Week15 Nick Dawe

I came across Nick's work when i was searching through my AOP (association of photographers) book. I am currently looking into arranging some work experience for April and so have been searching for photographers work who grabs my attention and inspires me. Nick's work instantly 'wowed' me. I have chosen these two images from his website, I find them both very simple but packed with meaning and interest.

Nick infact emailed me back, and I am hoping to be working with him soon, if not in april then at some time in the future.

Week14 Zena Holloway

Another project I have going on at the moment is based around the theory of 'Gaia'. after spending a lot of time researching into the subject (as I had no idea what it was all about until now) I discovered that due to human actions, like pollution, deforestation etc the world is at threat of not being able to stabilize its system. One thing in particular I found, which always seem to appear in the news also, is the rising levels of the oceans. This gave me inspiration to create an underwater fashion photoshoot.

I took a few, easier ideas to my lecturer, but he seemed really keen for this underwater idea, which got me even more excited to do it..... a few implications however... what equipment do i use and where am I going to shoot? well a fellow student actually has an underwater compact camera, so I have that sorted (phew) I have also emailed a few sports centers and asked around for anyone with a pool.... to no avail at the mo... but i believe perseverance will pay off, I have never really done any fashion shoots before, so to combine this with water is going to be interesting to say the least.

When researching this idea I came across photographer Zeena Holloway. I find her work mesmerizing, the models look so elegant, suspended in this dark space and with their long hair and dresses flowing effortlessly. She also has illustrations drawn onto her images, which adds extra aesthetic interest. I would love for my own images to turn out this good, but I somehow doubt that, I do not have the funds for the best equipment and the facilities to shoot in. but if all goes well with my first attempt, I may well experiment further sometime in the future.

Week13 Collier Schorr

Well back from New york now and straight back to working on my projects, its all starting to get a bit more serious now, the fun first few months of going out and getting to know everyone are kind of over as people are starting to realise what this course is all about and that photography is not an easy subject!! I am one of those people, I always knew it was going to be tough though, but I am hoping to thrive off of this and use it to make me work a lot harder.

I have to produce a series of portraits and I have spent a long time deciding on who and where to shoot!! well it suddenly came to me.... I recently joined a gym... feeling I ate a few too many MacDonalds in New York!! (in fact i had nothing healthy at all!!) well... anyway, I remember looking at Collier Schorr's work last year at college...

she did a series photographing boxers during and after their training, so my idea was to get the personal trainers and the 'sweaty, no make-up' public to pose for me in the gym.

I have already asked them and a few seem keen, so i need to sort my model release forms and plan a practice shoot to get an idea of poses and locations within the gym. I am not sure yet which camera to use for my final shoot, I really like using medium format, but I don't want to make too much of a scene and disturb the gym, I basically don't wanna annoy them and for them to tell me to bugger off!! otherwise its back to the drawing board for ideas!!!

Week12 NEW YORK!!!

Ok, so just got back from a fantastic week in New York!!! :) had a great time with great people. It was however an educational visit so we had to cram a lot of gallery and studio visits in between all the shopping and sight seeing that had to be done!

Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from Times Square and every night groups of us would go off and explore. Last time I was in New York I was only 16 and so can't really remember it, plus we were kids and had to be chaperoned everywhere! but this time I took it all in and appreciated every second of it.

We arrived pretty late cause our flight was delayed, but not only that when we got to the hotel our lecturers discovered that the whole booking had been cancelled!!! so there's like 40-50 students all knackered and getting more and more p'd off as we had to be up at 8.30 the next day to start our packed itinerary! the hotel finally sorted the situation and we could all go to our rooms and sleep.

The rooms were really nice, some nicer than others i have to say, but mine looked out onto the Empire State building, that was pretty cool :)

Everyone looked a bit tired in the morning, but we were all so excited that we just kinda forgot about the major fiasco from the night before. We all went for breakfast to this nice cafe and took a walk to our stop on the itinerary - Platon's Studio :) very excited to meet Platon. I researched him before coming to New York and discovered he's a British photographer and that I really like his work :) he has an incredibly powerful style and has photographed some even more incredibly powerful figures.

PLATON

We all piled into Platons studio and were absolutely awe inspired by his fantastic series of portraits he had displayed on his walls from pretty much every celebrity and political figure. We had a good few hours there, it went so quick as I was just mesmerised with what he had to say, he is such a good speaker and seemed so confident about himself and his work. Truly Fantastic :)

He talked about his first ever portrait, which was with Anthony Hopkins for his silence of the lambs promo, he said that he practiced the night before with the lighting set up etc, he saw on the news that Hopkins had attacked a photographer and so Platon was bricking it!! but when he got there he started to talk to Hopkins and admitted he was nervous which meant they connected on a personal level as Hopkins himself admitted to being nervous.

"Honesty was the beginning of the journey - don't put on an act" - Platon

Platon is one of the most inspiring and enthusiastic people I have ever met, I felt like I actually wanted to be him, or just have his life!! - so jealous.

He gave us so much valuable information that I will never forget and take with me throughout my career and hopefully pass on to other people who will be as equally appreciative of it.

