Final photos

 

For my final photos I knew I wanted to use a public swimming pool due to the look which they have and so I could use a massive amount of water which just wouldn’t have been possible anywhere else. I did think about using an inflatable swimming pool in my garden but I didn’t feel it gave the same familiar feeling of a public swimming pool and also felt it could give a childish feel to the serious photos.

So I started my search by looking at different swimming pools and looking for ones with deep ends and that had lots of natural light. I wanted a deep end so that when my model ‘fell’ in he wouldn’t have the danger of hitting the floor. I also wanted lots of natural light as using fast shutting speeds makes the photos very dark if there isn’t a large amount of light. After searching for swimming pools to use I found 2 which seemed suitable for my photo shoot so I sent them both an email explaining what I wanted to do and if it would be possible to use their swimming pool. Straight away I got a response from one saying that they were too busy and a day later I got a response from the other saying that they could possibly help. I rang them and spoke to them about the details and they said that they could do it that day whilst they were setting up for a party, giving me only 15 mins to set up and take the photos. I accepted their offer and arrived with all my gear and my model and they were very helpful and couldn’t wait to see someone fall into the swimming pool fully clothed. I did four takes and each time got my model to put dry clothes on so that it would look like it was the real thing each time. This meant we had to work quickly but I soon got the hang of it and was getting a good selection of strong photos. I did at first have problems with starting the burst too soon and my camera stopping taking photos before he even hit the water but I soon got the timing right and got the complete sequence on the last take. I wanted to have 12 photos as I’d planned that I could take that many and I’d worked my zoetrope out to fit 12 photos perfectly. I think I want to edit them possibly but I’m not sure what would look good for the theme that I’m working in.

Here is my last take which got the whole series of photos:

I’m really pleased with the different stages of the movement that I captured and how it progresses a little bit more from photo to photo. My favourite photo from the take is the photo just before he hits the water and looks like he is balancing on the side above the water level. In some ways it looks like he’s trying to save himself and balance but it also looks like an elegance dance in midair. I also love the way the water reacts to his flat body hitting it and spraying up around him as if it swallows him. The splashes at the end are showing his struggles and him finding it difficult to get out of the water and the splashes slowing down show he’s not swimming any more but instead is drowning.

I feel that the photos turned out really well and that they possibly need editing to make them better and to give them a stronger main subject. I do really like the sign behind on the wall as it’s warning him that the water is there and it’s deep but he didn’t listen and fell in still showing that it’s his fault and he could have prevented it. I think that the angle from straight ahead works really well as it gives a better look at him struggling and his reaction to falling in. I think that all my test shots of things hitting water really helped me to know that the water would splash the correct way and give the look I’d planned. It meant that I could plan how my model would have to fall to get the correct splash and to make it look the most like they aren’t jumping but instead falling. It’s meant to feel like he’s looking over the water and then he falls in, showing that he could have prevented it from happening if he’d just read the signs and not been so close but this also tells the deeper story. He never listens to people warning him not to do things so he does it anyway and this is the last straw and it’s all catching up on him in a way that makes him feel like he’s drowning because he has so much stress.

I really feel that the paintings by Pedro Covo were a big inspiration for the way I wanted the boy to fall and hit the water and then disappear under it just like the people do in Covo’s paintings. I liked the way you could see the splashes go out in response to the way the person hit it and how all the attention is on the person. I also felt that they were very delicate just like dancers so I really tried to capture this. I tried to make all of those things in my photos and capture the feel of the photos. I really feel the elegance when the boy is falling before hitting the water with his arms out and just balancing on one leg just like a ballet dancer.

I would have liked to be more zoomed in so that when it’s in the zoetrope you can clearly see the subject and the small details that change but I wanted to try and capture all of the splashes created by him falling in which meant I had to be zoomed out as the splashes were bigger than expected.

Looking at inspiring photos

Here are photos I have found that inspire me and I will consider when developing my final piece. I have shown some of these before when talking about artists that I like and find inspiring but I will be breaking down each photo today and talking in depth about them. I will be discussing why the photographer/artist took the photos/made the art work and the feelings that are shown with the work.

