May 2011
3 posts
WatchAfter discussing the use of video within fashion during one of the lectures, we wanted to try and create a video to correspond with our shoot.
Me and Gavin decided to make full use of the 5DMKII’s HD video capabilities and create a short film during the shoot which would run parallel with the content of the publication.
The video content itself was relatively unplanned, and was directed...
Other media: 120 Medium Format Film
As stated in a previous blog post, we wanted to use a variety of media formats to create our shoot (perhaps a sub conscious decision to experiment with multiple media, in regards to referencing different kinds of arts? Maybe we were thinking about it too hard and for so long that it embedded itself deep into our brains, who knows…?)
Gavin and myself used two 5D MKII’s to execute the...
Final Layouts
April 2011
5 posts
Layout concepts
Now that we have finished the shoot, we’ve started to look into layout ideas and considering how we want to portray the images within the format of the publication.
Being an ex student of Graphic Design, I was quite excited to progress to this stage of the assignment, as I already have a fundamanetal understanding of effective layout use and typography I was thinking of ways we could...
Wrapped!
After a very frantic week of last minute decisions, prop/model sourcing and concept finalisation, we proceeded to go ahead with the main shoot on friday.
Having shot in the very same location a week before for a 4th year Fashion & Brand student, I was slightly skeptical about how our shoot would go (the pictures I took in this room the week before were not to my liking whatsoever). But...
Another group meeting, almost there...
So today we had another group meeting to further discuss and finalise our ideas for the shoot. We had already decided that the concept for the shoot would be based on this kind of feeling of dependancy, and not knowing what to do with your life as far as education goes, with all the factors surrounding the difficulties of taking up further education etc.
As far as styling goes, we had decided on...
Concept Development
After reading the Telegraph’s article regarding the elite British educationers talking down on the arts subjects, we have started to push this as our key conceptual idea for the assignment.
The proposed idea for the shoot is to use our models in a somewhat tentative and vulnerable looking state. We want the idea of ‘thought and dilemma’ to be a key theme within the shoot,...
Methods of concept enhancing: Diptychs
After the lesson we had recently with the on-the-spot live brief regarding the use of diptychs, we started to look at ways in which we could try and incorporate this tool into our project to help push the concept further.
Whenever looking at diptychs in the past, I had always just assumed it was a way of presenting two images together as part of a set, and that the line was more or less drawn...
March 2011
6 posts
Visual Inspiration: Pose
These are some great examples of poses that would really match the kind of feel we are going for with our shoot:
These poses demonstrate a very vacant sense of expression, very passive and almost thoughtful in look. One thing that I had mentioned to the group in our meeting recently is the importance of pose in creating the right message for the shoot is absolutely crucial. Where in other...
Universities tell students which 'soft' subjects...
This article from the Telegraph website was brought to my attention by Gavin, and explores the ‘higher uppers’ (Oxford, Cambridge etc) talking down upon what they consider to be subjects such as photography, media, design, art etc.
This is another great example of where we can draw some influence from for the narrative in our shoot. The theme of confusion and not knowing what to do...
Tom Hunter: "Persons Unknown" series
The above image, titled “Woman reading a possession order” was taken by London based photographer Tom Hunter.
This particular photograph won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait award in 1998, and is taken from Hunter’s series “Persons Unknown”. Hunter’s synopsis of this series of photographs suggests “the eponymous ones are everyday folk. Frozen in...
Visual inspiration: Todd Hido
In regards to our group concept, and the idea of using an indoor location, Todd Hido’s work really reflects a good aesthetic in regards to the kind of thing we are aiming for visually. Typical traits of Hido include muted colours, passive poses/moods and a healthy dose of grittiness and underexposure.
They also sport a very natural look as far as lighting and post production goes,...
Initial concept and ideas
In regards to the theme of education, Gavin had brought to my attention an article in which the big, academic schools such as Oxford and Cambridge were seen to be slating the arts, considering them to be ‘soft’ subjects in comparison to some heavily academic based courses such as history, law and english literature.
We are looking to use this theme as the basis for the concept for our...
Set in motion...
So it seems that progress has been a little slow with this project in comparison with our recent collaboration. I think the really tough obstacle to try and overcome with this is trying to avoid all of the typical stereotypes that revolve around the concept of education.
After a couple of meetings with Gavin, Sam and Sabastian, and after personally inspecting other people’s blogs, these are...
February 2011
13 posts
WatchA little behind the scenes video that Gavin made of our androgyny shoot.
Definitely need to get in the habit of making these kind of videos on shoots, maybe use one of the 550D’s next time for a better quality polished video would be a nice idea!
Final Images
After hours of laborious post production; skin smoothing, dodging, burning, feature enhancement (and even a subtle eye transplant!), I handed over the 5 images to Gavin last night for him to perform the colour treatments that we were going to be finishing off with.
Here are the 5 finished images, after all post production treatment:
I think I speak for the entire group when I say I am...
That's a wrap...
Just got back home from the final shoot with the team, here’s a little behind the scenes type shot of what we had going on.
I literally could not be happier with how everything went, everything ran as smooth as we could have wished for, our models were absolutely outstanding and a pleasure to work with, and really interacted beautifully with each other. Sam and Sabastian had the styling,...
