Photoshoot for Interruption

Photography - Ella Parks
Styling- Robyn Kotze
Make-up and hair- Fran Done
Model- Ariella at Oxygen

Monday 19th April

So last week i had a shoot and i am very pleased with the final results. The model was amazing she turned up early which was lovely and the day ran really smoothy. I chose to shoot on location in St Johns Wood. My friend lives there so it meant i could prepare the model and take her back to my friends house to change stylings. We also had shot my friends work for her project the day before so it was a tiring full two days of shooting on location. I have been editing the images this week and really am pleased with the way they have turned out. Alot softer from the studio shoot but still i believe i have achieved the message i am trying to stage. I have a tutorial this week and then i will be focusing on pulling everything together to present the work on hand in day. I have been emailing around for internships for when i leave in may... i have heard back from a few places so fingers crossed. I really need to update my website i have so much new work that needs to go on there, it's just finding the time.

Anyway in the mean time i will post my new shoot up on the blog.... then i will add a snippet from the shoot i have been working on with some friends. One is very lula magazine and is all about mirroring image. When you grow up you still have that connection with your childhood that you find hard to break free from...it has a nostalgia about it...a fusion of past and present.

Then another shoot was about interruption through the styling, but in a minimal way...for this i went with a friend to the national theatre to hire the hats. The model was so energetic and a joy to work with.

I have posted a few of the pics from my shoot in this post...enjoy!

5th April 2010

I had a nice easter break and been working on putting the work down on boards and editing my research. Last week i went shopping for styling for my final shoot. I have decided to do a location shoot, the uni is shut for another week and it is so hard booking studios for long enough anyway. I have decided to introduce colour back into the styling..still very muted tones, very feminine and slight touch of intimacy running through the styling, soft pastels and nudes very spring/summer. I also went to the the National theatre and hired a few authentic pieces. I am working with one model this time...i need to bring it back to the self and women's anxieties over the fashion/beauty industry. I intend to do 6-8 stylings on location. Again i will be editing the images to create the mind/ body concept...the phantom of a voice inside but only in one image. This shoot is going to contrast against the last....my last shoot was quite androgynous, awkward and morbid. i want to have a bit more of a positive energy in this shoot. The subject is quite ambiguous so i want to contrast the pretty stylings with the pose and expression of the model. We battle with the idea of self discipline over our bodies everyday and usually liberate the idea... but deep down we have anxieties and negativity over the constant surveillance we are under most formally from ourselves. It becomes a lifetime obsession....we are scared of our beauty dying and our beauty dies before our bodies die. I photographed with a friend some of the styling pieces i will be using for her display project....it was a beautiful sunny day and we were enjoying the sun and working.

I have a model confirmed a girl i met at a show i was working at, she's quite brazilian looking....i am still going to go with contoured browns shaded on the skin, with a bohemian untouched look to the hair....very key for summer looks this season as well. This look will really suit the model too. I did this hair and make-up look for the last shoot but with pale washed out skin. This time i am going to do the same effect on a bronzed skin, as i think it's key for this season.

We only have about 6 weeks until hand in on the 14th May. It is quite scary when i think that i wont be a student anymore. I have a lot to offer in industry, it's just the getting noticed which will take the time. I am eager to do whatever it takes. I have definitely decided i would like to work with a magazine now, i believe i can offer a variety of skills. Even though my discipline has been hair and make-up, i feel i have a knowledge over all disciplines of the fashion photograph. I am an image maker, from start to finish i drive the concept right through to the production with my work. I would love to work in a team, learning from others. I enjoy that creative energy that you get off a room full of creative people it inspires my own imagination to run wild and break free.

22nd March 2010

So last week i had my final Crit... it went well but also got mixed feed back from the tutors... they were all disagreeing on which images were the strongest. They all had their own favorite which is nice as hopefully it means they are all quite strong. I have decided after the crit i am trying to say to much. Fiona picked me up on it and said i need to try and summarize what i am trying to say to my audience. Even though i want the image to be ambiguous i still need a clear manifest. I had a feeling that someone was going to pick me up on this. I think it's because i have been enjoying reading the Beauty Myth by Naomie Wolf so much that i am in my head writing a dissertation. This week i am starting my boards to show the journey so far. This will help me consolidate my research and discard the rest. Easter is approaching and i think i will have a little break from work for a week. My photographer is off on holiday so i wont be able to do much shooting anyway. Got a few parties and going to see the Lion King. :-) It's so nice that it's not getting dark until late now....the days seem so much longer and happier.

friday 12th March 2010

The week before last week i had a shoot and it went well. I had two models confirmed at the very last minute. They turned up and were brilliant..we only had very limited time in the studio and it went so quickly. I also shot a beauty shot with another girl, so it was a very stressful but productive day. Last week i spent a long time in the Mac suit at Lime Grove editing the images. It took a long time as i have had to photoshop two images into one. I also had a tutorial with Paul and Melissa kindly also agreed to see me. We have another in term crit next week.. Paul and Melissa liked the shoot i just did and i think they are looking forward to seeing the final edits. For next weeks crit i am not going to talk very much, i am going to print the pics and see what they all think and use it to get feedback..i said far too much at my last presentation. I Need to decide where to go from here now. Next week i am going to sit and evaluate what i have done so far and start laying it down on paper so i can document my journey. This will enable me to see what i need to focus on as i sometimes doubt that i am trying to say too much. Its hard to stay on course when your working alone and only have one eye looking at everything. It makes sense in my head but may confuse others.

i have also posted backstage make-up i did at the national wedding shows.....that was a tiring weekend...and also put me off getting married!