For my first photo I have a drawing that shows a lady falling into water and she’s trying to hold on but she has weights on her feet which have words on them. I found this on Pinterest which sadly means that I can’t find the artist who made it but there are many people passing it around and using it to describe how they feel. The weights are symbolising her stresses and it’s showing that they make her feel that she is drowning. This piece of art was created for people around the age of high school to connect to and feel that people understand how they feel. It is also used to express their feelings to others. This photo links to peoples lives and the social part of life where not everything is easy and you can feel overwhelmed by everything. I like this piece of work as it shows the feeling that stress can make you feel which is exactly what I want my photos to show. I also want to use water to show drowning and the feeling of overwhelming stress just like this drawing does. When taking my actual photos I will take effort to make it noticeable that they aren’t just drowning but it’s meant to symbolise stress just like their work.

For my second and third photo I have someone falling into water and the splashes surrounding them. The first one is taken by Bina Winkler and she took it with the purpose to show how she see’s life and that not everything is perfect. About this top photo she said “Hold me, Love me, Drown me” showing that this photo symbolises about love and how when it ends it feels like your falling and drowning. the second photo is taken by Nina Sinitskaya and this is what she says about this photo: “This image is a part of a Merger project that tells a story of people and nature alliance. — What if the feeling of breeze, rain or warmth of sun on our skin is the feeling of embraces natures gives us? What if it tries to embrace us all the time and we simply don’t notice it because we’re too busy with our lives? So, to get our attention nature begins to embrace us harder, with tornadoes and tsunamis, earthquakes and terrible heat. Only after that we, frightened, become silent in her arms, listening to her breathing. What if we listened and felt from the very beginning?” I think both these photos really links to social views and how people can’t always cope with everything that’s happening in their life. Also both these images could be for either gender and age as it links to the feeling of not coping well with life and not being able to look after yourself. I believe that these photos help people feel that others understand and so they know they aren’t alone. Both these photos were taken on location as they are using water which would need to be in a swimming pool or natural water source. I also think they probably used a fast shutter speed like 1000 or 2000 which means that they would also need a good source of lighting as using fast shutter speeds makes photos darker. This could mean that they took the photos on a sunny or bright day. It would have been created by someone falling backwards into water with their arms out. I think they are very effective and the way they have captured the splashes works really well and gives the feeling they are wrapping around her and pulling her down. I want to have this look for my photos and try to show the water wrapping around them as they hit the water. I really think that they show the feeling that stress can make you feel when it’s got too bad to cope with. When I take my photos I will using a fast shutter just like this to capture a similar look.

For my fourth photo I have a photo of a girl under water with her hand hands at the surface. I’ve looked all over the place looking for the name of who took this but I haven’t had any luck. I’ve found it in many places such as on tumbler and pinterest with people using it to explain how they feel and to show that they are down and depressed. This really links to life being overwhelming and personal objectives and not being able to meet them and feeling you’ve failed. It could easily be for anyone due to anyone being able to feel overwhelmed in this way. I do think that due to this photo being so popular on pinterest that people must feel that they can really connect to it enough to want to keep spreading it around to other people. Their are bubbles and it’s dark under the water so the girl can’t be seen very well. It gives the feeling that the person is drowning and they are reaching to the top for air but they can’t reach. The hands have been caught moving out of the water which means that they have a layer of water over which is raised above the rest of the water. This was taken on location just like the last two photos as it’s not very easy to have water in a studio. It’s also probably taken with a fast shutter speed to capture the bubbles and the hands reaching out of the water. For the lighting they probably took it on a normal day with no addition lighting so as to keep it natural and then edited it later to make it look darker. I find the technique of this photo really inspiring and I would like to capture a hand reaching for the surface somewhere in my photo to show that the person is struggling to swim. I also like how the darkness of the water with the bubbles makes it a sinister look making you realise that it isn’t a happy photo.

