snappy snap!

as part of the assignment my group has decided to use a studio for the reasons being mostly the typical english weather we get in these parts. we could see us plannign a shoot getting everybody down to the location, the hair and makeup done etc and then the skies opening and terrential rain! its typical northern stuff. so to conquer this, we decided to build ourselves a set within the studio. so we managed to come with a simple idea for the set that would be colourful and eye catching yet one which we thought would be achievable on a budget. so after bribeing a couple of hair stylists and sweet talking a makeup artist we have a full team and we are ready rock and roll next tuesday!

for the set we managed to get some cheap and cheerful fabric as a background, some balls to paint in bright colours and loads of balloons to spend our time blowing up. we wanted create a scene like photographer Annie Liebowitz does, and create characters to go with it through the styling, hair and make up and the way things are going we are well on our way to managing this.

for some ideas about a set for the models to prance about on i looked at the images that Liebowitz has done for Disney and Vogue in the past to get some inspiration.





the last image of the 'White Stripes' is a similar look to what we are going for with the whole circus thing, ours is just happier and more colourful. we wanted it to look like a location almost, but shot in studio conditions. we have a number of things to play with when we do our initial set up in the morning before the models arrive such as the background set up, the lighting (to get a spotlight effect we have booked a Dedo lighting kit out to try and get this lighting right) and also a coloured lighting kit (which we have thought would be too much, but we shall have a play anyways).

we have four models coming to create four characters. we are aiming for four final shots including a group one. we want the character to each have thier own personality yet still have a similar look as a constant between them which would be the hair and makeup.

so far everything has fallen into place pretty easily, and apart from some model issues we have everything sorted for our final meeting on monday to finalise for tuesdays shoot. so lets get snapping :)

Tim Burton & Tim Walker

so while doing research for my research journal last semester i came across this editorial from Bazar US.











i was really inspired by the way he creates the characters and they all look different. this a look we are trying to create with our shoot for the Fashion assignment two. keep the characters very strong and have small links between them such as hair and makeup and colour yet keep them very much their own character etc.

hair and make up

soooo after a fun few hours sat with Gemma, Rachel and Jess we came up with our ideas. after we had our little brainwaves and we came up with theme, the syling ideas (briefly), backdrops, props etc we then thought about hair and makeup. as i know a trained hairdresser and make up artist we instantly got them on board so we now have a full team.

i looked into a few ideas for make up including false eyelashes. i found the image below on the internet which looks a little like a doll that i though would work well. the red lips and pink cheeks is something that would work well with the characters we are creating, and with plain eyes and huge lashes i think we could have a good look for the models.



keeping the rest of the eye simple is very important with eyelashes like the ones below. as we are creating seperate characters we want different lashes for each character, and after a trip to Presotn market i found quite a few different styles which would definatly seperate each character while keeping a whole 'big lash' look there as a constant.





and as for the hair, as we are again creating different characters we need to give them different hairstyles, yet try to keep a constant. as an idea we had for one character we wanted to try and get a crazy crimped look like the one below, and the others will follow:



more info to follow....
=D

big love for twiggy

so in yesterdays lecture we discussed the model and pose. during the 'brief history' adam talked about the sixties and how fashion moved to london, and the birth of the known model. the main example of this is Twiggy. she began modeling at the age of 16, and became known for her thin frame, very large eyes and long lashes. she was named 'the face of the year 1966' and by '67 she had modelled in France, Japan and America appearing on the covers of Vogue and Tattler. she came along when the era of youth spending power was at its greatest and became an idol for teenage kids of the time. many people hated her look and slated her for being too thing, yet other worshipped her androgynous look. Diana Vreeland of Vougue once said "She's no flash in the pan. She is the mini-girl in the min-era. She's delicious looking." and to this i agree.

she was a model in the new age of the known model who was an idol to many a skinny teen who thought their 'look' was ugly because they were too skinny. yet with her very boyish frame and boyish pixie haircut Twiggy made this look beautiful again, even though she was herself slated for her thin frame and accused of eating unhealthily.



after just 4 years of modelling she decided to retire in 1970 saying "You can't be a clothes hanger for your entire life!". since then she has appeared in a number of musicals and theatre performances as well as some films and television programmes. most recently she has become the face of the well known brand Marks and Spencer as well being a judge on the hit American Television show 'America's Next Top Model' where she helps judge the girls in the competition based on a weekly photoshoot and challenge. she even passes on her own tips and hints to the models to help them.




her style was on to emulate int he 60's and many girls followed her Mod inspired style. a major model for the designer MAry Quant, Twiggy became well known for her mini skirts and shift dresses. the era of 'free love and expression' was certainly an exciting one and i think it could be a fun era to try and emulate in a photoshoot. the bright colours of the hippys, or the very bright or monochrome colours of the Mods woul make a very intersting shot

studio Vs location shoots

after last weeks lecture i decided to have a search on good old google for images based in a studio and on a location.

the one on the left was based in a studio. i like the way the model (actress Megan Fox) is posed, and knowing that this is one of my weaker elements within my fashion work but i hope by looking at images and poses i can work on this and improve them. i also like the styling with the ears which mirrors the pose in the image.

i like this image, which is again of Megan Fox, is an obvious location shoot. i like the casual nature of her stance and the whole image seems more like a film still than a photograph.

the image to the left is taken in a studio with a number of silver balloons being used as a background. i think it adds more of an interest to the image without taking away from the model. i like the use of balloons and this could be an idea i could play with in the studio as it is acheivable and and not overly expensive to do...

