Inspiration

Julia Fullerton-Batten's Teenage Stories are my new favourite set of images, again it is such a simple idea but done so well. Its something I want to do in the next couple of months, I just need to find the right location! I needed some inspiration as I'm stuck in Essex so I'm starting on my personal work, as well as playing viva pinata!

CAP

After last weeks blog showing my DD work I wanted to also put up my final CAP images. After several test shoots with different models I was able to put together 6 final images. I wish I could have done more however finding these 6 did take along time. I would rather have 6 strong images than 8 with weaker ones. I am really pleased with these, I did however use all digital files in the end, but I would love to go back and shoot more in film. Hopefully when I get some free time I can clean up the film scans, rather than leaving them in a folder! I styled these photos myself and had a make up artist come in for the hair and make up!

Gaia

With all our hand ins out the way I now finally have some time to relax, so I thought it share my two final images for the Digital Darkroom project. I have not really written about it on here so here I go! The project was to look at Gaia and shoot two photos for a magazine. I chose to do fashion and the idea of recycling. I wanted the idea to lead on from my DISP work as I loved creating the image, however I did not want to do it all in photoshop, but rather build something in the studio. I did not want to do the traditional dress made out of news paper and create something at a bigger scale than my DISP. I wanted to create a recycled refuge for the 'last beautiful people' using clothes and pretty objects to create it.


This is the double page spread for the magazine, I used shirts and lampshades, adding in a few things on photoshop and playing with the tones until I found something that worked.

I wanted the front cover to be more punchy than the double page spread, I used the same type of editing. The origional was very bleached out so I spent along time reconstructing her hat, adding most of the texture back in to the highlighted areas.

Angelas Bike

The One Eye Land website has so many amazing photos and this is one that really caught my eye. I loved the simplicity of it, although it is not a completely origional idea it has been done in such an interesting way. It must have been done in photoshop and reminds me of my disp project. It looks so realistic, I love the colour in the balloons as it brings out what is happening to the bike. I should really start doing simple stuff like this! As it works so well!

Armani

As I looked more into androgyny in fashion I found more images for my project, I found this as one that really inspired me. I love how the model is very natural as if there is nothing 'wrong' with this image, well in this day and age there is nothing wrong with it, however it would have been seen as something completely controvisial in a different time. The look of this image is something I do want to intimidate, rather than creating in your face images. I think the approach does have to be soft for it to really work, holding beauty as well as that perfect balance between masuclin and femine. I have been researching alot into fashion theory and how I should go about photographing my images.

From my reserach I decided to do another test shoot, the image is not perfect (the crop is not right) I decided to try a sterner look with the model, however I found it was not really what I watned to create, it was not femine enough.

I wanted to compare it to the first style of image I shot, so here is another image from the shoot, it has not been fully edited but shows how it works better than this harsh approach.

Tim Walker

Alot of people love Tim Walkers work just because it is 'Tim Walker', so he is somebody I tend not to write about and admire from afar. However with our Digitial Darkroom project I wanted to create something quite magical, so I thought this was really a starting point. I do love this image, his work is always at such a big scale, unrealistic to recreate but breath taking to look at. I chose this image because it doesnot feature people in it, it is something different which is really interesting! For my project I want to look at large scale photography, and try and create something myself in the studio.

Emma

These are some more shots I produced from my second shoot for my CAP project, after researching old photos I styled the images and called in a make up artist to help me give a masculin look to my female model. I shot in film and digital, the top image is film, which has a slightly different colouring to it from the postproduction I did. I wanted to include it to show the difference between the two. I wish I had more time to shoot it in film and achieve some better shots. Overall I was really happy with the results of the shoot, and feel it came such a long way from my first test shoot.

Paintinglike

After my test shoot we had a crit where I was told the images looked very much like paintings. This week I have chosen some photos that I think also have this same look. The first I found on model mayhem (after a new found addiction to it) when looking through photographers and models. I thought the girl was really interesting, the light behind her does add to the image, however it can be faulted. I don't like how it suddenly becomes darker, it has this softeness to it then just looks marked. I think the painting look is achieved by the model and the styling, how she is posing and her expressing.

Yearbook

For my CAP projects I decided to look at androgyny, basing it on 50s rock 'n' roll icons. Alot of my inspiration came from Sebastian Faena. I wanted to base my images on photos of icons like Buddy Holly and Elvis and really wanted to stick with that idea, however as the shoot progressed I found that the model I had found was very serious and the concept didn't really suit her. From doing this shoot I found that the origional ideas I first had needed to work with the whole theme of 'classic'. I could either go down two very opposite routes, a very serious route or a light hearted one. I decided the more serious one would probably suit me more. I also wanted to shoot in medium format, so below is an image on 6x6, the light is slightly off and there are still dusk marks, but I do love the feel of it. I chose to make it into quite a golden tone as I felt it did suit it. I think I have made some strong foundations for this project.

Juergen Teller

Juergen Tellers work really interests me, with my current work I feel more interested in pretty girls in pretty clothes and the images I produce will not capture the true person I photograph. I recently wrote an essay for uni on "What makes a good portrait" which made me think a lot about who I photograph. As I develop in my course I find I do want to produce fashion images and that makes me feel shallow and that I should be taking photographs of true people. I like some of Tellers work but others of it I cant stand to look at, but then because of that initial wince from them I find myself becoming more interested in them. This photograph of a Courtney Love is one I absolutely hated when I first saw it, but then I looked past how the image 'looked' and realized it shows something that I hadn't quite understood yet. Teller captures her as a person not a mannequin.

I wanted to respond to Tellers images, I have always been interested in self portrait so took one as I had these thoughts on his work.

New York

On the 8th our course took a trip to New York, it was a good few days of Dan dragging me around the streets and the subway and a chance to eat nothing but pizza and cheese burgers for every meal! The main objective however was to meet a couple of photographers and take our own pictures! We met Platon and Phil Toledano who were really inspiring to have talks from.