For my fifth and sixth inspirations I have two photo by Dorothea Lange who took photos of people in the depression-era and people working on farms. I think that she named the photos taken there “Dust bowl”. The second image shows “Florence Owens Thompson, 32, a poverty-stricken migrant mother with three young children, gazes off into the distance. This photograph, commissioned by the FSA, came to symbolise the Great Depression for many Americans.” This links to economics and the photos she took were for grownups to show what life was like and to make people aware. The photos really show the stress of life and how it wasn’t easy for the people living on farms in those times. It shows depression and desperate times. They are taken on film which means they are black and white giving them a dark feel to them. They also look like they having lighting set up but it’s probably natural lighting as they photos were probably taken on location as these people seem to be in their own homes. The photos really capture sadness and depression of the normal everyday. It also captures the poor and dirty look these people have. The black and white of the photos makes the eyes really light up and become wet looking which is very effective for photos that capture a sad emotion as it could show that the person had been crying. I also feel that because the person isn’t looking at the camera it becomes more dramatic and sad. The photos were taken so they could capture the lives of the towns folk with out them posing for the photos. In my photos I really want to try and capture this look that shows how sad and lost they feel but keep it subtle so it’s up to the viewers to spot it or not.

The seventh and eighth photos are by Harold Eugene Edgerton which are of movements and each stage of that movement in one photo. Edgerton was well known as ‘Papa Flash’ due to him being a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which is why he uses strobe lighting to create the photos of peoples movements. These photos were used for others and himself to be able to see individual points of a very fast movement which was very helpful and impressive. He also loved to teach people so these photos could have been used for the kids and to teach them. These were probably done with a film camera using slow shutter speed and a strobe light that is flashing really fast meaning that the camera can only capture the movement when the light flashes. They could have been taken in a studio or on location as the setting doesn’t have much detail but they were probably taken in a studio so that they could control the lighting in the room to make the strobes work effectively. I think that the way they look with all the movements in one still image is really amazing and I want to try and do this in my own work and see if it captures the same emotion I was looking for. I could do it by taking lots of images of a movement happening and then place them all into one photo after on Photoshop. I could try and use the strobe effect but I don’t think it would work well on location which is where I want to take my photos.

My ninth and tenth inspirations are by Elliot Schultz who is an animator from Australia who created these records which have material over which have been stitched on with patterns on which when turned on the record player look as if they are a moving image. This is what he says about his style of work ‘I’m passionate about traditional 2D animation and any experimental work playing with persistence of vision’ I would say that the work is for anyone from a young age to an old age to enjoy but it’s made mostly for people from around 16 to 25 as this is mostly the age you would be online to see his work. It’s made to show creativity and to make something old as something new and more interesting for people of young ages who wouldn’t normally think about records being new and technical. The final thing is a GIF of the records turning around showing the stitching turn into boxes floating around and the rain drops falling and splashing. I really like the way that these stitches can turn into movements and possibly a story. I don’t think that stitching something would be right for my final piece but I do like the idea of having lots of still photos and then making them move by spinning it around quickly. I will try putting pictures in a zoetrope and see if that would make my pictures turn nicely into a smooth movement. I think that this is a really good idea and could work really well for creating the emotions I’m looking for.

My eleventh and twelfth inspirations are by Pedro Covo and they are paintings of people jumping into water and their are splashes where they are just hitting the water. Here is a descriptions of his work: ‘Covo splendidly captures the obscuring nature of water as splashes are rendered in frenetic splatters of paint, and the sinuous lines of bodies seem to evaporate into brush strokes’ The work is created for grownups due to most kids not looking at art but Covo animated for Disney which means that he does know how to create work for a young audience. His work shows movement through art in a way that couldn’t be shown through photography easily due to the bazar body movements of the people and how much is left to the imagination. These paintings make people feel inspired and could be seen as if the bodies become fluid like the water. They also show the tranquility of the water is broken by the body hitting the water as it depicts the danger of water to humans. I find that the way that they have made it so they are stopped about to hit the water or just coming out of the water creates a moment that is normally not something we get to see for long or as a still image which means that it looks is interesting to see. I would like to create something like this for my photos with someone jumping into water and there to be splashes and them being surrounded by the water. I would like to capture the movement before they hit the water as it’s unusual.

My thirteenth and fourteenth inspirations are by Eadweard Muybridge and they are film strips of people doing movements and it shows each stage of that movement one after another. I think that he did this so that he could see how the human body worked and moved when doing something. He also did it for birds flying as well so that he could learn about their movements also. I think this is a really great method and could work well to capture my person who will be falling into a swimming pool. I do like how you can see them straight after each other and how you can see the whole movement in individual photos on the same page. I think this would work better if I did this in a studio like him though which would mean I would have to change my idea a little.

My fifteenth and sixteenth photos are by Martin Waugh and are of droplets of water falling into more water. These are taken in a studio by dropping coloured water in a fish tank full of clear water and capturing the image on a super fast shutter speed and having lots of studio lighting. It would also have to be zoomed in a long way so that it looks big for the final image. I think that capturing the water when it’s bouncing back out is really nice and I would like the try and capture that when I take my photos of the person falling into the water. The way the water makes shapes that you could never be able to see other wise is really pretty and shows a side of the world that you never get to see normally.

My last two photos are by Max Riché and they are called sequence photos and they are of people doing sporty activities. They are taken by the person doing it loads of times and each time them changing outfits and getting better. Then after the images are put together onto the same photo so it looks like a sequence that is real. Then it’s edited to have blurry parts between to make it look like they are moving. I really want to try something like this for the person falling into water as this would create a good effect and make for a good final photo idea. I wouldn’t change the outfits though as I don’t think this fits the style I’m looking for.

Test shots

After looking at photos and people’s work that inspires me I decided that I would go and try to take photos in ways similar and to see if it was something I felt would work for what I am looking for. I went through the photos/art that I had been inspired by and let them inspire me and change my idea to be like theirs. I didn’t do one for each person as some of them are very similar so some of my test shots cover more than one artists work.

Here are my test shots:

1. Here is my first photo which I made with inspiration from Max Riché, Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Eugene Edgerton. I did this by setting my camera (Canon 5D) onto a tripod and setting up looking at an area which enabled me to have enough space to do a cartwheel. I put the camera onto TV mode and at 1000 which means that I could capture fast movements without them being blurred. I then also set the camera up so that it would take lots of photos in one go. I first took a photo with out me in it. I then got into position and got someone to count down and then hold the button firm down until I had finished doing the cartwheel. After that I opened all the photos onto photoshop and used the eraser tool to go around myself in each photo and then place them all onto the first photo which I’m not in. Once I’d placed all of the different movements onto the background photo I started moving them around so that the individual photos could be seen better. Even though this made it unrealistic I found that it didn’t look too different and it made it easier to see each movement. I think it worked really well but I do think that a longer movement would have worked better. Also someone who could do a fluid movement in an elegant way would look better than my awful cartwheel which is clunky and overlaps a bit too much. I feel that this way of placing photos together so you can see all the individual movements could look really affective with the idea of the boy falling into water.

2. For my second test I took inspiration from Elliot Schultz as he creates movement by making individual images and then playing them fast one after another. I decided to try and make a stop motion with Lego and try and make it detailed and capture lots of realistic movements. I also tried to not make it too long so that it didn’t go on for ages as this would have taken a lot more photos than I already took to create. I used a tripod and placed some cardboard on the floor to make a smooth and plain setting. I then got lighting and directed it towards the cardboard area so that it wasn’t too dark and so the details and small actions could be seen. I then started to move the lego in from the side and took photos one at a time and moving the Lego in little by little. I then continued the movement by getting the guy out and then the dog. This took around half an hour to set up and shoot the photos. I then placed the pictures together on iMovie and made the photos stay on for a split second each so that it was a smooth transition and so it ran smoothly. I think it went well and the outcome looks effective and just like it actually happened without me moving them by hand but I don’t think that stop motion would work for my idea. I think that other methods would work better to capture someone falling and to be able to play the individual movements smoothly.

