REMAN ASHRAF

- Reman Ashraf Mokhtar

- Zeina Mohamed Qasem 

In our project, we portray a very crucial issue regarding women all over the world. Actually, we chose to create a portraiture project about Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) that each and every woman experiences every month. We find this as an important field to portray, as we know exactly how difficult it is and also how not everyone appreciates/respects it. Thus, we want to raise awareness about it. Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is a disturbance in women’s physical, emotional, and psychological well-being that starts between 5 days to two weeks BEFORE the period itself. It might not be clear, but every woman and girl goes through a PMS period. Therefore, we wanted to go deeper into this topic and reveal what women go through, feel, and think about during this period through our project.

One of the projects that we chose to compare to our project is about a day in the life of a woman around the world. This project aims to make people thankful to women and their contributions through small gestures and actions and despite all the restrictions and gender inequality that they go through daily. Our project is mainly about the period of PMS and what women go through monthly varying from mental, emotional, and physical instability is also to illustrate the power of endurance that a woman can handle yet act normally and perform their daily activities. By portraying this through our photos, hopefully people will gain knowledge and become aware of women’s struggle monthly to be thankful and appreciate them. 

The other project that we found relatable to ours, is called Below the Sea Level, by Joy Khoury. In this project Joy tries to show us how women face many daily struggles and breakdowns, however they still do their duties, and actually one of these struggles is their monthly cycle. 

In our project, we are going to portray a very crucial issue regarding women all over the world. Actually, we chose to create a photo essay project about Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) that each and every woman experiences every month. We find this as an important field to portray, as we know exactly how difficult it is and also how not everyone appreciates/respects it. Actually, we did not find a photo essay that talks about this specific issue, but we found some other general ones that we related to our project. 

One of the photo essay projects that we chose to compare to our photo essay project is about a day in the life of a woman around the world. The purpose of this project is to celebrate International Women’s Day through what different women do to contribute to their communities everyday. For instance, the photos show women waking up early to collect water, starting small businesses to support their families, cooking healthy meals on budget, and others are teachers teaching young girls how gender is not a barrier to achieving goals. This project aims to make people thankful to women and their contributions through small gestures and actions and despite all the restrictions and gender inequality that they go through daily. The project we chose about the process of PMS and what women go through monthly varying from mental, emotional, and physical instability is also to illustrate the power of endurance that a woman can handle yet act normally and do their daily activities. By showing this through the photos, people will gain knowledge and become aware of women’s struggle monthly to be thankful and appreciate them. 

The article that was found was about a woman who shared photos of period stains as a struggle that women go through, but Instagram has removed it twice for being uncensored, bold photos. We checked her personal blog and saw more photos, and we thought about how this topic is underrated. It is not wrong to discuss a normal that is part of women’s life. Furthermore, there is more about this topic that not everyone is aware of and needs to be revealed. Premenstrual Syndrome is a disturbance in women’s physical, emotional, and psychological well-being that starts between 5 days to two weeks BEFORE the period itself. It might not be clear, but every woman and girl goes through a PMS period. Therefore, we wanted to go deeper into this topic and reveal what women go through, feel, and think about during this period through our photo essay.

Sources : 

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2019/06/30/period-pain-impacts-women/ 

https://www.healthywomen.org/created-with-support/chronic-pain-women-real 

https://www.lipotherapeia.com/the-peach-factor-blog/are-pms-chocolate-cravings-cultural-conditioning 

https://www.fh.org/blog/photo-essay-international-womens-day-visualize/ 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/menstruation-themed-photo-series-artist-censored-instagram-says-images-are-demystify-taboos-around-periods-10144331.html 

“Peeling Potatoes” is a photograph for an advertisement of Jergens Lotion that was taken by Edward Steichen in 1923. The image size is 9-1/2x7-1/2. The hands in the image belong to Mrs. Stanley Resor, wife of the president of J.Walter Thompson advertising agency, for whom Steichen worked at the time. The price of this photograph is $45. The meaning of this picture is that even if you are a hard houseworker, by using this lotion, your hands would still be beautiful and smooth. This is a rare opportunity for me to acquire a superb, almost unique, image from one of the 20th century's greatest photographers. Actually, this picture’s lighting brought my attention, because it was taken as it was in a real kitchen and as it is very natural. Surprisingly, I found that it was taken for a hand lotion advertisement, so it was not natural but staged and created. I tried to imitate the photo as much as I could, and below is the result. Regarding the camera settings, I made the ISO = 3200, the aperture = 3.5 and the shutter speed = 1/15. 

What makes a picture iconic ? 

