Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf is a Dutch photographer he photographs many subjects including grief and clowns. Above I have picked four images of his work that I found myself drawn to and found most thought provoking. When looking at these images of Olaf's work i get a sense of unease, sadness, and grief. These four pictures caught my eye due to how they have been captured I wouldn't say they were scary but there is something about them that makes you feel apprehensive. The reason i wanted to look at Olaf's work is because i knew he was known for capturing images of clowns, the image on the bottom left is one of the images taken from his clown collection. All four images are taken distorting the face or hiding it which i find adds suspicion and suspense. We know Olaf's work is focused more on real life issues such as grief which is not what my project is about, but the angles of the photographs and how he has captured them i feel add into the eeriness of my idea with not being able to see the face clearly. This i feel creates an atmosphere, and i feel movements like this could make an image and look slightly more chilling and atmospheric with similar position's. Having the body turned or the face not shown or slightly blurred or covered adds anticipation and wonder, it makes  you guess and suspect which is similar to the mood they like to create within horror films and photographs.

'Maurizio Bavutti's Sarah Deanna'

Here is a short film published on Dazed Digital by Maurizio Bavutti of his first surreal short film since being an photographer and film maker. Dazed Digital "The surreal aesthetic, which comes through in his photographs is finely tuned to create something unnerving but beautiful." Unnerving and Beautiful our two words that sum up this short film making it a perfect piece to view, linking perfectly to Gothic horror giving it a sense of unknowing.

'Mood Board'

Above is a general mood board which I created on the idea from the urban legend the clown/the clown doll. I have gathered a range of imagery here of doll movements and looks with images of actual dolls and clown influences and also images from films which I feel show similar influences with doll and clown movements such as the grudge. This mood board I feel shows beautiful and scary imagery of dolls and clown influences which is a process i need to think about when looking at ideas for my final images. I need to look at both the beauty and frightful factors within horror and imagery and forward think these ideas for final design concepts.

The Project.

I choose the Urban legend of The clown statue/the clown doll. With this urban legend I  will research into Gothic horror, looking at Horror films, music videos, fashion videos and different imagery which I will then create two final images for. These final images will have a small link towards this urban legend that I have choose, I will expand on this urban legend creating my own deign concepts which will include and show a final Hair and Make up design for a fashion related music video. I want my final looks and images to have a sense of unknown, beauty and fright i feel these 3 factors will create a great final image and are three things i would like to feel and see within a horror/fashion based image.

The Clown Statue/ The Clown Doll

 The clown statue/The clown doll.

An Urban Legend

A girl in her teens was babysitting for a family, the family were wealthy and had a very large house. The parents went out for dinner and a movie the father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed that she should go into a specific room in the house to watch television until they are home. The parents leave as soon as the children are in  bed and the babysitter heads to the room to watch television while the children sleep. She tries to watch TV but keeps getting distracted and disturbed by the clown statue in the corner of the room. she tries to ignore it for as long as possible, but it starts to freak her out to much that she cant handle it and rings the father of the house and asks. "Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it ok if i switch rooms ? the clown statue is really freaking me out." The father says, get the kids go next door and call 911. She asks "whats going on?" He responds "just go next door and once you call the police call me back. She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on there way, she calls the father back and asks, "whats really going on?." He responds, "we don't have a clown statue." he then further complains that the children have been complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. Him and his wife had blown it of thinking it was down to there imaginations and having nightmares. The police arrived and apprehended the 'clown' who turnt out to be a midget. He was a homeless person that dressed up as a midget clown, who somehow had got into the house and has been living there for several weeks. He would go into the kids room at night and watch them sleep. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection and eating there food etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter had come in there, when she entered he did not have enough time to hide,so just froze in place and pretended to be a statue. His plan had been to wait for the babysitter to fall asleep and then attack her.