3. Then for my last three test photos I got inspiration from Martin Waugh, Pedro Covo and Dorothea Lange’s work. I wanted to capture a movement that is really fast and make it clear and as if it isn’t moving just like Martin Waugh’s water photos where they are splashing but they look like they are still and made of something solid. I also wanted to capture something like Pedro Covo’s work where he paints people splashing into water. His paintings make it possible to capture that single movement as a still and something you can keep looking at. I then lastly wanted it to look to Dorothea Lange’s work as she makes her photos capture emotion and that was something I wanted my photos to capture too. I took my photos all the same way which I did by setting my camera onto TV mode and at 1000 which means that I could capture fast movements without them being blurred. I then got my mum to do lots of fast movements such as flicking her hair around and jumping on the bed. I then got her to take a photo of me flicking my hair around as my hair is longer and I wanted to see how it would look. For the photo of her jumping on the bed I got her to look like she was actually doing a handstand on the ceiling as I knew that it would look bazar when captured as a still photo. Then for her hair one I wanted to capture her smiling and being happy and with her hair going up in the air. I felt that this photo captures emotion perfectly and looks really interesting with her hair. Then for the photo of me I found that my hair looked really amazing and went everywhere which looks like I’ve been caught in a strong wind. I think this method of capturing movement is really affective and I want to try and capture someone jumping into water with this method.

 

Overall I found that the photos made me really sure that what I wanted to do was possible and that if I took my photos for the final piece that I would be able to capture all the intricate poses that happen when someone falls and hits water and how the body reacts to falling. I feel that I’ve found out lots about how I can stop movement whilst it’s happening and it not be blurred which is a massive step in the right direction for my idea. I don’t know what I would have done if all my photos were blurry. The only thing is that I’ll need to test this with things falling into water so I can see the impact that happens.

 

Improved idea

After looking at work that is already out there and getting inspired by some of it I have improved my ideas for my final piece. I have drawn a rough sketch of what I am planning on it look like and I will explain my idea below. It is similar to my idea at the beginning but some small parts of the idea have been upgraded and tweaked.

Now that I’ve done some research and found people and work that I feel inspired by I have changed my idea so that it will be a zoetrope so that I can place my idea that I already had into it and make them move and show the story of the boy falling into the swimming pool. I also really like the idea that each photo symbolises some stress and then when they move all together they show this movement of the boy falling into the water which is to show that when loads of small things come together they become something worse and harder to cope with eg the boy being over whelmed so it feels to them that they are falling into deep water. It’s still the same about them wearing their own clothes as that symbolises that all this has happened because it’s their fault (clothes make it difficult to swim). I would like the zoetrope to be quiet large so that the pictures can be big so you can see everything that is happening. I also noticed that all zoetrope stories lead into themselves so they never end but mine won’t, it will end with the boy struggling under the water as this shows that you can’t come back from some large amounts of stress.

I like the idea as I feel it will show stress and possible be relatable for people watching it. I also think that it has so much more meaning the longer you look at it as when you first look at it it could just look like someone jumping into water. Also this relates to my other assignment of a girl drowning under a piece of glass as that symbolises stress and the glass shows it’s her fault just like this boy’s clothes are showing that it’s his fault that he’s struggling.

So for this idea I would need to go to a public swimming pool as this will give the feeling of normality and a familiarity where there’s also plenty of light from windows not artificial lighting so I don’t need to use additional lighting and so it’s more natural and not yellow in the photos. I would need my camera and it’s lens to take the photos with. I would also need a model who is a boy and is willing to fall into the water more than once. I would also need several outfits so that he could fall in more than once to make sure I get a good selection of photos to choose from. I would also need a tripod so that when I’m taking the photos I don’t need to worry about camera shake or the camera to move around from frame to frame.

Final Photos on location:

After changing my ideas and testing what I wanted my final pieces to look like I took my final photos. Here are the ones I took on location in my shower at home.

I firstly turned my shower on to hot and shut all the windows and the door to the room so that the room would become foggy and so that the shower door would become wet and misty. I then put red lipstick on my model and turned the shower off. Then I got my model to get into the shower and to stand up close to the door. I then took photos from the other side so I could capture the foggy window in front of my models face. Then when I’d captured a good amount of photos with it like that I rubbed out part of the fogginess on the window so that there was a gap that could be seen through better. Then I took more photos but including the gap that I’d just made. I tried to just have the lips and the nose through the gap as it means that you can’t fully identify the person which creates a sense of the unknown.

