Weird and Wonderful- Wes Naman

Wes Naman is a Portrait photographer born in Albuquerque New Mexico in 1975.He is best known for the use of cello tape and rubber bands to distort the look of somebody's face. His photographs each have a title and a meaning behind why he has done them in that way to tell a story or journey. He photographs his friends in the same position but with scotch tape on their faces to distort and differ their features. He came across this idea when he was setting up a lighting kit and he then decided to expand the idea further and create his 'scotch tape' exhibition. He takes classic, professional lighting and background set ups and then applies tape and string to distort and alter the appearance of someones face to challenge the idea of the 'perfect' portrait.

Image Analysis...

Wes Naman not only uses tape in his work, he also uses elastic bands, to distort and alter peoples facial features. In this image he uses elastic bands which he has wrapped around somebody's head to squash the face and in turn enhance his features. The fact that this  portrait is taken from the side gives a different perspective and view point. Descriptively, this changes the way the viewer may see the image and alters the face even more. In my opinion , Naman could have done this on purpose to create different angles of looking at the face and this could be the way other people view people and the way you view yourself. Wes Naman came up with this idea by messing around with his friends but it could symbolise a deeper meaning behind his images and could be symbolic of the way we are preserved in today's society ,through the media, and by ourselves. In this image he has also used make up in areas of his face to further enlarge and enhance those features and this also draws the viewer in. Naman takes the classic 'fashion' and professional lighting and set up and then alters the meaning of the plasticised, photoshopped magazine images, to present distorted and weird images. 

My responses…

These are my responses to Wes Naman's work. I used the studio for this shoot because I wanted to create a simple and plain background to make the subject the focal point and to also make it look more professional in the finished outcome. I used string and cello tape to distort and alter the appearance of Alex's face. As I did this in a studio, I used lights also and made the set up, classic and professional, and then I used tape and string to create Naman's style. I made the string and tape tight around his face and this made his face, look more sculptured and altered. I wanted to take a classic background and lighting studio set up and put the complete opposite of a classic portrait in the frame to enhance the work that Wes Naman does and incorporate this into my own work. I then slightly photo shopped them afterwards, just to change the saturation of them but other than that I left them as they were. I changed the saturation of the images first and then I brightened the image and used curves to enhance the shadowed areas of the face. After doing this I think it brings the image to life more and gives more texture to the face as well as enhancing the look of the string and the cello tape further.

Further response: