My Shoots

On the 12th of November I went on my first shoot. I was a little bit nervous as to how my model would react when I revealed the poses I wanted her to do but was confident enough that I would be able to pull off a  successful shoot. My model, being the Lolita fashion guru she is, told me many things about the fashion and let me look through her Lolita magazines to gather research and ideas.

Whilst waiting for my model to get ready she told me how much the Disney princesses influenced her fashion so I looked at their poses and expressions and made a way to include this into my shoot. 

Blogger won't allow me to upload any more images because my blogs are already too full but I'll describe the starting points to my images. I wanted to begin my shoot with a 'before' image, I had my model stand in a certain way with her PJ's on and without make up or anything 'lolita' like because I wanted to capture what a raw version of her to compare it with the later version where her hair and make up and lolita style was in place. It was raining for my first shoot so I had to change my originally outdoor planned shoot to mostly indoor which wasn't too much of a problem as my model seemed to be more co-operative indoors and away from the busy public streets. All together I went on 3 shoots, gathering something slightly different to the last each time because I learnt what locations and poses would be best and always set out to use these to my advantage the next time I was there. 

Research - Dina Goldsteil

Dina Goldsteil takes a 'magical' approach to most of her work. She mixes real life and make believe together and creates images which test the imagination and thoughts of the viewer.

These images are from the series 'Fallen Princesses' I like how all of the subjects are characters that we would recognize from being younger yet put into everyday situations. The contrast between the 'perfect life' and 'reality' sends a strong and clear message through the images. I like the idea of introducing 'story book' like themes into the real world.

The images above are form the series 'In The Doll House'. Goldsteil quoted:

‘In the doll house’ examines the less than perfect life of B and K. B is a super doll, the most successful doll in the world. Her partner K is grappling with his sexuality and finds himself in a loveless marriage. He struggles with his position in the household and faces his lack of authenticity. 

This series of work tells a story as well as gives us something familiar to relate to. I like how the 'Barbie's' hands are straight out creating a more believably doll like pose.

Research - Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is an American photographer who worked for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970. Richard Avedon was a major influence in Leibovitz's life, his images played an important and powerful roll into the moulding of her style.

Her work tells a story, in this case it's Alice In Wonderland. I love how this is all one story yet she has 'Alice'  wear a different costume each time, it still flows throughout though because of the mutual usage of blue within each outfit. I will use different costumes of the same colour in my shoot so my model looks different each time but still similar enough for the shoot to flow well, make sense and look as though it was taken in one day. Once again I notice the text on the image, to me it adds to the story book feel. 

An Interesting Idea

Whilst researching fashion photographers and Lolita fashion I came across a similar pose within two images. The top image was taken by the German-Australian fashion photographer Helmut Newton and the bottom image is what I found on a blog about Lolitas. .

This pose to me seems to suggest pride and freedom. I like how the two models are happy and look as though they're ready to take on anything. Lolita fashion is very striking and stands out from the normal everyday fashion we see on the streets so people who follow this fashion would need a good mind set to overcome the negative comments and reactions that come with 'being different' and 'standing out from the crowd' and I think this pose suggests they've taken on this mind set. 

Feedback Session - Tim Walker

In my feedback session it was suggested that I looked at 'Tim Walker Somerset House' I did this which then lead me to other sources which I found very useful in aiding me with ideas and inspiration. 

Tim Walker worked in London for vogue in 1994 before he became the full time assistant to Richard Avedon in New York City. His work is unique in a way that he plays with reality, fairly tale and make believe. His work has relations to real life but with a child like, magical quality. 

Each of his images tell a story as well as portray a fashion style image. I like how we aren't forced into looking directly towards the model and what she's wearing, we're allowed to explore the image and use our imagination and creativity to tell the rest of the story. 

As well as creating magical still images, Walker has made some short films. I found one of his videos to be quite influential in relation to my idea. Below are some screen shots of the video and the link to take you there to watch it in full. 

http://vimeo.com/41072348

Everything about this moving image had doll like qualities. The music was 'child's toy' like, the camera was flickering and jumpy to suggest an amateurish/childish way of filming and the lighting was very playful, it wasn't dark and deep at most points, it was clear, fresh and bright. There was no explanation along with this so as viewers we have to make up our own story and reasons behind it, this gives us a chance to interact with the film and keeps us occupied and entertained. The story that my head decided to make up was the young woman is 'trapped' and doesn't like her way of life, she's scared (metaphorically shown by her fear of the large lurking doll), she wants to escape. At the start of the video she's outside and seems very happy, the film also ends with her being outside and looking as though she's relieved that she's got out of the 'doll house'. I like the fashion element running throughout, it gives the video some sophistication and elegance. I like the costume changes as they suggest it's filmed over a period of time as well as giving us something new to look at each time. 

Feedback Session - James Cunningham

I attended my firs feedback session with my proposal, research and ideas. I was given a photographers name to research, James Cunningham.

Whilst looking through his work I came across a model advert he'd put out in order to gather more subjects for his work. This advert describes what his work is about:

25yo from Melbourne specialising in domestic male-form photography. Seeking male models of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, who are looking to add their own catalogue of images.