Here are some photos of me setting the bathroom up:

I her to wear a pretty brown dress that was low cut so that the shape of her body could be made out behind the fog making it easier to see that it’s a girl and they are wearing a dress. I also styled her hair so that it was straight and pointed at the edges. I did this so that her hair is noticeable and also catches peoples eyes and makes them want to have their hair like that. There are patterns on the door of my shower which are captured in the photos but I think this makes the photos more bizarre.

Here are the four photos I chose and edited:

The top photo is my favourite as the angle is really flattering and the whip through the glass really make the photo become unusual. I also like that the hair in the photo is being caught by the sun which makes it have a nice pop of colour. I feel the top two photos with the whips out worked the best whilst the bottom two photos look good but aren’t as easy to know that they are of someone in the shower as the foggy glass looks weird. I think these photos are bold and fashionable as they catch your eye easily due to the scenery and the pop of red coming from the lipstick. The lipstick is also the thing that could makes it fashionable alongside the hair which is also a main feature of the picture. To make sure that it  wasn’t just me that liked the photo, I went out and asked people within the age brackets what they thought of the photos and they all were very positive.

Here are are the comments people said about my photos:

“I really like how unique your image is and it’s defiantly eye catching. I think using the bright lipstick worked really well and I like how it’s brought to your attention by the wiped clean bit of glass”

“I love the idea behind the theme of the image. Very creative, also love the colours used in the image”

“Unique idea but works really well, I think you captured your ideas perfectly”

“I like how you used something in your everyday life to make a unique photo”

 

 

Final photos in the studio

After changing my ideas and testing what I wanted my final pieces to look like I took my final photos. Here are the ones I took in the light studio but ended up changing to the dark studio so that I could get a stormy look and be able to control the lighting in the photos.

I firstly started by making thunder storms on A3 pieces of card and then cutting them out and connecting them to string. I then once they were connected to the string put them onto a bamboo stick using tape and made sure they were all spaced out and at different heights. I then connected the bamboo stick to a camera pole that was in the studio using tape and positioned it over the set where I was taking my photos. Then to create a cloud I bought 5 bags of teddy bear stuffing and spread out on the studio floor under the clouds that were hanging. I then used yellow face paint to paint my model so that it looked like he’d been shaded.

Here are some photos of me setting the studio up:

I got him to wear fashionable clothing and to look like something that someone would inspire to be like. I wanted the feeling of the photo to be as if it was taken in the clouds and that my model is asleep up there and meanwhile there is a thunderstorm happening above. This is why he has yellow on his body so that it looks like the yellow from the lightning has caused reflections of yellow onto his skin.

Here are the four photos I chose and edited:

I feel the top two photos are my strongest out of the four I have taken for my final piece as they are from a flattering side angel. I also like the placement of the clouds over him as they bring your eyes down but don’t take full concentration away from the model. I do like the bottom two as well though as they show a different perspective of the cloud world I created and could tell a different story to views. I like the clouds in the last photo as they are placed differently compared to the other photos which shows that I’m experimenting and not just sticking to the same plan. I took them all in portrait as a magazine would need them to fit on the front cover. I feel that they worked really well and when I went out and tested it by talking to people within the age specification about what they thought about the photos, I got positive feedback.

Here are some of the things people said about these photos:
“the cloud images are very imaginative and you have shot them very effectively”

“I like the clouds as it’s a unique idea especially with the face paint”

“The cloud ones are cool and well thought out – tells a story behind the images”

“I like the fluffy cloud photos, incredibly unique”

Improving my Final ideas

After trying my first ideas out and thinking about if it would work for the front cover of a magazine, I came up with improved ideas and ones that I felt could be front page quality.

1)

For my first idea I wanted to create a photo in a studio with someone lying down and have them surrounded by things. Well that idea has changed quiet a bit but the basics are the same. Instead of patterns and the person being on a silk blanket, they’d be lying on a cloud of teddy bear stuffing and have massive drawings of thunder storms hanging over them from the ceiling. The person would be wearing fashionable clothing and would probably be a boy so that it could interest girls and boys. I want to make it like a drawing so that’s why the storm clouds are drawings. Also the boy would be shaded with yellow to match the lightning colour and give it the drawing feel. Here is a drawing to show my idea:

This is a rough sketch of my idea and I will be shooting the actual Final piece of it soon. I really think this would make a perfect and new idea for a front cover of a magazine. It would easily make people pick it up and it could make people want to feel as awesome as the photo.

