In the deep

In the Deep

Throughout this module I have been working on my visual language. Testing my photography style and expanding my boundaries of shooting. I wanted to test some more impossible imagery so I decided to an underwater shoot to work on levitation under the water. I hope I would be able to produce something like this but unfortunately this was not the case.

 I shot with a Fugi compact underwater camera. I used program in settings so I could control as much as I could. I could only control the ISO on the camera and white balance  I was shooting indoors at Cheltenham sports centre. It was so dark and the under water lights were not very strong. It really shows you need the correct equipment when attempting something like this. 

The images I produced I actually ended really liking even though they were not what I was intending to come out with I feel they are different and some really work. The noise is very strong but I think the grain adds to some of the images. 

My favourite images are the above right and the below image. They are both the most striking and interesting of the image. The bubbles look like a hurricane which you wouldn't be able to produce out of the water which makes it special. 

The image above looks Impossible. But it is just a turned image to make it seem like someone is disappearing through a mirror. Even though it is hardly manipulated it would work amongst my manipulated images quit well. 

I would like to elaborate on the under water work with the right equipment to produce works like Emma Critchley. She produces moving image also, really beautiful pieces.

Anderson and Low

In the national portrait gallery in 2009 I came across an exhibition called Champions by Anderson and Low, the collection was of nude portraits of famous athletes at there highest peek in physical health. Beautifully photographed in a studio with soft lighting that highlighted the strength and confidence in each picture. The bodies in the pictures looked statuesque as the athletes where caught in poses of flexibility, agility, strength or speed relating to their sport. 

This series of images are an Aids awareness Champaign saying that even people at the highest of physical fitness are vulnerable to aids. The message was small caption at the side of the gallery meaning you only read it after you have taken in the exhibition, suddenly the people in the photographs who looked so strong and statuesque became exposed and vulnerable in their nudity.

These images like the images by Kristy Michell are subtle representations of illnesses. I would like to look at shooting projects in this way. So the issue underlined the images but didn't consume the images. 

Ankylosing Spondylitis     

Ankylosing Spondylitis is an illness that is very significant in my family. My sister who suffers the most from it's effects helped on the Campaign "Walk my ass off." were she got all her friends and family to put on a pedometer and record there steps over a couple of months. I along with many other suffering form A.S participated and we all completed the amount of steps it takes to walk to the moon.   

The images above are what was used as the adverting for this campaign. As you can see they are not very good. A.S is not a very well know illness and this is why the group wanted to make some noise and show that with determination and will power they could do anything...like walk to the moon.

 I feel this campaign would benefit from my manipulated images. To have a literal illustration of people walking to the moon.. The two images below are examples f the type of imagery I would like to create. I would like to produce images of people holding each other up and supporting each other on the quest to the more. Dragging each other up onto the moons surface. 

On the Other Hand

Either I would like to produce magical images to grab peoples attention which is what A.S needs. Or I want to photograph those who took part as astronauts to commend there achievement. I would do this as a personal project rather than for my FMP as it is straight portraiture and I want to do something more for my final project. 

Winstons Wish

Looking into Charities that need help with there advertising images. I loked into one close to my heart with Winstons Wish charity. The support children who have lost a parent or both parents deal with the greif. I feel this is a really important charity as those who don't have someone strong to take care of them like I did could head down the wrong path.  

I feel this charity could benefit with an image inspired by Peter pan the boy with no parents but who still did impossible things and defeated enemies with his own strength. I could use the children to create an image like the one below. 

Alzheimer's

Looking into Campaigns that I feel would benefit from my style of images I looked towards the Alzheimers adevrts. I mainly came across images of old faces looking confused. This isn't a great way to bring attention to an illness that consumes so many peoples lives. 

The Good...

These two adverts are the only good images I found for the campaign. The left I think is a good concept but not very cleverly executed. It wouldn't show up strong enough as a billboard or bus shelter but the idea of the rubber is great for advertising in a different way. The rubbers where distributed with the words if you lose your memory you lose yourself, which is great way to get the message out. 