after looking at these images (just a small number of what i found in the searches) and i think i got some inspiration from the three on this page more than any other, particularly the last one. i have done my fashion style shots in the studio so far and i think that by moving out and into a location i could either enhance my work or go backwards, but its all a learning curve and i am keen to experiment to find my style and what i like to do.....

music and film....

if im being honest i do find alot of inspiration comes from music i listen to and the videos and films ive seen. right now i really love Lady Gaga's video for Bad Romance. shes always a little bit dareing with her clothing choices, and this video is no different. even though its a very simple set up i particualarly like the scene where she is shot from the back in a fur coat and her underwear. i think if you got the right model you could get a really stylish yet sexy shoot based on this one scene from the video. i also like how you can see ehr tattoos alot of time, alot of people don't like tattoos to be shown in fashion imagery but i feel as it it a part of that person, why not show them?? having a tatto myself i would hate for anybody to be airbrushing over it for a picture because it means something to me.

i also found cheryl coles video for fight for this love an interesting one for ideas for shoots. in particular the scenes where she against a plain white background with black tape in criss crossing lines over it. this idea has recently been used in a shoot for 'Look' magazine, and i think it is a very simple yet effective way of changing your background and i would like to play around with this idea a bit more. i also like the scenes where she has the lyrics of her song on the background and the red paint across it, this is also an idea which i think could be interesting.

even though these two examples are very contemporary, i also like to listen to alot of 70's and 80' music, be it the cheesy pop stuff or the rock music and punk from the 76 movement involving The Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood. as fashion keeps going to past trends to create new ones i think it could be an interesting idea to try and look back at old fashion photographs from these times and the celebritites from then rather than now for inspiration.

as for films, i have been really inspired by the work of Baz Luhrman who directed Romeo and Juliet (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) and Moulin Rouge. both of these films are easily within my top ten favourite films EVER and i can watch them over and over again. Moulin Rouge is, in my opinion the best film ever made, and every time i watch it i am drawn ito the world of the CanCan dancers and the Boheimian revolution taking place. the whole film is full of vibrant, clashing colours, diamonds and sequins and i would LOVE to do a shoot based on this film. i think it would work in both the studio and on a location, though i think it would be fab if i could do a shoot based on the film, in a local club and get the models by the bar or on the dancelfoor as they dancers/whores would have done back then.

My genre and inspirations.....

id say one of my main inspirations and also ap hotographer i aspire to would be Rankin. i love how stunning his work is and how crisp it is. the colours he uses no matter how pastel or bold always pop within his images. he makes good use of the spaces he is in and does both fashion portraiture such as the one on the left as well as fashion shoots for websites and magazines. i particularly like the idea int hsi image of the flower and the overexposure so you focous more on the makep and the hair and the flower than the actual model herself as she blends into the background a little bit. i would love to do a shoot like this with the 'perfect white background; which i learnt last semester and am yet to play around with. i feel that understanding this technique would help to enhance my images i shoot within the studio.

another photographer who's work i like is Nigel Barker. i first came across Barker whilst watching the tv programme Americas Next Top Model in which he is a judge and also in everyseries a guest photographer for a photoshoot challenge. his work from the really inspiring to look at and i find i am drawn ino them as i look at them. the image to the right is from a shoot he did for an up and coming fashion designer. again he uses the technique of a 'perfect white background' which i am as i mentioned before still working up to using in a shoot. i like the pose of the model and the fact she is kneeling on the floor rather than standing up. i feel that this is also something which my images are lacking, the poses are a little normal and nothing speacial so this is something which i could work on throughout this module and further assignments in other modules.....

Right now i wouldnt say i have a specific direction in which i am working. i know i am hugley interested in fashion as a business and would like to go down that road. however i enjoy other types of photography too and i think it ould be fun to bring some other genres into the work i do for fashion. coming from a fine art and textiles background i am interested in using skills from these two within my work somehow as well. i am influenced alot by the changing fashions and the fast paced nature of the industry, as well as its links with film, music and art.

so second day of the blog still no clue what im doing, hopefully itll get better. the image i posted in my last blog is currently my starting point to wrok from and improve upon. the idea of using contemporary shakespeare still tinrtigues me and i would like to try and take this further be it with my univeristy work or otherwise. i feel it could be enhanced majorly from the point it is at by the use of a stylist to achieve a better fashion look to the image. we tried to go for a gothic look with the first attempt and i feel i achieved it on some ways such as the makeup and the hair and the two wearing the corsets follow this theme whereas the blonde model seems to be lacking in anything gothic apart from her makeup and to me stands out and pulls the quality down a bit.

i also would like to work within a location with th elocation lighting and maybe even try the coloured lighting to hieghten the evilness of the image which i tried and i think failed to achieve in the last attempt. i could look for some wooded areas in local parks or travel out abit to places like Blackpool, Wigan, Chorley etc and see what i find there. the only downsie to moving out of the PResotn area is getting the equipment and models and the team there?? i do think that using a location could hieghten the quality of the image and make it more interesting, however i could also pick somewhere too interesting and lose the models into the background.....

research wise i think that i should look into the book again and look for a DVD play version and see different peoples interpretations and take inspiration from these for my own contemporary 'fashion' version.

so just a quick idea which i had last semester which i would like to try again but better. reaserch etc to follow

x

first post...

ok so im not very used to this whole blogging idea, but you got to start somewhere right? so here goes......

fashion - styling - hair - makeup - inspirations - research - existing work - art - literature - models - shoot ideas - locations - boks - magazines - music - film......

everything i put into this blog will be working towards any ideas and concepte for my fashion work.

the image above is my existing exhibition piece from first semester. based on the idea of contemporary shakespeare i chose characters and made them modern. shot in a studio i worked with hair and makeup stylists to achieve this look.....