 

2)

For my second idea it hasn’t changed much from last time but now I’ve changed it to being in a shower or somewhere weird. This would be my location portrait and I would use a girl to make it something both a girl and boy would be interested in. I would want the person to wear clothes and makeup to still show the fashion side of it and so it’s really weird. Here is the photo I took:

I took this without lighting or setting up properly as I just wanted to see if it would look how I expected and that you could still see the face enough. The only thing that I don’t think worked is that there’s no proper lighting making the photo very dark and grungy. When I take my actually final piece for this I think I’ll use bright lights and do noticeable makeup with a fashionable outfit.

Assignement 1 & 2 First Ideas

For my first 2 assignments I’ve already researched what’s out there on the front covers of magazines right now so that I can capture something new and fresh to the fashion scene.

Here are my first ideas and a tester photo of this to see if I think it will work:

1)

My first idea is to have a person lying on the floor surrounded by loads of colourful things that don’t completely go so that it confuses the eye. I also wanted the person to not look at the camera so that it could seem like they don’t know the camera’s there. I’ll do these photos in a studio so that it’s perfectly lit and is an empty canvas to work on. I tried this quickly by taking a photo of someone in the studio lying down and then photoshopped in loads of flowers and to make it confusing for the eye I added a silk blanket to the background. Here is the creation I made:

I’m not sure it’s what I was looking for but I think it would look better if it was actually there and not just photoshopped in. I like how it confuses the eye but I want to change a lot about it before I take the final photos. Here is the photo that inspired me:

I really took inspiration from the positions and the patterns not going well together

2)

For my second idea I wanted to try and use glass with water on it in front of the person who I’m shooting. I tried this out quickly by photoshopping it over a simple photo of someone to see how it would look. I removed a part of the water look to make it some like it had been whipped away in that one place. I made one black and white to see how I liked it. Then for the second one I kept it in colour and not with a simple background to see how it would look. Here are how they looked:

 

I really like it in black and white as it gives a nice feel to the eyes and to the reflections. I feel the area that’s clear of water dropplets makes a nice feel to the photo. I do think that maybe parts of it being in colour could make it more interesting.

I feel this photo isn’t sharp enough but if that was improved and the model was posing in a different way then I still think this could look nice. I would use real water marks though instead of over laying a photo on photoshop though. Here’s the photo that inspired me:

I took inspiration from it being in black and white and the gap through the dropplets

Assignment 1 & 2 research

For this assignment we have to take portrait photos in a studio and on location. They both need to be for the front cover of a magazine for people between the age of 16 to 24 to make them feel inspired and want to look like that. The photos have to be different to what is already out there and has been done before. To start we need to research what people have already done and so that we can make ours different. We also need to find inspiration for our photos.

What is already out there:

The three photos above show the simple poses for women where they just look pretty and are side on to the camera so that they can make the model look more elegant. This is normal and basic so it’s something that need to stay away from doing.

The five photos above are more adventurous and not something that you would normally find. They are bizarre and not something you would feel inspired by so it’s still not something that I want to copy for my photos.

Inspiration for my photos:

I really like the idea of working with steam and water to give an unusual look to the photos so that they aren’t easy to understand at first. The photos above are really interesting and give a weird look to the person. They are taken by David Ryle in a serious of photos called Trifecta.

This photo above is another example where the photo is made interesting due to a layer being in the way making it easier to manipulate the photo with it.

Here is a drawing of eyes with the makeup and paint running down. I feel this could be interesting to make the face have imperfections like makeup.

The photo above is of the Rolling Stones by David Bailey and it’s interesting due to the material that is on their face and being blown around. You can still see their faces still which means that it’s still something that could be used on a magazine.

I really like the makeup in the photo above and how it is all similar colours and the flowers make the photos pop with colour and make it interesting.

I like the background idea for this photo above as its pretty and simple. Could be something to think about.

I’m really interesting in this one for my studio photo as it’s really different and not something that is normally on the front cover of a magazine. I like the blanket in the background and how they are lying down and not all of them are showing as they are sort of writhing around.