I call my style 'domestic male-form photography'. Combining a range of modeling techniques (simple fashion editorial, underwear and physique work, and nudes) in an attempt to tell a story. Each of my models are brave individuals who allow their private world to be made public, as most of my shoots take place in the surroundings of a model's own home. It requires them to be completely un-posed and at ease for the duration for the shoot. Almost like the photographer isn't even there, very simple; very masculine.

Exploring strength and virility, and playing with the themes of a both privacy and confidence, many of my images have a voyueristic quality. The viewer is taken into a world that is rarely seen, while the model is at his most vulnerable... alone.

My shoots are TFP; in exchange for a model's time I provide HiRes digital copies of the entire shoot.

Please peruse and feel free to comment.

I like the story being told even though it's just of a guy getting up and having a shower. I think the story is something we can all relate to and follow which immediately gives us a connection to the series. When I'm following my model around I will let her take me to where she would go if I wasn't there, I wont let my camera influence her into going somewhere different to normal in order to capture more 'interesting' images. My model will take me where she wants to go so she's at ease and feels comfortable with her surroundings at all times.  

Initial Research - Fashion shoots

Since my idea was to merge both a fashion shoot with a documentary shoot I began researching fashion shoots as this was the knowledge I lacked most out of the two. I wanted to find something that would resemble my idea, so I was looking for something different to the average fashion shoot, something slightly bizarre and very creative. I came across a Hello Kitty fashion shoot by chance and immediately began analyzing the images to see what I could get out of them and use in my own work.

I like how the consistency is kept throughout each image with colour and extravagant postures. I like how some images are portrait and some are landscape yet they all still flow. This shoot plays on the Japanese look through her styling but more towards the generic fashion shoot with the poses I think this is to show that this is actually a fashion shoot and not more of a fine art body of work. When shooting my own images I will keep in mind not to allow it to become too fine art like as this is not my initial aim. I will use both portrait and landscape images because I think a mix up like this keeps the viewer looking at something slightly different each time.

I looked at Richard Avedon as his fashion shoots have that different aspect to them which interests me for my work. Avedon was an American fashion and portrait photographer known for his work with Vogue, Life,  and Harper's Bazaar magazines. An obituary was published in the New York Times about Avedon's work, ''his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century''. His work is different to the average fashion shoot, he has his models show emotion whilst posing in a particular ans usually strange way. His models are sometimes laughing, smiling and in action. He began his fashion shoot life by shooting outdoors but later on became less of a fan of daylight and moved them into a studio. I like the shots he took on the street because it's a place we can relate to and when we see something that we know isn't supposed to be there like a laughing model with her dress blowing around in the wind it grabs our attention and keeps us interested. I want my photos to be mainly outside or at least in public places or places we can all recognize and relate to. 

I love the last image shown here by Avedon, I think the public interaction is what makes the image so special. As well as it being a fashion photo because of the styling of the model it'e become a street photo by the men walking past and looking at the model. I would definitely like to capture public reactions as clear as this one when taking my shoot to the street. 

I looked at some Lolita magazines to see how the models pose because Lolita is such a big part of my project, it's my choice of fashion to portray.

I found these scans from a Lolita magazine called 'The Gothic Lolita Bible'. I don't think these models are asked to pose in a certain way, I think they were told to pose and they used their individual personalities to guide them into a specific posture. What I like about these images is how there's Japanese text on them, I think this gives them more of a cultural look. I might use text in my images, I could ask my model to describe how she was feeling at the time of me taking that particular image and use her answers as the text to put on the image. 

Old Lolita shoot

One summer not too long ago I was invited by my friend Aisha to go along with a group of Lolita's and take pictures of their day out in Manchester whilst dressed in their Lolita attire. For most of the images told them to pretend I wasn't their so I could capture images expressing their personalities, I wanted to show that even though they were all dressed differently to what most of us dress like that they are the same as us.

As well as taking photos of them when they weren't posing or aware, I also took some staged images to get a variety of outcomes. 

When asking each of them if I could take a full body outfit shot, I found it interesting how each of them chose to stand, some of the girls were confident and posing, some got into character and knew the best way to show off their outfit and some of them were quite shy and held back a bit. The girls who were shy interested me because I guess I thought if someone can dress in a way in which makes them stand out and draws attention then they must have confidence and not want to hide away.

The selection of images above are a few of my favourite ones because they're raw, natural and personal. I think the personalities shine through past the clothes, it shows they aren't all the same, they just like the same style of clothes just like everyone else.

Whilst following this group around Manchester center I did pick up on a lot of comments and stares being thrown their way, some good and some bad, I found it interesting how they dealt with the bad remarks, the group would laugh about it rather than let it bother them, I think this is because they know people won't always understand their fashion and lifestyle choice so comments and looks will always be there.

The image above is my favourite photo from the whole shoot, I love the framing, colour, tones and the pose of the little boy, he looks so happy. 

As well as this series I did, I also took some photos in college of my friend Aisha in the studio. This is where I first experimented with making her look 'doll-like'.