• be prepared to have a work ethic
• find a unique visual voice/style
• guide yourself
• get close to your subjects
• get closer
• connect with your model on a personal level
• use body language to your advantage
• take inspiration from everything

He has such a distinctive and unique style, it would be pretty easy to pick out a Platon print from a bunch of ordinary photographs of the same subject. He uses one light which he places directly in front of the sitter, he then positions him self between the sitter and the light and uses a wide angle lens from a low view point to create these unusually distorted and out of proportion images and he makes it work because he is Platon :)

PHIL TOLEDANO

We also had the fantastic opportunity to meet British photographer Phil Toledano, who's work I actually came across a few weeks before whilst researching for my 'incongruous' project. so to get to actually meet him was so exciting. myself and a few others turned up to his studio mega early, he let us in and we just had a little chat until everyone else turned up. He is such a lovely guy and still sounds very British :) he talked to us all about his projects and living and working in New York.

The photo to the left his from his body suits series, i actually saw the real suit, stuffed up high on a shelf out of the way, i was just like "wow, thats the baby suit"!! haha.

He also spoke about his very personal and emotional project 'days of my father' which almost brought a tear to my eye as i looked through his book and read each caption. It must be very hard to publish images like these and make them so public, but i think that also helped him be able to deal with it all.

CHRIS VERENE

On the last day of our visit we had a talk with American photographer Chris Verene, who was born in a small town in Illanois, which became the subject for most of his images for the first 20 years of his photographic career. He has had many of his work published and has a very distinctive gritty style. I found his documentary project of his family back home very interesting as it shows the community atmosphere over two decades, most of it not changing very much.

Week11 Simon Norfolk

I am currently writing an essay based on the content and form of documentary and reportage photography.

The work of Simon Norfolk has interested me greatly. His images depict the war torn landscapes of Iraq including skeletons of bombed out buildings. He has reverted back to the traditional use of the large format camera so he can carefully compose his images in order to create maximum impact. They are beautiful and stunning in clarity and detail, but without the typical shock or trauma perhaps expected with war photography.

I love how his work is reminiscent to landscape painters from the late eighteenth century, he has chosen to capture his images in this way in an attempt to draw the viewer in, which I think works exceptionally well. At first glance you may not be aware of the finer details and the tragedies that occurred here, I certainly wasn't.

Due to most reportage photography being captured by amateur bystanders with camera phones, professional photographers in this line of work are having to alter their approach and are seeking appreciation within the art world but printing the images for gallery walls and photo-books.

“When you see this picture in a gallery from 20 metres away, you think, “God, that's gorgeous!” It's only when you look at it in detail that you realise you're looking at a place where people were slaughtered" – Norfolk

Week10 Chris Floyd

British photographer Chris Floyd, came in as our guest speaker, he has made a name for himself by taking brilliant photos of stars such as Naomi Watts, Oasis, Paul McCartney, and Lily Allen. Floyd’s technique is truly one of a kind; he keeps his shots simple but at the same time stylish and fun. He started out in the 1990’s as a music photographer, his first big break through being Oasis before they made it big.

As he was growing up, Chris had many influences; his main photographic influence was David Bailey. Baileys subjects and style encouraged Chris to want to produce similar images. Chris was also very much into the popular music of the time and so he combined his love of music with photography. During the 1990’s the music industry still had money for band promos and magazine articles and so Chris found himself inundated with job offers.

Chris went to New York where he felt he changed and learned how to become, in his eyes, a better photographer. He discovered how to tell a story in a reportage style and how to sum up a whole story in one image. Whilst in America he had assignments to photograph the American/Mexican border, The Election Campaign 2004, Sports story for ESPN and Rodeo portraits.

Chris uses a Hassleblad camera with a digital back and carries a portable lighting kit with him for his location portraits.

He gave us some great advice which was “make what you can out of what you get, make a connection and ‘break the ice’ on a human level” – this is actually pretty inspiring advise. He used it for this promo shoot for Kung Fo Panda with Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Black and Lucy Lu. Jack was joking about how he looked pregnant, so Chris went with that idea for this shot. An ‘on the spot’ decision.

I really enjoyed our talk with Chris, he was a really nice guy, funny and down to earth and not afraid to take the mick out of himself – he openly admitted to partly becoming a photographer so he could talk to girls.

week9 Freddie Helwig

Today we had guest speaker Frederike Helwig come in and talk about her photography, she is a Fashion Photographer living in London and has done a lot of work for ID, Dazed & Confused and Vogue and many more.

I have never tried fashion photography and in some ways I feel slightly intimidated by it, even though I felt this way I went to this lecture with an open mind hoping to learn something new. That is exactly what happened. Frederike’s photography has a very distinctive and almost raw style, she uses a flash unit that fixes to the top of the camera and simply points and shoots, this creates an almost 2D ‘pop’ effect, she likes to include a sense of humour within her work asking her models to do outrageous poses.

One of the best tips she gave about how she came to discover her style was to just take lots of photos and pick one that is the best and shoot again in that style, then pick another few and so on, this seems fairly simple and obvious but makes so much sense, with this technique, over the years she was able to define her style.

She talked about this image, it is of actor Adam Brody, she decided to use a dog as a prop for this series which works really well as it gives the images added interest, she shot all her images on one street and asked Adam to do various poses, for this particular image, the dog was yawning so she quickly asked Adam to yawn too.

she told us that she always improvises and tends to come up with ideas for the shoot on the day. Before the presentation I had preconceived views on fashion photography, mainly that the photographers are a bit ‘stuck up’ but Frederike seems really down to earth and she brings an element of fun to her style. She has definitely changed my opinion.