Setting up the exhibition

For this project we have three weeks to put up an exhibition and take it down again whilst taking photos to make a narrative story. We need to create pages in our sketchbooks like normal and show our research and ideas growing.

What is narrative photography?

Narrative photography is where photographs (or a photograph) can be used to tell a story even if the story isn’t actually true. Many people believe that you must be able to do narrative photography if you want to be able to take exceptional photos. This is because you want people to be interested in it and be able to find a story within it.

Well known photographers who have done narrative photography:

>Robert Doisneau

Doisneau was around in the 1930’s and was mostly taking street photography with a Lieca camera. He won many awards for his photos throughout his life and his most famous photo was of a couple kissing in Paris in the 1950’s. His photos are narrative due to the stories he shows of the people on the street. When you look at his photos you can tell a lot about the people in them and what they are up to. He goes out onto the street to take narrative photos of people that are just out and about, giving us an idea of their stories and the way they’re living. This gave me some ideas for my images, showing me I could take them without being seen.

>Sebastiao Salgado

Salgado was a documentary photographer who traveled all over the world to take photos. He captured life as it really was in other countries and it normally wasn’t a pretty sight. Salgado got many rewards for his photos and even became an ambassador for UNICEF. These photos are narrative as they tell you about the people that live in those countries and that they are poor and/or suffering. He takes them by going around the countries and living within the people and capturing their everyday lives. He captures so many things in each picture, and I would like to do something similar within my photos. I want each one to tell their own part of the story. I would also like to travel round the room to take photos from all of the different parts.

>Henri Cartier-Bresson

Cartier-Bresson is a French photographer well known for his street photography. He’s well know for developing street photography and he also captured (or created) the decisive moment which is shown in his most famous photo of a person jumping off something into water, but his foot hasn’t met the water yet. He was also a painter, meaning he had a superb eye for photos and getting the correct angle. He also had knowledge of the rule of 3. His photos are narrative as they capture everyday life of people on the street without it being posed. He is capturing peoples lives which is a story on it’s own.

>Robert Capa

Capa was a very well known Hungarian war photographer and photo journalist. His war photographs were said to be some of the best, but sadly some of his most famous photos such as the falling soldier were said to be faked so that Capa didn’t have to go to the actual war ground. Sadly, Capa died out at war taking photographs. His photos are narrative as they capture the soldiers at war fighting, allowing people at home to witness it and so they knew how bad it actually was. Capa would’ve had to actually go to these war grounds to take the photographs. His photos tell us a deep story about the life of the soldiers who are fighting for their country and how it isn’t all happy.

>Don McCullin

McCullin is an English photojournalist mostly famous for his war photography.  He first started taking photos in 1959 and is still taking them at the age of 80. His photos mostly showed the underside of society such as the poor, unemployed and less fortunate people. His work is narrative as it shows peoples lives and people at war so that people at home can witness the horrible side we wouldn’t normally be able to see. His photos tell the story of the less fortunate people in this world so that we don’t think that everything is happy go lucky. Just like the others, McCullin actually had to travel the world to take the narrative photos shown above.

>Steve McCurry

McCurry is an American photojournalist who traveled around taking photos of people in different countries. His most famous photo was of a 12 year old Afghan girl who had piecing green eyes and had a red headdress which was put on the front page of the Nation Geographic magazine. McCurry took photos of people who weren’t well off and his photos were mostly bright colours. His photos are narrative as they show peoples lives to others who normally wouldn’t have the chance to see it. He transports the story of these people over to places where they can easily be seen so that they can be known about. McCurry also travelled the world in order to take photos of people, however most people in his narrative photographs are posing for the camera.

>Tim Hetherington

Hetherington is an English photojournalist that did war photography. Sadly, he died in the 2011 Libyan civil war whilst taking photographs. He won many awards including the World Press photo of the year which he won in 2007. His photos are narrative as they give you the story of war and what the people go through whilst fighting for their country. He captures peoples lives and the suffering they go through because of the war. I don’t feel like I can incorporate this in my work, however you can tell what the people in the photo are doing from what they have, and I could show this in my photos.