Test shoot, 1 & 2
Gavin and myself, accompanied by our stylists Sam and Sabastian made our way into the studio last week to establish what kind of lighting we wanted to run with for our shoot next wednesday. We based the setup on something I had found online, and using a lighting diagram to accompany, created a similar setup for ourselves.
All seemed to be okay under first impressions, but after some more careful...
Keeping the ball rolling - further developments
After some more group discussions, we were wondering how we could create an even more dynamic twist on our shoot concept. Originally we had decided to use one white female model, however due to the subjective styling of the androgynous look, we have all agreed that the project would benefit from the use of a female and a male model in conjunction with each other, both bearing a cross-gender...
Group Concept
After several meetings with the group, we have established that the running theme as far as styling goes will be based around androgyny. The term ‘androgyny’, deriving from the greek word andros, meaning ‘man’ and gyne, meaning ‘woman’, refers to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. There has been a big surge in androgynous styling in the...
New tactics, new directions, new work
I thought it would be worth throwing up an example of some new material I’ve been working on this week, this is an image for one of my photography module open briefs, feel free to click through and take a look at my flickr account!
Collaboration Shoot: Initial Ideas
As Gavin and Samantha have both mentioned on their own blogs, the four of us (Gavin, Samantha, Sabastian and myself) met up on thursday afternoon to discuss the initial ideas and concepts for the collaborative assignment.
After some brainstorming, we have come to the decision that the running concept for the shoot will be androgynous, using a white female model with strong features that can be...
Macabre aesthetics: Robert G. Bartholot
German fashion and conceptual photographer Robert G. Bartholot has a very unique and equally unsettling style in his highly imaginative body of fashion work:
Really inspiring use of shapes and bold, bright colours in this series. By completely concealing the model’s identity with the spandex/lycra head masks, it creates a completely emotionless figure, relying entirely on the...
January 2011
11 posts
Aesthetic inspiration: Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer with a very distinctive visual style and a highly respectable list of clients, including The Queen, Barack Obama and countless A-list Hollywood superstars. Originally a portrait photographer for the then-newly established Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, Leibovitz has gone on to become one of the most successful and well established commercial...
Thomas Street Post Office 2010 Lookbook
UK retailer Thomas St. Post Office is a result of a collaborative project between Carhartt, Pointer and Edwin, based in Manchester’s northern quarter.
This is the first look at TSPO’s debut lookbook that showcases some of the highlights to be found in-store this season. The casual shoot, shot with 35mm film SLR and ambient lighting offers a detailed look into apparel, accessories and...
Recent Work: Studio & Composites
A few examples of the stuff I’ve been working on recently:
I’m continually developing my lighting and post production techniques at the moment. I’m currently trying to push the boundaries of what I can achieve on a technical aspect for a real polished and slick aesthetic, using a lot of newly discovered advanced post production and skin smoothing techniques to create composite imaging...
F&B collaboration shoot: February 2010
Examples of a photo shoot that I shot last year as a collaboration with a group of fourth year Fashion & Brand students, for a location photoshoot based on the aesthetic influence of Jake Davis’ test shot video clips (previous post).
Aesthetics of film: Jake Davis test shots
Manhattan based film maker Jake Davis has collaborated with major brands such as Nike and Supreme, and has also produced a number of short promotional videos for well known artists such as Eminem, 50 Cent and KT Tunstall.
The Impossible Cool, test shot from Jake Davis.
He is well known for his ever growing collection of ‘test shots’, short video clips, around one minute in length, shot in...
Branding: Terry Richardson X Supreme
Highly desirable New York street wear brand Supreme sourced internationally renowned photographer Terry Richardson, to collaborate on a series of photographs to promote the brand, using iconic figures such as Mike Tyson, Vanessa Veasley and Kermit the Frog.
Very straightforward and to the point, there is very little emphasis on the clothing and styling, the emphasis lies in the brand’s logo...
Natasha Poly X Gucci
Set of photographs for Gucci, featuring supermodel Natasha Poly. Very interesting use of perspective and distortion in this series, a lot of unconventional crops and compositions shot with a super wide angle lens. This choice of lens has made Natasha’s legs look twice the length of her body in the first photograph.
This series has a certain advertising feel to it, not dissimilar...
Paco Peregrin - "Alien Beauty"
Photographer Paco Peregrín collaborated with stylists to create “Alien Beauty”, a story featured in Avenue Illustrated magazine. The photographs explore the conceptual aspects of beauty in an unconventional way, focusing on the extraterrestrial. The photos prove to be an elegant, mysterious, and spectacular mix of traditional beauty photography with an edge.
Aesthetically, a brilliant set...
Fashion posture Vs. Glamour posture
There is a debate in the parallel worlds of fashion and glamour photography that suggests that certain differences in posing style can categorize the shot into one of the two. Perhaps only very minute and almost unnoticeable differences, but definitely something to consider when directing a model during a shoot.
This ‘theory’ suggests that fashion posture puts more of an emphasis on the clothes...
Debut post, always the hardest.
PH2011/Fashion and Photography module blog.
A visual compendium of inspiration, conceptualism and ideas in Fashion Photography. Pretty self explanatory.