Final Images

Primary Research - Gallery

'Discover art by the sea

Old Leigh by Ian James

Throughout Leigh-on-Sea; Saturday June 12 to Sunday, June 20; details 01702 470490, www.leigharttrail.co.uk

The creative coastal town of Leigh-on-Sea has long been a haven for artists, and this year's art trail is gearing up to be one of its best yet.

Featuring more than 40 local artists, the event is now in its fourteenth year, having been established in 1997 by a group of local contemporary artists as a public showcase of the talent of the town.

The art trail is centred on taking art out of traditional exhibition spaces to make it more accessible and inclusive, and to encourage the involvement and support of the local community, no matter what their background or interests.

There will be a range of creative talent on display, encompassing art, photography, ceramics, textiles and jewellery.

Artists' studios will be mixed with homes, local shops and bars as venues, with all of the work on sale.

The trail members will also be working closely with local schools, youth schemes and community ventures, and a number of school exhibitions and community based art projects and installations.'

Quoted from: http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/news/Discover-art-sea/article-2276505-detail/article.html

Studio Set, Design and Planning

Prior to any studio photography shot of all sorts, planning is one of the first stages to be taken into consideration before a shoot is performed. Planning a studio photography shoot is a collaboration of many factors to be accounted for things involving the context, subject, scene, garments and partakers of the shoot but also the setup and layout of the shoot itself. This is often a simplistic sketch that portrays a birds eye view of the studio set depicting various things like: Subject position, backdrop, lighting and their positions, filters and sometimes apertures, camera and anything else that might be including in a studio shoot. They are often kept very simple as to keep things as easy to understand as possible for all the members taking part in the shoot.

Above is a basic studio set in which i have designed for a shoot of mine, i decided to keep it very simple and easy to understand, even though the actual set was designed to be a simplistic setup. The studio set is simply portrayed in a fashion that anyone who looks at it can easily understand my intentions and its purpose. 

Above is another example of a studio scene, portraying a greater amount of detail.

When looking back to previous works, a photographer can refer to a previously used studio set that they planned if a similar setup is required, diarising the actions and purpose of every shot for future reference and to learn by the photographers trials and errors. Annotations and notes have been made so that instantly every part of the scene is understood, ensuring that the shoot setup is 'foolproof'. By producing a studio set prior to the shoot itself, upon the actual day of the shoot, the photographer along with assistants can instantly maintain a professional manner, with everything going to plan as everyone know exactly what the desires of the photographer are to be achieved, another advantage of planning this out is that the photographer will find it easier to produce this to the client and model gaining their approval and understanding but also ensuring one less thing that could go wrong due to a possible lack of planning by the photographer. The planned scene upon setting up by the 'crew' of the photographer is a very good reflection of the professional and reliable qualities that the photographer holds. 

Once the studio set has been decided and produced, the drawing of the scene can be turned into reality:

Upon planning of my studio shoot, relevant to my client brief, i will discuss with my client their intentions and to decide a basic outcome that they intend for me to achieve. During this process and upon the decision of the intended setting, themes and contexts, i will design an in depth studio plan.

History Of Fashion Photography

Fashion photography has been around for almost 2 centuries, much longer than we would have thought, being the extreme vanity we've developed in recent years and the massive revolution that i the fashion industry, always growing and evolving.

The first major forms of photography were born in the 1830's, each image was created using daguerrotype, this meant that it was impossible to achieve mass prints, this meant that photographs were still only for people with enough wealth to afford them and for documentary purposes. It wasn't until 1856 that the first example of mass production images with reference to the newly developed use of photography for fashion was produced, this was by a photographer called Adolphe Braun, who published a book of 288 photographs of Virginia Oldoini, the Countess de Castiglione, She was a Tuscan Noblewoman and the images were of her dressed in official court clothing, depicted at the court of Napoleon 3.

