines. Art Directors or Picture Editors from advertising agencies, magazines or design groups usually commission self-employed photographers to take the their desired editorial images by briefing them on the story, the sort of content of the image in order to grab reader attention or link better with the article and the target audience for that particular magazine or newspaper.

What range of photographic work is being undertaken by photographers in fulfilling editorial assignments? 

Producing high quality photographs to a tight deadline and exacting client specifications can prove stressful. In order to succeed in the fields of Advertising and Editorial Photography, photographers should therefore be organised, practical and creative, with a calm, friendly attitude. They must be highly motivated and self-confident in order to promote themselves, and should continually update their presentation portfolio. They need to understand the principles of composition , and have an appreciation of shape, form, colour and tone .

Many photographers in the Advertising and Editorial Photography fields start out by assisting an established photographer and learn on the job. This can provide invaluable experience, offering the opportunity to meet clients, art directors, models, etc., to hear their discussions with photographers, and to understand the details of the preparation, execution and presentation necessary to the job. Editorial Photographers may also start out as a Press Photographer or Corporate Photographer who shows a particular aptitude for taking strong thematic photographs.