Random Internet

Over the last couple of months I've come across or been show several random items on the internet that have really took my interest and really link into this project well. This first is a set of images I found and shown below in which has two images layered over each other, one of human and one of animal. I would imagine that this is fashion photography however I feel it fits into what I'm doing nicely. I really like it, using only 2 colours on a solid black background works fantastically for me and overall really works to an advantage. I really think it could be an interesting thing to look at for me, however instead of looking at a human with a animal have the person and an object that really defines them. For example have a photographer and a camera, or musician with a violin or even a IT specialist with a apple logo. Definitely an idea to keep in mind for the later stages of this project.


The image below is kind of what I would have liked to have created at the start of this project. Looking at identity and how you choose what you want the real world to see you as. This image is just a very heavy photoshopped image. It works however its not amazing to me even though it would normally be really interesting to me. Would could work for my project is having a single person, however have them change their own look for different needs and have them layered over each other. Could touch fashion photography with this but just an idea.


This picture, despite it being a room of naked women I really like, the removing of the face and hair is what I'm doing and it also has a feel about identity. It would appear they are all wearing heels and you can see imprints on their legs from the shoes. Again this is properly bordering on fashion, or lack of fashion but I really enjoy is as a photo. I know I'm not going to be able to get that many naked people in one room however I really think it has potential is some way or form and I think it would be good to incorporate it into my own work

Ideas

Tomorrow, Thursday 24th I have my first studio shoot of 2011, its really pretty late however its taken me this long to really know what I want to do. I'm almost certain I'm going to be doing the lenticular idea however I've still got to make a choice between using the lenticular plastic and make the image change but not how it should be, OR, simply without, use the software to create the image however leave it at that point, have a solid black frame around instead of the lenticular lines as that also seems quite effective. I think that after this shoot and I've played around with the software it will come pretty easily to me, hopefully.

My plans for tomorrow are relatively simple, shooting on a white background and nothing over the top, close up of face, likely to include shoulders just for space and maybe if I have the time a couple of full body shots. Initially I want the same from my first shoot, looking left, centre and right, but, again if I have time and models, looking up and down, pulling different emotions some good overall experimentation.

Sam Taylor-Wood

The work of Sam Taylor-Wood has had my interest for many a year now however with a lot of it being video or huge panoramas I’ve never been able to look at him, apart from now. I was recently flicking through his self-titled book when I came across a load of stills from his video Method in Madness (Link at bottom). In the video it shows a middle-aged man having a break down and going through many different emotions. I’ve also posted several stills from this video below. It’s a great video that, over the 10 minutes you really can stop watching and been done so well that it does provoke some emotions whilst watching it, like pity for the man but also amusement, you see this is a few other Taylor-Wood videos and he is one of my short film directors. What I found interesting when having my work in mind is that the man never actually moves from that one position and that’s heavily linking with my work whilst working with lenticular. When I come around to doing the actual shoot this kind of work is what I’m going to be looking at producing. Having the model in one position and pulling many different facial features and then in postproduction overlaying them. I’m going to have to draw up a list if possible poses that I’m going to want and looks that I will want to achieve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_rk9ejDQY4



Sam Taylor-Wood

Stefano Scheda

Straight from the get go I have to say I really like the work of Stefano Scheda, the look of his work a whole is something that I really like and think that as a group of work it works really well. I would say that he most favorite full body portrait photographer, reading into him I found great quote where he says ‘The body itself it a portrait, even when it lacks a face. It typifies the photographed individuals despite them being ‘beheaded’. It retains its own uniqueness without acquiring the same iconic value as the face, which continues to hold sway as the mark of uniqueness in the social code’. I think that this for his work it’s a great comment and I also feel that it would with a lot of photographers around. For me what works so great is the change of covering the people’s eyes and also the person being completely naked, the combination of the two works really well. Also just the overall concept of the pieces of work for me is great, combining man and women’s body into one in a pretty simple idea but has worked with great effect. In my own work I think it would be great to do some nude shoots and try an get some full body models and just do the same as what I am planning to do with the faces, I think it would give an interesting feel and would help make people get drawn into the work, all providing I can get the models to do it.


The Portrait, Photography as Stage

Julian Wolkenstien

Again whilst looking though backdated portfolios’ I came across Julian Wolkenstien who does nearly the exact same thing a John S. The use of colour completely changes the entire mood of the image. With John S’s work there is something odd about, I think its because he uses children however its bordering on comical to me. Wolkenstien’s work is much neater, shooting on the grey background and more of a medium shot for me works a bit better as he has also done half of the torso as well which is interesting. I think it would be interesting to do full body and take another step back, would have to be naked because cloths show to many shadows and different textures but if I could get the models then I differently think it would be worth the experimentation. Also you wouldn’t need to use lenticular and just have them as well, even 1:1 ratio prints.

John Strezaker

I was looking through some old Portfolio magazines a few days ago when I came across the photographer John Strezaker who I hadn’t heard of before. His work is really interesting, it’s a body of work titles ‘Fearful Symmetry’ in which he simply takes half a persons face and then mirrors to create one. As you can see from the images below they are pretty weird to look at. In the covering essay it says that he only uses children in the work and it works, it almost looks like they are sculptures not photography. Img 01 looks somewhat like a doll and Img 03 looks like some type of creature from a film, which for me really has something about it. I’ve got say that I would like to incorporate this into my own work, theres another photographer called Julian Wolkenstien who does the exact same but with adults so I would have to try and do something with it and lenticular but could work really well. I also think it be pretty hard to copy, you would have to find people with no make-up, short hair that’s neat and lots of base symmetry.

LCD Design

Whilst browsing around on the Internet one day I discovered a design agency called something like LCD Design who more importantly do some pretty amazing photo editing that goes with my work pretty well. All four of the images below are in the some path of what I want to achieve. For example img 1, it actually is relatively gory but not over the top which spot on for what I am wanted to achieve. I haven’t yet contemplated using props as I think that would lead down a path away from the initial idea however if anything comes up then I’ll give it a go. Img2 on the other hand is much more heavily modified and really that’s what I wanted to do in the first place however my technique ability isn’t really strong enough. It does look very good however it’s not something that I see do able within this project. I’ll e able to take aspects of it however I don’t see that I’ll be able to do a complete modification. Img3, 4 seems like it’s the closest to the type of work that I’m going to be doing on this project, straight on portraits and only modifying the head. Agreed I want be taking away the whole head like those two images however I would say that they are a good overall look of what I will be likely to produce with in the next few months.
Overall I really like this work, it’s much like the Erik Johnason work that I looked at earlier just not so extreme. I feel that this is the main level that I want to get my work to look like, obviously not as professional however it’s the type of work that I will always be keeping in mind.


Internet source