These are the best images I have found on the topic of Alzheimer’s.  “Reflections” photographed by American photographer Tom Hussey.  Adverting The Exelon Patch that is used to help people with Alzheimer’s disease.  The posters are meant to showcase patients remembering their younger selves. This is a really clever Ad as it's takes aspects of the disease and creates visually interesting images that draw you in and you immediately understand what they are representing. 

I am inspired by these images and feel I could develop something really strong for my final major project with the underling issue as Alzheimers. The disease lends itself to my images as I can create worlds around people and they are the symptoms that alzheimers patients present. An illness that affects the mind in so many ways and is very topical as a current issue. It also does not have strong campaigns to support the people or problems and yet it affects so many lives. Althsimers effects can change the way the victims see the world. They get suck in the past, see strangers, hallucinate and get lost in there thoughts and don’t recognise the world and people around them. This gives me a lot of scope to develop ideas for this campaign.   

Sex Sells... Even in Charity

Aids campaigns began in the 1980 and advertised the harms of sex by promoting safe sex. It caused a lot of controvasy as Aids was seent o be dirty and a taboo subject. Now people were seeing condoms on images as a non subtle approach to the subject it got a lot of criticism but was a method of direct advertising. The image to the right was a mens cancer advert in the 80's published in Everyman magazine. iwth the small writing next to the females breast saying "No wonder male cancer is ignored...When this is all you ever think about" This was attention grabbing and made a lot of men stop and look closer to read what the ad had to say. Nothing more clever than selling sex at a very obvious level to make people look closer.

STI and AIDS campaigns moved forward in the 2000's as they became more intelligent and used sexual imagery with a graphic message. Top left- "use a condom its still your best defence" placeing a gun where a man genitalia is ment to be brings forth the danger of the desease and how it can kill you. Top right- You sleep with everyone your partner has slept with. Bringing awareness to the fact you can catch it from anyone you are sexually active with if you don't know there history. The image is very sexual yet you are distracted by the amount of hands covering the body making this image a attention grabbing a surreal. This surreal imagery I think works really well in a campaign like this ad it demands attention because it's out of the ordinary.

Adverts to shock

The middle images are from France as an anti smoking campaign using sexually suggestive imagery involving teenagers comparing smoking to being forced to perform oral sex with the tag "smoking is to be a slave to tabacco" This is a negative why of using sex by comparing it to an act of rape does not appeal and does not make you want to look at this image comfortably. This is the same shock tactics as the banardos campaigns. A german campaign against Aids used imagery of Hitler having sex with beautiful women with the tag line "AIDs is a mass murderer" this provoked a massive amount of negative feedback not because the images were very sexualised but because the victims of AIDS felt as if they were being compared to Hitler. Shock tactics do run the risk of offending people and when they use campaigns this controversial I feel they do it for the press rather than thinking of the effects it was have on the public. I don't think this is the right way to raise awareness and is ethically wrong.

 Using it the right way

I feel the breast cancer campaigns have it spot on with the advertising strategy. They use beautiful sexy women  to grab your attention then present you with the issue that is to do with breasts therefore making it fundamental to use sexual imagery as the campaign. The women they use are desirable and empowering they even use the epitome of a sex symbol (wonder woman) who is meant to be invincible to show that anyone can get breast cancer. This reminds me of the Anderson and Low exhibition "Campions"   

How it used to be 

I wanted to look into Advertising in Charity campaigns. I started to look at early campaigns to see how it has changed. To understand the 1930/1940s charity advertisements a look into war time propaganda was essential to understand what the media was focussed on. These are some examples of war time propaganda images and campaigns in the U.S.A and the U.K. 

This strong forceful campaigning was to get everyone involved in the War. The charity advertisements was about supporting those in the war. With illustrations aimed towards families and and the potentials of them losing a dad a husband if they help any way they could. The images were just families without the male figure making women look at a family portrait without there love one. They didn't look towards the brutalities of war or how the men might die but just the picture without them in it.

