Another thing me and Charlie have in common is that we are both scared of starting conversations with the people we are interested in. Therefore, I had this idea of making a photography series capturing the relationships, interactions, and emotions between dogs and their owners from the ‘Charlie Brown’ perspective, it is a way of stepping out of my comfort zone to start conversation with strangers. What I find interesting whilst taking these photos is that every relationship is so different. When asked to be taken a picture with their dogs, nearly every owner ordered their dogs to stay still, face towards the lens or be in certain positions. What I find interesting is how different the owners used different ways to achieve that, and how the dogs reacted to different situations, which then led to the owners actions. The emotions between every relationship was so vivid, diverse and real that me, as a person who has never had a dog, felt like I had experienced different aspects of a relationship with a dog.

This project explores the relationships, interactions and emotions between dogs and human. It is a publication of a street photography series + imaginary texts by a person who has never had a dog, imagining having a dog as a bitter-sweet experience. Just like Charlie Brown, not always happy, but always manage to discover hope.

Charlie Brown is a character from peanuts that I relate to in many aspects. Just like him, I am insecure, shy, introvert, and sensitive. I have noticed that although he is often bothered by his never-ending worries and insecurities, he is also easily cheered up by little things. From the exhibition in Somerest house, I saw this strip where he was walking on the street, thinking to himself, “Nobody loves me. Everyone hates me. Sometimes I get so depressed.” before seeing a smily dog walk by and was totally cheered up by it, “But all it takes to cheer me up is a smile from a dog!” I find it really relatable, and it was not only because of my obsession with dogs. Our emotional state is like a rollercoaster, even though we both are really moody a lot of times, we still mange to discover hope and happiness from the little things in life, things as little as a smile from a dog.

In order to make our ideas feasible but not too boring at the same time, we decided to create something minimal (matching with the brand's aesthetics: the uniqueness in the ordinary everyday live), with the touch of textures and space. We used props such as crimped fabrics and paper as backdrops, along with wooden frames and chairs. We sticked A4 papers together as a white big backdrop with minimal colour but interesting texture while playing with different arrangements with the props to create various sets.

What I think would have improved our campaign is to bring in a stronger and clearer narrative and concept. However, this experience has taught me the skills to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and to come up with new ideas when a certain idea is no longer feasible. I've also learn to communicate and negotiate effectively in a group when opinions vary.

Whilst analysing the brand's image and identity, we found that the costumers are women who have a job. Taking inspirations from beyonce's apeshit music video, we wanted to shoot in a gallery in front of classical fine art paintings to depict a woman in the contemporary world who is free, independent and passionate about art. We planned to shoot our film focusing on the cinematography without constructing a clear narrative or storyline to focus more on promoting the trousers. We planned to test out all of the three looks but eventually got kicked out by the staff in the gallery. Therefore, we decided to change our plan to shooting indoor while creating a set by ourselves.

Whilst doing the test shots, I had this idea of giving this project a concept "growing pains", exploring the mentality of what it's like to age out of your childhood to adolescence. As my brother looked really confined and pressured in that huge jacket, I used props like leather shoes in my set to symbolise that he is going through a stage where he has to be more "formal", "serious", and "ready". By using a base of a fan and photographing it in an angle where it looked as if my brother's body was situated on it. I wanted to portray the idea of being showcased, as if he was not a living being but an object, a mannequin, or a merchandise being shown to the world. As for the facial expression, I directed it to be really blank, innocent, unreluctant, and almost sad, along with his pose to be confining and awkward to express the message.

I found this brown leather jacket in my dad's closet and thought I could use it for this project. I was gonna cast my dad but thought it would be more interesting to make someone else wear it. I decided that it should be my younger brother because his body is way smaller than my dad's. At first I didn't really know what to do or what concept I should go for, so I analysed the aesthetics of the coat and did some test shots using props with similar aesthetics and colour. I used the golden curtains in my living room as the backdrop while my brother was standing on the wooden sofa,  along with cushions in the same gold colour, a golden metal fan, and a wooden rubber gun, creating a retro, brown/golden vibe that matches with the coat. As for photography, I experimented with different lights and decided to turned off the lights as it turned out that when I used the flash in the dark the material of the backdrop and the cushions looked shiny and smooth, while the leather of the coat also reflected the flash, creating a really cool effect. For Styling, I wanted to create a minimal look while emphasising the oversize of the jacket, so I asked my brother to not where any top or trousers but the jacket.

The shoe I chose to experiment set design with was a collaboration sneaker between brand Sarenza and textile/ print artist and interior designer Camille Walala. I didn't want to limit myself to the artist's aesthetics, so I didn't do much research about her work and thought it would be better if I just do it with my own skills. I started brainstorming by analysing the shoe, which has Camile's reknown design (bright colours, stripes and geometric shapes and lines). It was really clear to me that I would do something that's playful, vibrant and colorful but I just wasn't sure what material I should use. I thought about painting on cardboards but thought it would be difficult to finish in only a few hours if I wanted to make it 3D. I decided to use different colours of tapes to create a set that expanded from the textiles design of the shoe. I created my set in the space under a table. The outcome turned out pretty well, although I had a little trouble sticking the tapes under the table as they kept sticking to each other when they touched. I think this tape idea is probably not feasible for a bigger set with a model, as it is both difficult to create a strong effect with tapes in a bigger space and to change the design once I set it up.

