Fernanda Tavares - Harpers Bazaar...

These images are by Yu Tsai who is another of my favourite photographers but for completely different reasons to Tim Walker, and he is also another photographer who I use for inspiration ALOT! but it is only because he has such a range of images that I can reference different shoots each time.

These two images are taken from his website... www.yutsai.com

The shoot features the model Fernanda Tavares and was shot for an editorial spread in Harpers Bazaar. These images are by far my favourite for the research I have done so far because it shows exactly what I want to try and achieve. The shots are very high fashion and not only do they incorporate animals, they also use manerisms of the animals with the model as a type of symmetry. Especially in the bottom image, the model is mimicing the zebras body langage, by the direction of eyeline, and pose. The colours of the zebra is used for the clothing and styling of the model, there is also white background and dark shadows which create a high contrast and sharpness in the images. I think this makes the images fascinating and even though I know this type of photography is impossible for me at the moment with the lack of connections to exotic animals and locations, I would love to try and create something like this and to this standard.

Locations - Kelly Clarkson Album...

These images are the visual cover artwork for the CD of Kelly Clarkson's 'My December'. Not only do I love this CD but the artwork for the album cover amazes me. I think it is just the locations for the images that really interests me because of how well constructed they are. They are such elaborate sets which I know is mostly created by CGI but in general they inspire me to want to create something like this in my own work. There was more images than these in the actual CD artowrk collection but these are the few that really grabbed my attention.

I especially like the top image which is the front cover to the album. Kelly Clarkson is placed on the floor at the bottom of stairs which seems to be in an old historical house, surrounded by leaves and nature that you would usually expect to see outside. I think that is why I really like this image, they have brought the outside to the inside of a normal everyday household. If the nature wasn't shown in this image and she was just simply sat at the bottom of stairs in don't think it would have been as effective.

When looking at these images, they remind me of being out in the woods which is also the locations of most wild animals and I think the sets remind me of this. Seeing the trees / branches / leaves etc inspires me to create something so elaborate for one of my shoots. In my opinion, I think this kind of set would really work well with the second shoot I have planned for this theme, which is placing the models in animal locations and trying to work with the set around them to try and bring out their animal instincts.

Research Images...

These images are taken from last year when I visited a zoo whilst on holiday in tenerife, I was facinated by the animals and got a bit snap happy with my camera, these are just a few of the hundreds I took! I wanted to put them in this blog as research to the types of animals I could use. They are taken with a simple digital compact camera with no artificial lighting, they are taken purely for research purposes.

The tiger in particular would be an amazing animal to shoot for a high end fashion shot but I doubt i'll be able to get hold of a tiger or even have a chance to shoot with one even if I could. The tiger and panther images are my favourite of the images I have shot because when I look at them, I can see the force of power of which they hold.... I would love to try and show this in my images somehow. The monkeys and apes I have shot in my research realy do interest me, I love how similar they are to humans and yet we still put them behind cages.
The flamingo's are full of colour and grab my attention straight away, I would love to use them in a shoot and find a way to use the model as a flamingo, it would show beauty and elegance through the animals.

The Cow Parade...

I know this image is not very interesting at all but it is purely for research purposes and something I can refer back to when trying to produce my clothing shoot. This image is taken from the 'Cow Parade' which took place in London of 2009, this is just one of the cows that was craeted for the parade and this is the only one I picked out purely because it had animals prints on it. The fact it is a cow that holds the prints of many other animals really interests me. I like how there are a few animals prints together (and all these animals are wild). By using all of the prints it shows domination and power, I would like to try and do this when I am styling my models for the clothing shoot.

Tim Walker ...

I know I have looked into Tim Walker on many occasions but this is only because he is one of my favourite photographers for so many reasons so I feel the need to keep bringing him up for inspiration. Tim Walker breaks the normal expectations of location photography by creating elaboratley constructed scenes. To me, his work always seems to come across as classy and elegant and I think this is because there is a traditional English country theme running through his images and the poses of the models he uses. There is also a smokey look which with his repetative pastel colours, adds to the aesthetic of his images and therefore makes them so iconic.