One other campaign I found form the 1940/1950s was Barnardo's Children's Charity adverts. I was really surprised at the happy smiling children I saw photographed in them. All of them are children's faces looking either big eyed and sad (but not crying) or smiling faces showing how the charity makes the kids feel. This is very different to the advertising we see today from Barnardo's charity.

 Todays advertisements from Barnardo's have shocked the advertising industry showing extreme and horrific visuals of babies and children in situations that make the viewers squirm. As this was such a game changer  in the Ad industry as people where not used to seeing these images. Most of them became banned due to people taking offense. However the ballsy method behind the images caused a massive debate about the charity bringing more attention to it therefore promoting the brand.

 The Shock Tatics have died down as the campaigns were getting banned left right and centre. Instead the have turned to a less dramatic award wining campaign abut not leaving kids to suffer regardless of how they act. I think the message is good and they have used documentary portraits which are different to the shock tactics used a lot in of charity imagery. I really like the message behind these images but they wouldn't work on big billboards as the text is crucial to the message and the viewer wouldn't be able to read it all in time.

Another Charity I that has changed over the years are the Oxfam campaigns. But not a massive amount. They have moved back and forth from showing starving children to showing happy african children as a result of the charity work. 

1930s image shows a skinny child needing help. 1950s shows an illustration of feet (not very inventive or creative) 1970 show a kid looking directly at the viewer asking for help in the image. This is the image we are used to in todays adverts both commercials and imagery for help the children, oxfam and christian Aid. These images flood are screens every advert break and are pasted on bilboards and bus stops. They have become so frequent not only have people become desensitised to the imagery they have become irritated by the constant advertising.  

The final image I feel is the strongest. It is creative and attention grabbing. It is also relatable to most people. People can detach from the starving children because they have never experienced starvation or been around those who have.  We have all seen a muddy puddle and we have all eaten with a knife and fork. This makes it relatable. 

Wonderland 

 by Kirsty Mitchell

Kirsty Mitchell's wonderland series was in memory of her late mother, Maureen, who died of a brain tumour in 2008. Her mother was a teacher who spent her career telling fantasy stories and creating tales. Kirsty developed these series of images to represent brain cancer in the story and characters her mum produced.  

'Real life became a difficult place to deal with, and I found myself retreating further into an alternative existence through the portal of my camera,' said the artist. 

I find this series of images so inspiring. The fantasy and beauty in all these images are so breath taking and emotive. It took over a year to produce all the images. All created in camera using extravagant costumes, props and hair and make up. The images are a reflection of her mums stories but I also feel they are a reflection of the disease that took her mother. If you look into the symptoms of brain cancer these are metermorphis of them. The cluttered mind, the intrigate strands of nature are a representation of the brains wiring. All the colours are the colours of a brain and the leaking red suggests the pain and hurt the disease can cause. The imagination of a person who has lost there mind stuck in a place between reality and fantasy as the brain starts to faultier.    


This has been my favourite find from my research and inspired me to look into representations of illness through imagery. Even though this wasn't the intension of these images the back story lead me to this way of thinking. 

Dancing shoes

Dance photography

Dance photography is something I have been interested in recently after the Fiona Hayes talk at university. She spoke about Dance in Vogue and I later researched it and came across this world where fashion and dance collide. I felt the movement in these images had so much energy and poise and made the editorials really stand out. Since then I have assisted 3 dance photographers and even though they expressed that dance photography wasn't a stable career path I felt what you learn from working with a dancer is fundamental to working with people especially in fashion. I feel it's as important for fashion photographers to study dance photography as artist to study life drawing. It teaches you how to capture a movement, the human form, expression and the perfect moment. I have looked into Fashion photographers who have shot Dance images and they have taken the natural posing of fashion and incorporated it with the beauty of dance. 

Oh Jung Seek

Vogue girl Korea did a ballet editorial shot by Oh Jung Seek. A beautiful series of portraits that capture the subtle beauty of dance mixed with delicate pastel fashion garments. The lighting and composition are gental and soft creating pure and elegant images. 

