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. 

Control

Taking this idea of control i took another family photo from the fifties and superimposed the image of a puppeteer hand, the ultimate control, I then superimposed the text reading 'Control' to further make a visual statement.

Next idea

For my next idea after reasearching further into the househoild of the 50s i dsicoverd the amount of control being used either by society or genreal family memebers and this really stuck a cord with me, the fact that one others life casn be governed by the choice os others.

Mask

This sense of fake I created in my first test I wanted to continue its theme, I came up with the idea to take a family portrait from the fifties then superimposed a mask onto each of the family members faces, to me this con-notational feeling brought out the feel of a family all wearing masks hiding their true identities. 

Fake

After gathering several images of 1950s american life I montaged them together to create this word which resonates with my feelings of the era, fake, nothing was real.

Individuality

My initial first idea came to me whilst viewing material such as the below video of a family, it all seemed so fake, a ruse. Society was allowed to control the entire actions of one family, how they were to behave, how to dress,
how to treat others, whether these ideas were cretaed for some sense of false control one can never know.
Nowadays individuality is such an important asset to a human being, you can be what you like without the claws of government or media ripping you apart.
For me individuality is a huge faction of everyday life i take to heart, for it to not have existed in the 1950s american family home makes me feel a sense of mourning, for what they missed.

Television

Short documentaries such as this one above were shown across television sets reinforcing the values families were supposed to keep to.

Ideas

After looking and researching the values and expected situations of the 1950s american nuclear family I am going to experiment with images of the period and create a set of photos reflecting my feelings.

 

Above: Governments and media produced a variety of images displayed in pamphlets and leaflets, designed to educate a woman on her supposed place within the family hierarchy.

Under the skin

The 1950s were seen as one of the most glorious periods in Americas history when linked with family values and the appearance of a family model. This era was the birth of the Nuclear family, behind closed doors american citizens were living their lives intertwined with an almost set of standards.
The male breadwinner and head of the household would regulate how life was to dictate, wives were kept undet thumb, often feeling as if they were accesories and this would leave them feeling a desire to flee, to escape. After all at the time soceity was encroaching upon every household and was ensuring that the finaicail and educational pathways women were once able to follow were being closed upon.
If a family tried to break from the scrutinised eyes of the government or media and live an individual existnet they would be looked at like freaks of nature, there increasing crave for something different would twist and disfigure the worlds perception of them.
Women were told to become wives and mothers, to neglect all previous family ties, forget their parents and concentrate energy upon anchoring this new family, forget a career or any hope of leading any sort of personal existence all attention would have to be focused on her husband and children.
A dead end, a shell of a person, this was the dark side of the 1950s era which ripped through the United states of america and affected every home.  

"Only Americans can hurt America" Eisenhower 1950

Era

The era I have chosen to focus my project on is the 1950's nuclear family within the USA, this time period interests me greatly, as I love everything within the 50's era the abstract art, the rise of influential movie actors such as James Dean and Marlon Brando and the entrance of the Rock and Roll music genre.

Decisions

I am required to select one visually rich era to study in depth and create four images which best reflect the era.