Final note

In summary I thoroughly enjoyed this topic of subjects and think i choose well with defining my chosen era, although emotionally draining and sometimes borderline insane the energy and thoughts I put into my images reflect in what I truly feel, something unique.

Fourth Photo

For my fourth and final photo i aimed to conclude the evidence of my research and experimentation adding an almost twisted narrative to its theme, it would be the last of my photos so was to be based upon the last days of this decade when families began to erupt and all social standpoints became blurred, previous sets and guidelines fell, the 50s nuclear family period was over, but what was to happen to future generations. Were they better off in their false pretence or by going by today's divorce rate records have we as a humanitarian response dragged them through some unobjectionable emotional battlefield.

I Knew before I gathered the photos the direction in which I wanted to take, this meant grabbing my resources was intentionally direct, I needed the almost psychotic reaction of the 50s parents, to which I found the smiling picture. I then need to add the context which would make the photo become jarringly surreal. I extracted elements from other photos including children who looked in a state of coma or death, took the image of what looks like a shallow grave and combined together. What I created was as much of a monster as the era.

                                                              Final Image:

Third Photo

For my third set of photos, I took again the traditonal family 50s portraits but this time defaced them by exposing images of newspapers ontop. Not just any current issues within the newspapers form the fifties, but some of the worst cases involinvg humanitarian loss and deaths of celebritys, it almost begs the question why are these family's putting on such a preface when realigty the is the world is suffering its own unconquerable fears.

Original photos and newspaper clippings: 

After collecting these images and text I placed the newspapers on top and changed the blend mode and opacity to get the desired effect. I choose to extend the canvas by a third so the layout of this image almost resembles the layout of a newspaper. 

                                                                          Final Image:

Second Photo

The second photo I defaced was originally a picture of a family within the comfort of their surroundings, all sat round watching TV. The way they were positioned in the photo cried out to me at them being positioned or even contorolled by some unseen force.

Original photo:

For my juxtaposition of control, my mind began to wander, what could represent this unseen force, this hand of deceit, that's when I thought of using a puppeteers hand, even the blacked out shadow the puppets hand created seem to enforce this feeling i had wanted to impose.
So I again used the lasso tool to select the hand of the puppeteer, place it over the family, used the line tool to connect all family members, changed the canvas size of the image to include enough room, added a gradient to the background then for the finishing touch i added a text title at the top simply reading: control  

Final Image:

First Photo

This was how the original photo started:

A typical nuclear family portrait from the 50s

I took this photo, used the lasso tool on another photo which contained a couple of masks used by the performance of actors, layered them on top of their family portrait. I then changed the contrast and exposure levels to darken the image down some more adding to a more sombre tone. Finally I added a Satin effect onto the mask layer which gave it this milky dark town and indeed created an unknown atmosphere within the photo.

Final Photo:

Completed test's.

This is the end of my experimental and research section, I have come across varying degrees of artistic experimentation i can combine on my images.
I came across several existing images, researched government tactics and how they targeted the families and the actual life inside of a 50s household.
Next i am going to complete four all together different images, either juxtaposed or they offer a sense of jarring formality, which provokes some kind of emotional response  from the viewer.

This another mock up idea revolving around the issues of the atmospheric pressure of the 50s on children, how once the era was drawing to a close families became fractured and divorce rates rose to an all high new extent which we continue to see today. Are the children in some deep slumber, comatose'd from reality or have they been killed off due to the pressures of returning to a different form of time and why are the parents smiling are they seeing a reflection of their inner dead selves or happy the children have been put out of misery.