friends & fam

i have also decided to "create" old friends and family of the late paul allen to appear in this book. i wanted these images to be reminiscent of those talking head shots they have on documentaries about famous people where they sit there and talk about how they knew the protagonist and all the "crazy" stuff that they either used to do together, or that he has been a witness to. to add to the documentary feel of these images i decided to turn them in to black and white images (this was done afterwards) and i also felt it necessary to use a studio for these images. i feel that by taking these steps it all adds to the sense of realism that i am trying to portray. i was able to find some very kind people who were willing to model for me. to make it look like they were talking naturally in the images i wrote a short script for each model to read, and i asked them to read numerous times in varying emotions. this way (i hope) it looks like these people are sincerely giving us the "information" that we require. these images (like the rest in the book) shall be accompanied by some text.

this was the final chosen image.....i photoshopped a beard in to age him up abit. this character is called Gaz....he is loosely based on bez, the guy who played the maracas in the early 90's band "happy mondays".

this is chuck wazowski. he is based on no one. he was the ex gallery director of the MoMA in new york and an old friend of paul allen. 

this is was the final image that i  have used. the characters name is kate nemi...she is loosely based on tracey emin. she is another one of paul's old friends.

this is lydsey allen, the wife of the late paul allen.

...more influences

martin parr

martin parr is famed for his highly saturated photographs which often depict aspects of social life in a bleak and deadpan way. there tends to be something very cynical about his images in the way that it feels that he is poking fun out of the people in the pictures. even though (unlike my images) these arnt staged he is still managed to gain this deadpan feel to the images which is something that i also aim to achive.

 








 
   

these are images of members of the public who agreed to take part in the project. they will not be portrayed as themselves but as subjects in a piece of work by Paul Allen. the piece of work is going to be entitled week old beef and it supposed to capture the the characters reaction to Paul Allen saying the phrase, "im going to pound you like week old beef".  so the final images in the book will be of these portraits of people which will have a piece of text next to the image. the text will be the words which have been said in reaction to the intial statement made by "Paul". The text will be completely fictitious and won't  represent anything that has been truly said by the person. Effectively I'm borrowing these peoples image and turning them into characters in order to portray a further sense of reality.

my aim...

for this project I aim to lure the reader into a false sense of reality by creating a fictitious scenario  and present it in a manner where the viewer (hopefully) perceives it as a truth.  In order to achieve this I have created a character by the name of Paul Allen, an eccentric photographer/artist who is re-knowned for his "avant-garde" approach towards his work. In essence, Paul Allen is a horrible person, he's rude, arrogant and justifies his mistreatment of everyone and everything as a "concept".  He is supposed to be a parody of some of my most loved and loathed people all rolled into one, an homage but at the same time a piss take. I wanted him to have at least one thing about him which you would find endearing, and hopefully this single likeable trait is that he has the ability to make you laugh.
     I wanted to create something that people will hopefully find funny, with the exception of the realistic portrayal of characters, humour was definitely something which was very high on my agenda,  as was providing Paul with the necessary sense of "mystique" that a person who doesn't actually exist deserves . In order to achieve this mystical quality i decided that it would be best for you to never see him, my aim is that you judge him on his work and what "others" have to say about him.

influences - Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist/author from the U.S.A who gave birth to "Gonzo" journalism. "Gonzo" differed from most types of journalism because instead of being a witness or using sources, he would immerse himself in the story to a point where he became a central figure within the events that took place. This first person style of journalism inspired many in years to come, i.e,  Louis Theroux and other  investigative journalists have adopted this style to report on modern day social events.

In "fear and loathing in las vegas" he exploited his reputation as a journalist and wrote a story which people automatically perceived to be truth due to his journalistic background. Even though there are aspects of truth in the book, it was in essence, fiction.

influences - Chris Morris

chris morris is famed for his anarchic style of television, usually creating a mocking parody of real life.
he effectively manages to lure the viewer into a false sense of reality by presenting his lies in a format that we usually trust, i.e, in the style of a news report. this creates a sense of plausibility to the ridiculous images on the screen which in turn provides the satirical style of humour. he constantly attacks the media    for the way in which they blow issues out of proportion and play on the publics gullibility, so he in turn uses the same techniques (even though they are some what exaggerated) to create his own satirical version of events.

Brass Eye Crime episode

jwiz32 6 videos 

86,597
views

influences - Alison Jackson

alison jackson's work is a major influence of mine for this project. i admire the way in which she lures the viewer into a false sense of reality by creating an image which is both plausible but at the same time completely false. this is achieved by taking her photographs in a voyeuristic manner, giving them an authentic, paparazzi-like  feel which would not look out of place within the pages of a newspaper or a modern day "gossip" magazine.