Assignment FIVE

With this project I wanted to try to be a little more comical instead of dark and mysterious. So I decided to do fake mugshots. I searched through hundreds of mugshots on google, trying to figure out what to do. I found that in most mugshots the people aren't usually holding the number identification card, but I chose to have the people in my photographs hold it because then it became more of a tool of expression.

I tried replicating the horrible lighting most mugshots I saw online had, I used the flash on my camera and arranged a few lights around the subject so I could eliminate shadows, and create a dull, flat, image using my flash. In Photoshop I deleted the original background because I was using the wall in my living room which was a weird off-white color and had a odd texture. I chose a grey background because it's not distracting and it forces you to really focus on the subject. I also added bruising and blood to all of my subject's faces, and after doing that I realized that when viewed together these pictures could almost tell a story.

After looking at the final project all together, I like it a lot more than when I first started. I like the mystery behind mugshots, and I wanted each person to tell a different story only using their appearance. The way they stand, the facial expression, even the way they hold the I.D. card can all come together to form an idea about what happened to them.