Seminar Preparation: Analysing 'River Nymph' by Andy Green

One of my favourite modern photographers is Andy Green. Originating from Middlesbrough, his approach to fairytale and fantasy photography is breathtaking and how I visualise my own personal style.

Daniele and Iango

• Daniele Duella and Iango Henzi
• avante garde
• provacative 
• former dancer Iango brings understanding of body and movement to the pieces
• sultry 
• Plays around with a lot of textures
• use of lace suggests deception and hidden thoughts - could potentially use this. This sparks an idea to incorporate the theme of the TV Pretty Little Liars, exploring the idea of secrets and horror
• shoots with film rather than digital 
• partnership since 2001
• haute couture 

Portraits Photoshoot 1

Inspiration: Pretty Little Liars

I have been thinking about potential themes for my portraits assignment and although I am throughouly interested in fairytale photography, I'd like to make that the main focus of my final 30 images. For the portraits assignment, however, I'd like to explore the idea of secrets.

Pretty Little Liars is a TV show that tells the story of 5 friends that share secrets and tell a lot of lies. The ringer leader of the group uses their secrets to blackmail them into situations and to exert power over them. One night, she goes missing is eventually found dead.

The opening credits have become an iconic part of the show, depicting a coffin and one of the characters, (Aria), saying "shh", suggesting they had something to do with her death. The theme tune, 'Secrets' by Pieces follows a similar theme.

I want to illustrate the theme song in my portraits. Here are the lyrics

Got a secret
Can you keep it?
Swear this one you'll save
Better lock it in your pocket
Taking this one to the grave
If I show you then I know you won't tell what I said
'Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead

I want to use similar techniques to the Taylor Swift video, using mirrors to create mystery and secretiveness. I also like the idea of using reflections/projectors/hiding features behind lace which also links to one of the main characters in the TV show, The Black Widow (shown below).

Chuck Close: The Kate Moss Daguerrotype

In today's lecture Gary briefly mentioned daguerreotypes and their history. During my study of A Level photography I grew to really enjoy daguerreotypes and the unique images that can be produced by this historical photographic method.

One of my all time favourite set of daguerreotypes are the infamous photographic portraits of supermodel Kate Moss by Chuck Close. Chuck Close is a world renowned photographer, often associated with is large scale photographs (usually measuring at twice the height of an average man).

Rankin Portraits: Avant Garde Make Up

Whenever I think of portrait photography, one name always springs to mind - Rankin. Rankin is one of the most iconic photographers of our generation and has photographed many famous faces, in the most unusual and often disturbing compositions.

Rankin photographs fashion portraits in such a way that makes it almost ugly. I like the idea of portraying avant garde make up in portraits, and it could be a potential theme for me to explore in my own assignment.

Photography Society: Steel Wool Spinning

Tonight I joined the photography society for a late night photo shoot on the beach. A couple of members of the group decided to do some steel wool spinning in order to create some beautiful shots of the sparks against the dark, beach background.

During the photo shoot I had to do something I've never really done before - take the camera settings off auto. I've become quite comfortable with auto settings on a camera and have produced some fairly good shots in the past. However, this workshop quickly made me realize how little I know about the technical side of photography.

Although we were given a template of the optimum camera settings for this shoot, I found I only got around 2 decent shots (which aren't brilliant compared to other member's of the group).

For reference I set my camera up to around 100 ISO with an aperture of f8 and a shutter speed of around 10 seconds. I used a tripod to stabilise the camera too.  I found it quite difficult to manually focus the camera and above all, adapt settings quickly in order to capture shots in time.

Even though my images didn't turn out as well as I'd hope I really enjoy the effect of this kind of photography. Capturing motion this way creates a beautiful, abstract outcome and I would like to learn how to adapt the camera manually in order to do this kind of photo shoot again.

This photoshoot made me truly appreciate the level of skill and dedication that went into Mike Mezuel II's photoshoot of the blood moon. To be able to create such a breathtaking image in such an uncontrollable environment, is a sign of a true photographer.

The Blood Moon

Last night many people around the UK stayed up to see the rare "blood moon" lunar eclipse. Whilst most people were a bit underwhelmed and many struggled to get a good shot of the red moon, Mike Mezuel II, in Texas, captured this STUNNING image. 

In his own words "After spending 5 hours on a rooftop with an incredible view of Dallas, I was able to create this composite image showing the moons transition from full moon, to full lunar eclipse, and back. Each moon image was shot approximately 10 minutes apart to capture the entire transition". The scene was shot on a Nikon D810

I really admire the time and dedication that went into this photograph and the outcome is spectacular. A once in a lifetime image. 

Source

Style by Taylor Swift: Video Stills

Hannes Caspar Portraits

Daniel Sannwald x Harper's Bazaar China

• Experimental 
• German photographer
• Dystopian futurism of Fritz Lang
• Suite - combined polaroid, old canon and copy machine to explore different elements of the composition 
• Taken from NEW FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY BY PRESTEL, PAUL SLOMAN

Nick Knight

Uses fine art to add to the photograph

Paco Peregrin

• Spanish photographer Paco Peregrin
• Explores avant garde, futurism,  unearthly beauty 
• Clean lines and rich contrast 
• Arcadian elegance 
• Theatrical use of make up and contemporary fashion 
• Restricted palette
• Muslin cloth
• Monstrous 
• I enjoy his use of fabric to hide the face and add a secretive, menacing tone 

Richard Avedon Fashion Portraits

Rankin

• Simple yet monumental 
• Style osicilates between serious documentary, experimental portraiture and seductive fashion work
• Reworks the body through pattern and colour 
• Often works alongside extreme make up artists to produce something hauntingly creative and transforms the human body into a canvas
• "Taking something beautiful and making it ugly" - amplified horror 
• 
  

Irving Penn Self Portraits

• I enjoy Penn's approach to self portraits and the way he uses experimental and abstract techniques to distort the image
• Very different approach to his normal portraits 

Irving Penn Fashion Portraits

Scanography Portraits

D Rae Bass

Beauty Portraits by Tomaas

Junkfood Queen

Wengenn in Wonderland by Sioin Queenie Liao

First Session: Portraits

Original Image

On Monday we went through the unit schedule and were given our first few tasks. As an icebreaker we broke off into pairs and were asked to produce two portraits: one of ourselves and one of our partners.

I partnered up with Toni, who told me she wanted to explore the artistic side of photography and enjoyed abstract photos. With this in mind, I wanted to create a candid shot of her. From my conversations with her she came across as artistic and fairly shy. I thought a candid shot would be the best way to capture her personality.