Monday 1st March 2010

Very hectic week last week, getting very tired now. Im still trying to finalize models for next weeks photoshoot. Proving to be hard when you need two girls that will work well together and you can only offer images and expenses.

i had my in term critique last friday and it went well, Paul commented at the end saying i've probably written my 2000 word research commentary already. I do have alot that i have looked at, and it will be hard on the hand in day to show everything i have been doing in the body of work when alot of it is reading. Sometimes i wish i had chosen the 50/50 half photoshoots, half written theory. I think after last terms grades i probably would have been capable to do this pathway, but i didn't believe in myself after finding out it was the hardest pathway. I have a sketchbook of artists that i have been looking at which i document some of my thought process, just i have pages of notes that im stuck on what to do with. This is why in my presentation on friday i crammed as much in as possible so it gets seen. I have decided that i am also going to work on some boards to show a really quick presentation of my journey from photoshoot to photoshoot. I will probably do about 10 boards and i think this could be away of documenting my theory thought process too.

Anway this week on the 3rd i have an important photoshoot and still no models confirmed....very nervous that i will actually get two girls. i have something i really want to test out, the beauty myth and the regulation of female.... i aim to shoot a beauty shot with a girl i found last week at a show, and stage a shot with another two models. We only could get two hours in the studio so i hope i am not being over ambitious. I am planning everything so precisely so that it all runs smoothly. The Beauty Myth by Naomie Wolf has really inspired this shoot. The reality of the Beauty Myth is that all women want to embody it and always will, it will lead to the death of the female. I want to stage a photograph where the models look awkward and lost from their bodies, i am going to play with multiple bodies as i want to try and create an illusion of death through the model abandoning her body. Creating a connection between women, sex and death. Their gazes will not look out of the camera....i want to keep the gaze between the females in the frame. I want the image to have an ambiguity...this way people will question the image instead of just seeing it as something to be looked at. I hope it works..... i don't have alot of time in the studio and need to stage it perfectly so it looks the way i vision it..
After my shoot i catch the train to birmingham for the National Wedding shows at the NEC all weekend. Atleast this will give me a little break from uni work and i can look at the shoots with a fresh eye on monday. Monday i am meeting with my photographer to shoot some of her work and then start editing my images.

Anway need to get going now........

Tuesday 23rd february 2010

Today i am exhausted, i havnt had a day off in 2 weeks with work and uni work. Yesterday i spent editing my 2nd test shoot that i shot myself, styled myself, hair and make-up and edited myself! Shot in my house i moved all the furniture out a room...mum was very understanding. This week i am doing backstage make-up for tunbridge wells fashion week that i was asked to get involved with...so tomorrow and thursday will be hectic...then i have to present on friday. Saturday i will be prepping for another shoot that i intend to shoot next wedneday! i have been consistently emailing agencies to try and get models...so hopefully i will find two models to shoot with next wednesday...i really want to get some final images out of this shoot. i am sure on what i am trying to say now. i want to try and shoot a beauty shot and aswell and some full lengths, adressing the issues of the Beauty myth and the regulation of women in today's society.

So last week i shot with two younger girls.....i have posted the result. I wanted my second test to address the issues i have been talking about from when it begins the start of adolescence, and to almost show the pain this issue is effecting on young girls. I played with photographing there reflections to create an illusion that the viewer is looking at a segment of reality. The viewer and subject are both gazing at the same reflection, there’s nothing beyond the image, it’s a fragment of reality. A truthful pictorial form…there’s nothing fancilful, just two virginal girls, girls who will be scarred by today’s society imprisoned by the negative form of empowerment women are being given. The two girls in the photographs are 14, they are not aware of their sexual desires, they are niave to today’s culture. They gaze directly and vulnerably and the camera, there’s a sensitivity and sadness in their eyes. Dressed in white white shot on a high exposure I wanted to exagerate the exploitation of the lolita effect.. It gives a very different aesthetic to my first shoot. I liked the almost painted feel of my first shoot but I think it did need to be a little sharper. So I played with a shot from my first shoot and 2nd shoot to see if It would work shooting inboth formats to get this idea still of body/soul mind/body seperation.

I want to keep the theme of the white colour palette throughout this project...the colour isn't gender specific, i believe it is a truthful colour and it wont distract the eye from the reality of the image. It also adds to the pain and suffering of the exposure to todays society.

I am really very tired so i am going to go now..... presentation needs finishing...sunday i am going to sleep well!