The reason I wanted to look at Tim Walker is because he tends to work with animals a lot within his images. The animals range from Cats to Horses and Swans and each time, they seem to carry an elegance which you don't get with other photographers and I think it is mainly because of the colours he uses. The pastel colours is a trend which seems to be in all of his images and he even changes the colours of the cats to keep within the pastel look. In the second image, he has enlarged the swan next to the model and I think this really works well and it adds something new and exciting to the image which in my opinion wouldn't be there if he hadn't of done.

I want to try and do something like this in my own images and try to work with the animals to get the best out of them. I know it may be hard and most animals in professional images have been trained for photographs, I won't get this benefit so this could be a difficulty when shooting but hopefully it will be ok!! (Fingers Crossed!!)

Sienna Miller - Flaunt Magazine...

These images are taken by one of my favourite photographers Yu Tsai for Flaunt magazine featuring Sienna Miller in a spread entitled 'Closing the Gap'. These images fascinate my as they incorporate a tiger into the images. The tiger must be a trained tiger to be able to feature in this kind of shoot but this is exactly the sort of work I aspire to create. I would love to feature a tiger in my own images but I think this would be bearly impossible without the correct safety regualtions as the tiger would not be trained. However I wanted to use these images as inspiration for my own shoot which will include animals. I love the overall general look of these images, they are very high end fashion editorial shots, but the lighting seems to be all natural lighting but in my opinion I think there has been some artificial flash added to enhance the quality of the images. They have also been altered in post production to create the general tone over the images. They could have been desaturated also which adds to the aesthetic of the images.

By featuring a tiger in the images, Sienna Miller comes across as though she has power, leadership and force just because this is exactly what the tiger represents. I want to show connections like this when shooting my own images.

Richard Avedon & Rankin...

These two images are by completely different photographers, Richard Avedon and Rankin and I found these images after seeing a documentary about Rankin and the '7 photographs that chaged fashion' created in 2009. In the documentary he was recreating some of the best and well-known images in fashion history. All the images he recreated were amazing but I have decided to put these images in my research blog because they incorporate an elephant. I didn't see how the Richard Avedon image was created but on this documentary, Rankin was going through his whole process of concept, process and post production. The elephant in the production was really hard to work with and this has made me very nervous for when I decide to work with animals in my own shoot. However, I do really like how the model has worked with the elephants. She hold elegance and grace with her pose and in my opinion it really works well witht he animals. It is as though her arm stretched out is immitating the elephants trunk and for me this makes a great connection between animal and human.

Richard Avedon
'Dovima with Elephants'
1955


Rankin
'Erin O'Conner'
2009

Harpers Bazaar...

Daniela and Caleb Dec '10

These two images are shown as a set of images published in Harpers Bazaar, I was flicking through the magazine and came across these two editorial based images. Both are very similar in the style as there isn't much to show in the high end fashion aspect because the poses and the expressions on there faces are very simple. I'm not sure why these images are shot like this but somehow I think they work. the second image is quite a strange one in my opinion, the girl seems to the main feature of the image instead of the animal, the horse's head had been cropped out of the image as though just to hint at the horse being in the image. I will use this image in my research but what I want to create is completely different. I want to show the animal in the image to be like a main feature with the model and not to be ignored.

Animals...

I wanted to use this post as a sort of brain storm for the animals I could incorporate into my images or base my images around. I am going to list any animal which I think woudl be really interesting in my shoot and obviously I wouldn't be able to use some of these animals becaus they are wild but these are the types of animlas I would love to use if I was to create this shoot in the future.

- Tigers
- Leopards
- Giraffes
- Lions
- Zebras
- Cats
- Elephants
- Insects
- Butterflies
- Birds
- Sea Creatures

- Peacocks

- Swans

Shoot Concepts...

