My images of the skateboarders in Barcelona are very geometric and the colour is also quite signifiant. Whilst researching to find similar images I came across Thomas Krappitz who shot an editorial for Marie Claire italia whose images are remarkably similar in style; 'clashing the fluidity of unrestrained movement against strict, urban lines'.
The above image is one of my favourites from this series and the most relatable to my own work. The clean lines are juxtaposed by the fluid movements of the dancers. The contrast is heightened by the colour contrasts of the black of the dancers to the clean pale pastels of the buildings and sky. This comparison between subject and background resonates in my own work of the skateboarders.
Nancy (Nan) Goldin is an American photographer who lives and works in New York, Berlin and Paris. Her work is known for including LGBT themes and are of a very personal and explicit nature.
At age 18 Goldin was living and photographing drag queens; she admired them greatly, and wanted to represent them as something inspiring and people to be respected rather than outsiders.
She has been criticised, similarly to Corinne Day, for her role in the glamourisation of drug abuse and pioneering the herion chic and grunge culture which was popularised by magazines such as The Face and ID.
In the book Auto-Focus, her photographs are described as a way to 'learn the stories and intimate details of those closest to her'. Her unique style which demonstrates her true insider position as a photographer when photographing sex, violence, and drug use.
At age 18 Goldin was living and photographing drag queens; she admired them greatly, and wanted to represent them as something inspiring and people to be respected rather than outsiders.
She has been criticised, similarly to Corinne Day, for her role in the glamourisation of drug abuse and pioneering the herion chic and grunge culture which was popularised by magazines such as The Face and ID.
In the book Auto-Focus, her photographs are described as a way to 'learn the stories and intimate details of those closest to her'. Her unique style which demonstrates her true insider position as a photographer when photographing sex, violence, and drug use.
This image above, titled 'One month after being battered' is the most powerful photograph in her series, The Ballard of Sexual Dependency. An iconic self portrait taken at Goldin's request by Suzanne Fletcher. The images evokes pain and this is heightened by her aesthetic of high contrast and flash, and the way she is dressed; her bright red lipstick highlights the red bruise under her eye. Her glamorous hair and makeup is a strong act of defiance; she won't hide away from what happened and from the public eye while her wounds heal. When asked about this image, she described it to be about 'every relationship and the potential of violence in them'.
Her 1985 slide show titled The Ballard of Sexual Dependency is her most famed work. She describes the published book as the diary which she lets people read. This is something which resonated with me as I really like the idea of my work being a personal photographic diary. The book utilises a snapshot aesthetic depicting drug use and aggressive couples in addition to autobiographical elements.
The image on the left, titled Anthony by the sea, Brighton, England 1979 really stood out to me from the rest of the images in the book. The shot seems really reflective and feels very different to some of the other images in the book. As a reader, it made me pause and have a second take. Throughout the book, there are accents of this blue against the much more dark and muted colour palette, however none are as still and considered as this composition.
Corrine day was a self taught photographer who brought a more hard edged documentary look to fashion image making, in which she often included biographical elements.
Her candid and intimate style portraits of people she was close with were published in her book, Diary, which contained over 100 photographs spanning a 10 year period.
The most notable of these being the photographs of Moss in the 3rd Summer of Love editorial for the FACE magazine in 1990. Days approach as illustrated within the lifestyle and fashion magazines of the 1990s, came to be known as grunge and grew into an international style, which, at times, which quite controversial; There were accusations that her promotion of so-called "heroin chic" encouraged anorexia among young girls and that the pictures were sexually provocative. Susie Orbach, author of Fat is a Feminist Issue, said the pictures were "just this side of porn"; while Marcelle D'Argy Smith, then editor of Cosmopolitan, declared: "The pictures are hideous and tragic. I believe they can only appeal to the paedophile market." Even President Clinton expressed reservations.
-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/7995220/Corinne-Day.html
Georgina at home, Rockmount estate SE18 1994, is one of my favourite images from her book, Diary. A lot of the images in the book are very personal and too explicit for what I had in mind and what I have access to. The tones of the image are very flat and the wide depth of field means that, as the viewer, you look at the photograph as a whole.
These images were the first images which I took on a disposable I really liked the aesthetic of the images and the colour palette the flash and the camera gives the images. I took the first three images in Barcelona and the fourth at home. The hostel we stayed in in Barcelona was really good for Corinne Day style imagery as a lot of us were in a room together which made it easier to photograph when people weren't expecting so that it remained natural and unstaged.
My favourite four images are below.
Upon changing my idea for my direction for my narrative, I revisited a series of images which I had previously come across whilst looking for inspiration, but at the time were not a suitable influence for my ideas. These images of Kim Kardashian shot by Theo Wenner capture the aesthetic I am after for in my own images. I really like the lighting and the grain the series has, which I can achieve myself by setting a high ISO.
The model is really natural, and not dressed up in anything glamorous as you would expect in Vogue Magazine, this natural beauty aesthetic is similar to the work of Corrine Day, but a lot more clean and tasteful, as it was all completely styled and staged for the magazine.
Today we got the opportunity to look at many different examples of books which will help us when creating our own mock up book later in this brief. There was a very big variety of different styles and formats of books, and we got to spend an hour flicking through to see if we found any immediate inspiration.
I found this type in Tim Walker's Storyteller really interesting, the way the type is set out and staggered changes the way the viewer reads it and this manipulation sets the tone for the rest of the book.
My favourite book from today was a cute little booklet made from a single sheet of A4 paper. I love how simple the format is and how detailed the illustrations are. I don't think this layout is suitable for my narrative however it is a great idea for a small travel journal and I really want to make my own version with little doodles and splashes of colour.
Another interesting idea is this flip book titled power of 10, I hadn't considered a flip book and this works really well around a very clever narrative.
I am struggling to be able to form a coherent narrative which fulfills the briefs requirements of 12 photographs.
So far I have taken inspiration from (name it) spread in vogue and i know I would like to do a fashion editorial somehow.
I plan to book the studio for a morning and shoot there to see the outcome however I am unsure weather I will be Able to achieve what I currently envision my project direction to be shot in a studio.
I plan to shoot using more than just my DSLR; this current brief does not specify what medium we should use and therefore I wish to experiment with disposal cameras as they are more portable and more subtle than a large DSLR. I may also experiment with my mobile phone to see how I can use the far more accessible and convenient method that this provides.
If i use disposal camera I will have to scan the image in to a computer to resize and put next to other images in a series.
I really like the snapshot method of photography which has been demonstrated by corrine day and Juergen teller. When an image doesn't feel the page it can feel more personal. However I also like it when an image fills the page completely as this feels very clean and professional. I feel like I have too many ideas for this project and I am struggling to refine them down to one particular direction for me to go in and this is hindering my ability to photograph for just one subject.
One of my favourite and strongest images from my ski shoot is this one below. My model is positioned well and I like the long shadow and the contrasting colours of their outfit against the crisp snow. I envisioned this shot to be printed across a double page spread, as it would make sense as both one whole image but also in half as two separate photographs. For this effect to be more striking I wanted the landscape to be bare of any distractions including other skiers, and the poles representing where the piste starts and ends. I removed these in photoshop and moved my model across to the right hand side of the image as this balances the photograph well with the chalet in the top left. This landscape shot is very dramatic and I'm excited to show everyone in my next group crit.