Photography continued to be a practice only for people with wealth and only on rare occasions were they produced on a numerous scale. It was not until the early 20th century that due to technological advances, photography was given the extra boost it needed for mass production, this came with halftone printing, meaning that it was now possible for prints to be made in magazines, books and newspapers. The earliest forms of fashion photography could be seen in French magazines like La mode practice. It was around this time that not only was the look of the model and clothing, but the photographers started to take a keen eye to the whole aesthetics of the image, focusing more so on the scene swell, like the backdrop and lighting of the image. From the 1940's onwards photographers such as; Irving Penn, Martin Munkacsi, Richard Avedon and Louise Dahl-Wolfe, it was photographers such as these that began to reshape and set new standards to the world of fashion photography. Fashion photography is always still developing and adapting to new fashions and stylings of a modern world. Fashion holds it place in many cultures all over the world in many different shapes and forms from fashion sense depicting social status, wealth and class. The industry is so vast and influential that people model their lives around fashion magazines such as Vogue and Elle, spending vast amounts of money to acquire the same look as the highly paid model with all their clothes supplied and funded, meaning the fashion industry can only inevitably keep growing and growing. As fashion has changed over the years, so has the way in which the clothing is to be photographically presented, some landmark photographers over time are;

Adolph De Mayer, 1868 - 1949

Publish Post The first fashion photographer, Mayer was hired by Conte Nast in 1913 to take experimental fashion images for Vogue magazine. With all of his images, his main traits were his use of a soft focus and intricate lighting, even though also technologically limited by the fact lighting was either natural or gunpowder flash. His images were of predominantly Aristocrats, actresses and society models in their own clothing.

Sam Shaw, 1912 - 1999

The next photographer to set the standards was Shaw, he started his career out as predominantly a documentary photography, gradually moving into the fashion industry. It was only when Marylin Monroe caught his eye in 1951 that his career and focuses were set on her life. Shaw's career began to completely revolve around the life of Marylin and he took many images of her throughout her short life, showing her many forms of wondrous beauty. It was under the influence of Shaw that the infamous scene in which Marylins dress is blown up in the film; 'The Seven Year Itch' was born.

Richard Avedon 1923 - 2004

Arguably the photographer that evolved the fashion industry, raising the bar after World War 2, Avedon  continued in his career a leading fashion photographer until his death. 'Dovima With Elephants' (Above) is by far his most famous images and is globally recognised as one of the most famous and influential fashion images today. One of the reasons the image we so successful, not only because of how amazing it is, but also due to the fact that it had never been done before, elephants had never been used or even thought of as a fashion accessory. This gave the images heightened advantage of a 'shock' factor. The modernisation that Avedon took to the fashion industry instantly made all predecessors images instantly 'classic' and outdated. The new era of fashion photography had begun, care of Avedon.   

Helmut Newton 1920 - 2004

 Helmut Newton, a voyeur and women empower, Newtons aim in the fashion industry was vastly different to that of anyone else. Newton took the clothing out of the fashion, focusing purely on the shapely, beautiful, figuresque female form. His images were predominantly nudes, suggestive, bold, swerve, all following that of female beauty and power. His scenes were mostly that of expensive hotels and street, chic capitals in Europe, each image suggestive and depicting a different situate, leaving the pre and post actions down to the viewers imagination. Most of his images are black and white, always using a very contrasting and grainy film reflecting the scenes that are taking place.

Annie Leibovitz 1949 - Present

Leibovitz work ranges vastly in all forms of styles and concepts, from typical fashion photography, portraying the necessities but with great extravagance, fine art stylings, in which beauty is portrayed but not in a typical light, the image may portray the love of one person for another or the beauty of pure elegance and grace, removing the viewer from thoughts of the typical idea of looks in beauty. Although much of Leibovitz work is in good nature and taste, unlike some of the work of Newton in which the viewer could take an instant offence to the scene they are seeing, it also isn't un-common to come across an image of hers that although maybe subtle, controversy is abundant. Leibovitz produced images of Miley Cyrus barely clothed, who at the time was a mere 15 years old, the images themselves are beautiful, elegant and intricate works of art, portraying the innocent beauty emanating from such a young woman, the images, taken in a completely innocent and harmless sense, purely for the sake of art became a subject of extreme controversy over the ethics of a 15 year old girl almost nude. Leibovitz works range across an extremely vast audience, covering all forms of fine art, fashion and commercial photography, working with giant companies and people of such high stature, such as Rolling Stones (and the magazine), John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Vogue and many others. Her work is in many galleries all over the world such as: The National Portrait Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum, Corcoran Gallery Of Art, Palace Of The Legion Of Honour and have been presented in numerous exhibitions and galleries of such prestigious stature all over the world.