Inspired by the movements of mimes, V: Faux Pas, and Dua Lipa's music videos, I wanted to play with the movement between a number of people, so I casted 3 models and created some choreography. When rehearsing, I asked them to do the moves with a blank facial expression in contrast to that of a mime. It seemed really intriguing to me that they were doing my robot-like choreography they looked like they were interacting with one another but at the same time they all seemed really isolated with their blank faces. I then had this imagination of a future society where human no longer make emotional connections and only make interactions for beneficial purposes and that everyone is so isolated in their own different worlds yet all the same - just like robots. I chose Adam's Plaza bridge as my location because it looks really futuristic, matching with the time frame. As for styling I wanted the look of my three models to be minimal and almost identical, making them wear a one-piece turtle neck black dress with black socks in contrast to the white space. They were also wearing white gloves so the color stood out from the outfit. The video is entitled "Dark Future".

Today's workshop with Choreographer/Director Ally Green was really inspiring and gave me new ideas to my project. It really changed my perspective to the project as I had thought the choreography needed to be really fancy and extravagant to make a good video. Turns out that only a small gesture of a body part can create a massive effect if the right elements are included. For example, the number of people, the gradually changing intensity of the movement and the ways the camera moves in relation to a certain movement (cinematography). 

After doing my research I've had a few ideas to test out: 1. Contemporary slow dance (edited to slow motion) + classical music 2. wild dance moves in public + people's reaction 3. Recreating a Gordon von Stenier dance video. Eventually I decided to recreate a dance video Gordon von Stenier did with Karlie Kloss for Vogue. I filmed one of my friends doing funky/ playful dance moves in a studio while exploring with the ways the camera moved and the connections they could make with the body movement. When editing, I experimented with speed, time, and realized the fact that the effects that were created when the dance moves matched the beat of the song could make a video so much more interesting and lively rather than just putting a song that goes well with the mood without paying attention to the layers of the beats. At the moment, I think what my project is lacking is that I need to do more research to make a video that is more conceptual and visually satisfying.

At today's crit, I made the same mistake as I always do today, which is presenting too many images that are too similar and thus unnecessary to be shown. Almost every feedback I got was telling me too be more selective with my images. I did try my best to showcase as least images as possible but still ended up showing five photos, many of which have similar poses and lights. The reason why I did this was because I thought even a tiny bit of difference between one pose/gesture or facial expression could communicate a different message to the audience, but it seems that every time I presented my work with this mindset I always ended up hearing from my audience that they felt like my message would have been stronger and clear if I had been more selective. Therefore, at this moment, the biggest thing I have to improve is to learn to be more decisive with my selections of work.

At today's photoshoot I had some trouble with the lighting. I spent too much time looking for the right light and took so many pictures with the wrong lights again and again. When I finally found the kind of light I wanted - light from above (sculpture/gallery like), the time was up. So I basically just took 5 pictures with that light.

I decided to print out a series of photos with different stylings, which are the ones of the veil covering the model's face and her whole body and the ones of it covering only her lower body while her face showing. My intention was to make the former ones look like the model was having a wedding ceremony with the robot, which indicates commitment to their relationship, whereas the latter ones are more sexual, sensual and intimate as the model kissed and made out with the robot in her bra.

After the tutorial with Jo I decided that I will go with the idea of artificial intelligence since the concept would be too distracting and unclear if I tried to combine two concepts in one photoshoot. For the styling of the model I had an new idea of using wedding like fabrics such as white laces and props like veil, gloves and rings to strengthen the idea of having intimate relationships as well as making commitment. As for the styling of the mannequin I plan to use wire wrapped with foil to shape the "hair" flying in the air so it looks like its detecting signals. It will also be wearing pair of googles to make the image more "futuristic". The mannequin's nipples will be taped and attached to a screw to create a sense of sexual/sensual atmosphere. For the location I would like to do the shoot with a plain backdrop in a studio with the kind of light that would create a sense of museum/gallery-like surreal vibes to the image. 

During the weekend I have decided that I'd developed my project based on the concept of how technology will affect human's bodies traits, relationships and emotions in the future. I had this idea of how our fingers will evolved to really long and flat and our eyes massive due to excessive use of smart phones. I might depict this notion by makeup while putting smart phones on the model's body. Another one is that our future lives will highly rely on the use of artificial intelligence. We will be able to develop intimate emotional/sexual relationship with artificial intelligence robots and won't necessarily need a physical partner to fulfil our desires. What's more is that we will be able to customise our own partners, which makes it kind of like dating our alter egos. For visualisation I am thinking I can use a mannequin and have my model do intimate/sensual interactions with it.

The preparation of the project went okay, from brainstorming the ideas to getting materials, we discussed our imaginations of the future and eventually agreed on creating our work based on the idea of how technology will affect the shape of our bodies, sexualities and the line between sex and love. We began by sketching our ideas on our sketchbooks, and even though our ideas were similar, our ideas were very different aesthetically. We had quite a lot of disagreements during the styling and photography process because the images we pictured in our head were very different. It wasn't until we went through our first series of photos together that we finally had a clearer idea of what we can do to convey our message in the best way. However, we only made two looks in the whole night because we spent too much time negotiating and trying to reach a consensus. 

Working in a group can be fun yet intimidating, and I think the biggest challenge I faced today was the communication with my partners. I guess we could have done it in a more experimental and effective way by visualising one person's ideas by turns first and combining them into several hybrid looks afterwards.