Chosen Photographers

After my initial photographs, I decided to pick somewhere to take my work. When looking into the industry I noticed in some of the photos three negative themes came out
♥exaggeration of the beauty or make up to give an illusion
♥exploitation of models 
♥a need to be "perfect" 

When looking into these themes I picked out

Terry Richardson  exploitation

Richardson IS AN AMERICAN FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER. HE EXPLORES ALOT OF PORTRAITURE AND A LOT OF HIS WORK HAS THE "SEX SELLS" APPEALS TO IT. HE WAS BORN IN 1965 AND STARTED PHOTOGRAPHING IN HIGH SCHOOL.
Although Richardson has become one of the most well renown photographers. It has been said he has not always used his status positively. I wanted to explore this within his work and how it has become acceptable to exploit models and sell it. I wanted to study the photograph of Emily Ratajkowski. The photograph has nothing particularly technical, the lighting is very simple and makes u think there isn't actually a background behind it. This simple technique actually brings her out even more. The use of the colour red brings you to intimate parts of her body.  This brings out his use of sex sells. However I believe this photograph is not something that represents fashion photography and believe people like Richardson are bringing photographs such as these into the industry. I think this will be an interesting way to spin my project on its face.
EMILY RATAJKOWSKI by Terry Richardson.

Response

1/125 seconds

F Number 13

These are my responses to Richardson's photographs. I think one of the most important things were to bring out the eye contact. It makes u feel personal with the photograph. The lighting in the studio was very simple a sharp quick flash to highlight here with no shadow. The F-number was 13 to bring out a lighter option to bring out the whiteness in the background and i then changed the curves to add a further white. I then added the shadow using curves on Photoshop to bring out the dark tones. I chose to add this because I felt Richardson's photo was very bland and didn't have much to it as it was all just one tone. I am glad I have picked a photographer and then picked a theme because it means I can take this theme and develop it within my own work.

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Justin Bartles need to be perfect
Justin Bartles is a fashion, portrait and athletic photographer. His "impressions" work has fascinated me. It also made me want to show the "perfection" a model has to be. It shows photographs of body parts that are "imprisoned" by things that make us "beautiful" for example spanks or corsets. This is a mood bored of his ideas. I really like his work because his style is very simple. he uses black and white and high ISO to achieve grainy looks in his work. I feel tho it makes some of his skin look saggy so this is something I did not take forward.

I didn't use a specific one of his photographs to respond to i just took elements the look of his photographs and the theme behind it. This is because it is something a lot of people can relate to but within modelling it represents things such as breast implants and the way women may change themselves to feel beautiful.Not only that a bra can also be something a women rely's on to be comfortable and it is socially acceptable to do this.  To respond to the bra photographs Firstly I had a high f number to bring out shadows and tones. This bought out the lines but also blemishes and beauty spots. I think this is ironic because the lines are meant to have made you "perfect" but underneath there are still "imperfections"such as spots or beauty moles which i chose not to airbrush out to prove the point. In my photographs I wanted to make the photographs lighter than Bartles, this is because i think this softens the skin alot smoother. I also caught shadows on one side of the photographs by using just one light in the studio. I really like exploring this side of fashion photography and really am fascinated on ideas of taking this forward.

f/29 

shutter speed 1/125

In my response I used black and white as a direct copy. I bought out the lines where the bra has been. It also shows the imperfections such as beauty spots on the back. I think this is ironic because the lines are meant to have made you "perfect" but underneath there are still "imperfections" Something i changed from Bartles work was the way in which he used a grainy look which made the skin almost look saggy. By keeping my images sharp I avoided this like I wanted. I like this because it shows how something simple as a bra is used to make us more accepted.

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Solve Sundsbo 
Sudsbo is one of the newest creators of fine art, he photographs alot of beauty photography and really exaggerates the make up used in it. He photographs for alot of well known magazines. i chose to respond to him because of how much he exagerates make up to give an illusion of beauty. this is something used alot within the industry. Here is a mood bored of his work to explore some of his concepts with make up.

I think from his work you can get a real sense of having perfect skin, nails and make up. I think this highlights how much important in the industry it is to be perfect. However I really like his use of bright colours like on the lips of his models.
The photograph I have chosen to respond to ties in all his elements i feel into one photograph. It is an advertisement for Chanel make up. He uses high intensity make up which creates shadows on the eyes and lips, I think he also uses really strong airbrushing to give an illusion of the make up giving her perfect skin. i like how the eyelashes catch a shadow on to her face this gives an illusion of longer eyelashes. So his use of airbrushing, high intensity make up and shadows are all strengths to the photograph and the advertisement.

In preparation for this photo shoot, I made sure my model had a pale foundation so i could catch appropriate shadows on her face. I then added an appropriate lipstick to copy the photographers work. I first of all played with the highest f number but it bought out to much shadowing. However after some experimenting I used f/25 because it as dark enough without loosing detail. 

From Suindsbo's work I took the concept of the face and the shadowing catching on one side. In the photo below I was exploring relevant filters to catch the side of the face not in the light. I like this as it also added a soft sin tone. 

f/25

shutter 1/165

The relevance of the second photos was to try blemish remover and airbrushing. I also darkened the contrast to make a harder shadow on the side not in the light. You can see the blemish that have been removed on the bottom to the original on the on top. This gave the illusion of perfect skin and ties into the theme of exaggeration of beauty.