Job roles of people involved in a studio shoot

When an image is made, it's not always by the handy work of just the photographer,

there are many hands that are needed to create the final 'picture' these are:-

The Photographer, it is not only the role of the photographer to take the image, giving birth to an idea and composing it to its full potential and achieving incredible results, but the job of the photographer isn't as simple as this;

Managing the scene; there are many hands that are used to compose an image, it is the photographers job to order the environment, making sure everyone knows exactly what the job role is, making sure they carry it out to the full. 

Assistant, the purpose of the assistant is, quite simply to bow to every need, wish and desire of the photographer, when a wish is made by the photographer, it is the assistants job role to see this through, not only is it the primary role of the assistant to assist the photographer, whether the needs being to hold a light, reposition the set or equipment, making tea, getting lunch or even to criticise the works of the photographer, give opinions to the photographer and other a different outlook on things. Their secondary role is as second in command of the operations, being the extra eyes, ears, mouth and brains of the photographer, making sure everyone is doing what they should and acting as ambassador for the photographer.

The Client, 'The Boss', as the person funding and for whose interest the image is being composed, it is no doubt as to who is in charge of the overall and final proceedings, the client will have full involvement in the creating of the image, as without the clients approval of whats going on, the photographer and the rest of the production teams fee is set at stake. It is down to the client to have a clear mind, to brief the photographer of full requirements, with clear intentions as to the final image's purpose, portrayal and concepts, otherwise leaving the photography under much heavier strain without sufficient information, the photographer can only blindly attempt at producing the work. Making pre, during and post production communication vital.

Art Director, It is the role of the art director to oversee the workings and actions of the rest of the 'production team', assuring that all is going according to the plans of the photographer and client.

The Stylist, their job is to assure the stylings are in order, this could be the stylings of the entire look of the image, everything from: Hair, Makeup, Set, Clothing and Accessories.

Set Builder, the role of the set builder is to design, compose and build the settings of which the image is to be portrayed.

Make Up Artist / Hair, It is the job of the  to create 'the look' intended by the photographer and client, manipulating the appearance of the model, by styling their hair and makeup of the model in order to achieve the desired look for the image. The stylist, like everyone else, is under the control and whims of the photographer to fit their desired look to suit the theme and aesthetics of the image.

Designer, this would be the person that designs the clothing to be work by the model, the designer would still be present during the shoot to ensure the clothing is worn correctly and fitted perfectly and that any alterations are made if needed.

Client Brief

42 Albany Road

Wickford 

Essex 

SS129BU

28-01-2010

Dear M J Holder

In response to the submission of your portfolio, you have been selected for the production of a selection of images for the promotion of a spring clothing collection in an upcoming issue of Vogue magazine as a small editorial piece, representing an up and coming designer. These focus of these images will be to portray them in a spring theme, based around the story of little red riding hood, portraying an innocent little girl, wrapped in a turmoiled theme full of confusion, innocence; It is to be a variation of the innocently, ignorant story of the little girl, bringing cookies through the woods to her grandma, under hot pursuit of a demonic, blood thirsty wolf. As a spin off of this; Harsh, stark colours are to be used, A mixture of lust, the power and confusion of the adolescent age and for the representation of a glamorous, sleek, crimson dress, seductively portrayed, to be desired by that of young females, these are characteristics to be incorporated in our intended image. For production of this image a budget of £3000 will be made available for the purpose of acquiring models, set construction, equipment, assistant and other professional hands hire. The date allocated for completion and submission via DVD - Courier Delivered, with .Tiff format final images by the 17th February 2010. Upon completion of all the above, a studio fee of £2000 will be paid for the use of 5 images once.

Yours 

      Mr Misc.