  

Will Davidson 

Will Davidsons spread in Australlian Vogue for the Royal Ballet anniversary images use natural light in the most beautiful way. The intimacy and elegance the dancers bring to the shoot make for one of the most beautiful Photo series I have seen in a while. The relationship shared between the dancers and their love for dance shows expression and grace, demonstrating the art of dance in a harmony of subtlety dexterity and passion. The location works so well with the concept of the shoot and everything complements each other. If I could photograph anything this special in my photography journey I would be very proud

Studio Dance

Dance photography is more commonly shot in the studio. Two different ways of doing this are the top image where there is structure and control. The sort of images I would be more inclined to shoot before I started testing my style oh photography. The bottom images are my favourite though as they are focussed on capturing movement in a still image. I fell they do very well. All using lighting to produce a different atmosphere in each shot. Bottom left to evoke light, soft delicateness and the top left is cold moody and dynamic this is all down to lighting and the tones produced by the different set ups.  

Dance in Art Photography

With all my surreal manipulation images I was looking into an area of Art photography. Gallery work. Dance photography has three areas in my opinion 1. Commercial- Advertisements for dancers (head shots and portfolios) as well Advertisements for shows. 2. Fashion Photography- Dance with in fashion photography like the examples I have already used and 3. Art photography- Conceptual and abstract, dance really lends itself to art photography as it is a beautiful way to capture human form. These two images above I feel fal into the Art Photography section of dance. I really love them and will look further into this for inspiration when working on dance images. 5  

My Initial test

I wanted to try some more artist photography looking at the female form. I started the shoot with the two images above for inspiration then I moved from the dance side of the images to just the human form. These images were to test lighting and shape. They are different to what I normally do but I like the direction the images are headed in. 

Vincent Peters

These fashion images by vincent Peters for U.S vogue are a beautiful example of how fashion and dance can integrate and how lighting can be used to bring a story to life.  

How this work influenced me

I shot for a fashion show on my work experience with James Rowbotham. As I was shooting I kept these visuals in my head and was influenced by this series of images and produced the lower black and white pictures. 

 More from the shoot

These three images are my favourite from the show. I feel they capture the movement and form I have been talking about and experimenting with. They are a good start with not going too conventional in dance photography as that was my main advice from Fiona Hayes. 

James Rowbotham

During my work experience I worked with James Rowbotham (Jim Markland) on a fashion show. I had a couple meetings with him also and he explained how he shoots and the things he loves to shoot. These are some expamples of his images. My favourite is the left images because of the lighting. The top right looks photoshopped but he actually shot this dancer on a planes wing.  

The above is my favourite series he has done. Top right and bottom middle are the best images in my opinion. I would love to do this kind of shoot as I feel it explores the human body beautifully. I have some more work experience with James helping out at a workshop he is running and then a dance shoot  he has organised. 

 Chris Nash

I also worked with Chris Nash during my work experience on a shoot with Motion house dance company. The shoot was fantastic and I saw how Chris worked so well with lighting and movement. and captured the best out of the dancers. He was a great inspiration and a wonderful dance photographer and I could see why he is so respected in the industry.   

Couple Dance

I feel the most beautiful dance photography happens when you see dancers interact. The movement they create together tells stories and shows trust and passion. I want to find dancers to create shoot like this. 

My shoot

This is a test shoot I did with two dancers from Leicester. I wanted to show connection and relationship between dancers. I really like the bottom left image. Even though these images I feel are too commercial for the style I want to create as a dance photographer.

Manipulation in Dance 

I feel there is a real link between my 'impossible world' images and dance photography. Dancers can move in these abstract ways that lends itself to the images I create. These are a few examples where the two worlds collide. 

I wanted to step away from the levitation imagery as I feel I need to challenge the impossible in a different way. The image below was an experiment changing the background to make the image seem more impressive. This is my favourite image from the shoot as It looks like a story as if there is something we don't know about these characters and what lead them to this edge.