Personal Investigation

For my personal investigation, I’m looking at taking the fine art approach to photography, not the commercial. I want this project to be experimental, and to push me as an artist, as I feel as though in the last projects I have done, I didn’t do this.

I want to look at surrealism, as well as double exposures, as it’s one of the areas in photography I love, with soft lighting and cool and warm tones. Under this genre, I want to explore the theme of ‘from where I’d rather be’, as I feel I can incorporate different styles of photography within this; landscape, portrait etc.

Some shoots I have planned include bringing surrealism into an image by the use of props, for example having a wifi router in the middle of the woods. This shows that the person is somewhere they clearly don’t want to be. An image I found that inspired this is this image by Julie De Waroquier:

Other shoots include double exposures, to show someone being a different place mentally than physically. An artist I’ve looked at that does this is Brandon Kidwell:

What I like most about this image is the contrast between the background and the person, and then the lights used within the image inside the person. As I want to do some of these images with some gig photography, it has really inspired my ideas. However, what I don’t enjoy with the image is the composition of the person, for me, I feel as though if he is looking to the left, he should be positioned to the far right of the picture. This is something I will be mindful of when doing mine, making sure I fill the space and use a balanced composition.

I also want to experiment in the dark room with laying, putting one picture on top of the other and putting them under an enlarger, to create an effect like this:

However, there are limitations on this as there isn’t a dark room here and I would need to ask South Downs if I could use their dark room or gain access to one in some other way. If I can’t do this, then there are other ways this effect can be done (photoshop).

More ideas I have had include the making of gifs, to portray the contrast of where they are vs. where the want to be. I want to have a model who has their eyes open in one frame and then their eyes closed in another frame, changing the background each time to portray where they are (eyes open) and where they want to be (eyes closed).

People and Places – Ideas

For this brief I have a few ideas I want to experiment with, I want to explore the emotional connection that people have to certain places. This includes memories, or association. I want to try this in two ways, the first I’d follow someone around to a place that they have a memory with, taking candid photos of them and their reaction to everything there, or as they are making that memory that they will associate with that place. The second, is taking a picture of that place and projecting it on the model, showing that the place is almost a part of them. To do this, I need to use the studio and find someone willing to model for me.

Still Life

After thinking about and coming to a creative halt with the development of my ideas in terms of still life fashion photography, I have decided to change the theme of my images. I want to explore the pressure that young girls have to grow up, and how they act older than we expect them to even though they have that pressure on them. I want to do this through symbols that represent the contrast between young and old. For example, a child’s paintbrush in a makeup pot, a cupcake rapper used as a means of fashion in a magazine, or a loveheart sweet set on fire.

These ideas were inspired when my mums friend found messages on her daughters phone, and she was shocked that her 14 year old had grown up so fast. Also, by my little sister who has started wearing makeup and dying her hair.

I feel as though I can move forward and experiment with my ideas more with this concept, using the studio and in some cases the scanner to create my images, as layering cupcake rappers and magazines will be more effective in the scanner than in the studio.

Still Life – Klara G

Klara uses contrast within her images, the black background compared to the white and yellow used as subjects. Her images are both lit from above, creating a shadow within the picture and have a slight vignette effect to them. The lighting is also hard and spotted in one area, with no diffusion of light throughout the image. This highlights the contrast, which her images already show through the colours used.

There is only one colour used within her images, as she matches the object with the subject of the image. This works effectively when photographing and advertising makeup as the colour of the product is the selling point.

Still Life – Initial Ideas

Thinking of Still Life, traditionally it consists of food and flowers in studio lighting, set up with a composure that makes the image appealing. However, further research into Still Life found that there are concepts and metaphors that can be projected from Still Life work, as well as there being a place for Still Life in fashion photography. Still Life fashion photography is what has interested me the most and what I would like to experiment within this brief. I have taken inspiration in the form of Klara G, a photographer who works with colours within makeup and fashion and matches them with other objects in her photos.

I want to work with fruit and veg as well as makeup in the images I use, to combine traditional Still Life photography with fashion still life. My ideas include working with the transparency of fruit like oranges and lemons (cut into slices) and to highlight that with the studio lighting, making them glow or making a coloured shadows with them.

Other ideas I had include the depiction of youth in objects throughout decades, an object to represent a time era/trend in the past or present. This idea was however, inspired by the ideas given to us, and I wanted to do my own research before I committed to that idea.

I first knew that I wanted to photography when I was about 10 – my Dad was really into taking photos to document memories and adventures, and we went on a trip to Geirangerfjord + Alesund in Norway and, because of my Dad, had to take a million pictures. When we got there, I had to take a picture of my sister and her friend standing on the viewpoint in front of the Island of Alesund and I remember that in the photo, the sun behind them made a circular glare in the camera, framing them in what I thought looked like an angel halo, and I was so proud of myself and the picture I had taken. That’s when I decided I wanted to do photography, for GCSE level at least, and it has carried through to me now wanting to do it at University.

Living on the south coast has probably influenced my photography through my frequent exploration of landscape photography and still life. Being able to live ten minutes away from the beach, as well as being in a village, with lots of landscape, has shown that my strengths have developed in photography of objects and places rather than people. Especially abstract, as I like to experiment with angles.

However, saying that, my favourite type of photography is portrait. For me, conceptual photography is so much more effective through the use of people, because it can resonate with the audience, whereas abstraction and still life doesn’t quite tell a story as easily. However, being an introvert, my portrait photography is weaker because I’m naturally quite a shy person, so am not able to communicate with a model very well. Although I have ideas of how I want the image to turn out, it doesn’t quite come out the way I planned. It’s a skill I need to practice, as portraiture is an element of the career I want to go into; gig/concert photography and/or fashion photography.

Some of my biggest inspirations, or favourite photographers include; Adam Elmakias – a concert photographer for the likes of Warped Tour and the bands that are frequent on the lineup, Julie De Waroquier – a conceptual/surrealism photographer, Danny Suede – a semi amateur travel photographer (he experiments with light and exposure a lot, which I like, and also photographs his brothers band on tour). However, I also like to gain inspiration through the photographers I follow on Instagram, as I like to browse photography pages a lot.

Advertising Brief Supporting Work

This is the supporting work for the advertisement of frebreze. It shows our initial ideas, ideas that we chose to further develop and images that didn’t use for our final outcome.

Advertisement of Febreze

Advertisement Brief

This is the final outcome for the advertisement brief given to, we were given a bottle of frebreze and told we needed to advertise it – the main focus being the image. We left the poster simple, as we didn’t want it to be too busy or tacky in any way, like the original edit we did. I’m happy with the outcome of this because even though it’s simple, it’s clear and to the point.