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'.

Proposal

Lolita fashion originates from Japan, It’s a fashion based on Victorian clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period. Lolita fashion has evolved throughout the years into different ‘genres’, sweet Lolita, punk Lolita, classic Lolita and many more. Japanese cartoons such as anime influence Lolita fashion greatly. 

I have a friend who is very much into this type of fashion, she expresses her creativity and individuality by designing, creating and wearing Lolita style clothes in everyday situations. When walking around with her, I notice lot’s of people stare and stop to take photos. My idea would be to follow her around, in a sought of ‘Sophie Calle’ manner with hints of ‘Richard Avedon’ images within the series and take photos of her and the reactions she attracts by the public. My images will show a social documentary of how people react to things they aren’t used to seeing as well as a fashion shoot for Lolita fashion.

I see my images being presented in either a Lolita fashion magazine entitled ‘The day of a lolita’ or something along those lines. My images could also fit in a street photograph magazine.

Initial ideas

PHOTO OF SPIDER DIAGRAM IDEA PAGE