Suzanne, is an 11-year-old girl who lives in Cameroon. Two months before this image was taken, Suzanne experienced breast ironing until her breasts were totally gone. This photo was taken in November 2016, in East Cameroon by the Egyptian photographer Heba Khamis and it was posted in the World Press Photo. Khamis’s project was called “Banned beauty”, in which she captured different moments where young girls experienced pain and stress during this harsh moments. Breast ironing is a traditional practice that involves massaging or pressing the breasts of pubescent girls harshly in order to suppress or reverse breast development. Actually, this practice is carried out in hopes to delay maturity and prevent rape. This practice is usually done by the girl’s mother or an older relative. Techniques differ from region to region. Some people bind the breasts with a belt, others heat a grinding stone, spatula or pestle and use it to press or massage the breasts. The Egyptian photographer Heba Khamis has won first prize in the contemporary issues section of the 2018 World Press Photo competition for her “Banned Beauty” project, becoming the third Egyptian photographer to win that award. When I first saw this picture I thought this girl was forced to marry or got rapped, as her eyes were full of pain and sadness. However, when I researched the picture and knew its real meanings, I could imagine how panful this practice is that is approximately equal to a rape or a sexual assault. I believe that this is the most important thing of understanding or reading a picture, I mean that when I see a photo for the first time, I usually fly to the extreme of my imagination, but when I know the real fact behind the photo I could then imagine how exactly the model’s experience was. Furthermore, what also attracted my attention was that the picture was taken two months after her breast ironing was done, but she was still feeling the pain and cried when she remembered the practice. This made me also perceive how painful and severe her experience was. I also felt like the girl has contradicting feelings between pain and safety, as she knows that this practice happens to protect her from a more severe pain (rape and sexual assaults), but she also experienced harsh feelings due to it. I believe that this picture follows both concepts that pictures tell us the truth and also that pictures have hidden meanings. 

References : 

https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2018/28802/2/2018-Heba-Khamis-CIS-AJ-(1)  

https://www.noorimages.com/banned-beauty 

Review : 

In this assignment I found that I am a bit more able to control camera functions more efficiently. However, I think I am still a bit confused about how to match the shutter speed with the aperture lens. But overall I reckon that practicing and holding the camera makes me gradually able to control the quality of the pictures I take.

Photo one : 

Photo Two : 

Photo Three : 

Photo Four : 

Photo Five : 

Photo Six : 

Photo Seven : 

Photo Eight : 

Photo Nine : 

          Assignment is considered my first actual use of camera, in this review I am discussing my experience with camera and light in that assignment. Firstly, I found that matching the shutter speed with the aperture is the most difficult and important thing to control. I learnt that whenever we increase the shutter speed with a specific number of steps, we should decrease the aperture degree with the same number of steps. Secondly, the other problem I faced is the blurriness of pictures. I found it a bit difficult to control how focused or blurred the picture is while also maintaining the shutter speed and the aperture the same as they should. Finally, the last difficulty I faced was to picture something moving. It really took me a very long time to do so, and even when I did it I believe it is not perfect as I wanted. After doing the assignment, I think the camera setting controls light according to the aperture lens and where exactly we stand to take each picture. For instance, if I take the same picture multiple times but I moved from my place a bit, I should adjust the aperture in every place I stand.

Photo 1 :

Shutter : 1/250

 F : 14

Focus :  24

(correct Exp.)

Photo 2,A : 

shutter : 1/15

F : 5.6

Focus : 18 

(Over exposed)

Photo 2,B : 

shutter : 1/30

F: 8

Focus : 24 

(Correctly exposed)

Photo 2,C : 

Shutter : 1/125

F : 16

Focus : 18 

(Under exposed)

Photo 3,A : 

shutter : 1/25

F : 4

Focus : 18 

(focused)

Photo 3,B : 

Shutter : 1/20

F : 16

Focus : 24 

(clear)

Photo 4,A : 

Shutter : 1/30

F : 16

Focus : 25 

(moving)

Photo 4,B : 

shutter : 1/50

F : 16

Focus : 18 

(stable)

Photo 5,A : 

Shutter : 1/1000

F : 4

Focus : 18 

(Front)

Photo 5,B : 

shutter : 1/500

F : 4

Focus : 18 

(Top)

Photo 5,C : 

shutter : 1/13

F : 16

Focus : 18 

(Button)

Photo 6,A : 

shutter : 1/250

F : 14

Focus : 35 

(sunlight)

Photo 6,B : 

shutter : 1/13

F : 16

Focus : 35 

(shadow)

Photo 7,A : 

Shutter : 1/25

F : 14

Focus : 35 

(Zoomed in)

Photo 7,B : 

shutter : 1/25

F : 14

Focus : 24 

(Middle)

Photo 7,C : 

shutter : 1/25

F : 14

Focus : 18 

(Zoomed out)

Picture Two : 

Picture Three : 

Picture Four :