I have a few shoots in mind for my theme of animals in fashion, I want to explore this title as much as I possibly can and therefore I have come up with four shoots that differ in many ways from the location, pose, make up and styling. The reason I have decided to shoot many different shoots for this theme is because it is a bit hit and miss whether the shoots will work out. I am incorporating animals into the shoots and things could go wrong such as not being able to get the animal in the first place or once the images are taken, they turn out to be not what I wanted to produce.

The first shoot I want to create is to be shot with a horse. One of my assistants becky owns a horse therefore it would be a perfect opportunity for my shoot. I want to use becky as my model this time and I know we aren't really supposed to be using our friends, I wanted to this time just because I really wanted to get the best out of the time with the horse and with his own owner, he will be more relaxed and willing to co-operate within my shoot. This shoot is one of the shoots I want to create with animals. I want to create more with animals and models in the same shot but I will have to work out what animals first and how I will go about it.

The second theme for my shoots is to have the human/model caged within some sort of cage that would normally be used to caged wild animals. I want to style and pose my model as though they are the animal in the cage to show what it would be like if animals caged humans.

The third shoot I want to try and create is going to be all about the clothing and how a piece of garment can alter the way a person is represented. Again this will be incorporated around my theme of animals. I want to show how print such as tiger, leopard etc within clothing can hold connotations of power and dominance. This dominance can be shown through the images with the correct clothing.

Fourth and finally I want to create a shoot in the studio which is mainly based upon the make-up of models. I will look into face paint and body paint but not to much so it looks cheap but to make a connection between the model and the animal itself and show this through an image.

Again some of these shoots may not work but hopefully with the right planning and styling, I will create some really interesting and aesthetically pleasing images that all relate in some way to the ANIMAL theme.

Harpers Bazaar...

I wanted to just put a post on here about Harpers Bazaar. I am obsessed with this magazine and I live and breathe Harpers so I just wanted to just talk about it for a little introduction. throuhout this blog you will see a lot of images scanned in from different editions, some that are related to my theme of animals and others just because I am facinated with them.

Harpers seems to instantly grab my attention more than other magazines such as Vogue and Dazed and i'm not quite sure why this is. Maybe it is because the images in there seem to have a contant thread throughout the body of their work. Even though the image can follow different themes, I can always see the same trend that draws me back to each individual image.

I want to try and create a same sort of thing throughout the body of my work and keep a certain trend that will sort of put my stamp on my work so that the audience will know that it is mine.

Briefing & Statement of Intent...

This blog is here basically for me to explore my interests. In the last blog I produced, I researched photographers I was interested in and learnt their practice and how they produce work with their own individual style, I then used this inspiration and prodcued my own shoots aswel as test shoots for lighting experiments. From this research blog, I have understood lighting a lot more, using the lighting set ups to create different moods to suit the shoots. By exploring the lighting and other photographers that I am interested in, I have a clearer, more directed vision of what I want to achieve in this open brief.

My theme for this open brief is to explore Fashion as a dominance within the images and how the garments and styling are important in the overall shots. I will be trying to show this importance of clothing and models by incorporating animals in to the images. Animals have a dominant presence about them and as we have evolved from them, they should be seen as equal to us, yet we decide to put them in cages. I want to use the animals in the images to show how alike humans and animals really are, to show the dominance of animals and how this dominance is reflected within humans.

I want to try and push the boundires of photography, maybe shock the audience and create some visually stimulating images that are different to what has been created before in the fashion photography industry. To begin with, I have split this theme into a few shoots, each using different models and different Locations whether it be the studio or out on location. The shoots will be based on different elements of this theme but will it will all interlink with each other towards the end. For this brief, I want ot try and explore more of the equipment we have been introduced to in the first semester, such as the Ring Flash, the Capture One software and the Medium Format camera. This semester I really want to push myself and create some really intesting and high quality images.