The final photographer I have chosen is Bill Brandt. He is often considered to be one of the most important and influential British Photographers. Brandt was actually born in Germany in 1904, to a German Mother and British Father. He later claimed to be born in South London, but this was not true.

Brandt was mainly self taught but also learned from working for Man Ray as an assistant for two years, when he was 25 years old. He moved to London in 1933 and is most famous for photographing Social Britain during World War 2. The photograph above, that I chose from this collection, was in fact taken in Elephant and Castle tube station. It shows people using the tube station as a bomb shelter, and sleeping on the platform during a World War 2 bomb scare.

However, some of my favourite images are from the ‘Nudes’ collection. I particularly like the close up images of body parts, like the image shown above. This was a new and different way of photographing people that created powerful, abstract images. I admire how the clever camera angles he used make certain parts of the body seemingly disappear and yet other parts enlarge.

The second photographer I have chosen is Sally Mann. Mann is most famous for taking photographs of her children as they grow up. There has been some controversy around some of Mann’s work, due to the nature of some of the photographs of her children, but the photographs are supposed to represent childhood, memory and mortality. I love that the photographs are often set in natural environments and landscapes which appear to stop in time, whilst the subjects of her photographs, her children, are ever changing.

The first photographer who’s work has appealed to me, is David LaChapelle. I find his work of interest because it often features celebrities, but in quirky, kitsch, colourful and sometimes quite bizarre locations, settings and costumes. I don’t often understand why LaChapelle has chosen the theme of the photographs, but I like the idea that sometimes it almost seems like LaChapelle is mocking the celebrity (who is often a very serious actor of musician) so openly, yet the work is accepted and used on magazine covers and in advertising campaigns.

This is my version of ‘The Fork’ by Andre Kertez.

Looking at the final image, I can say that I am pleased with the contrast of the image, and think it matches the contrast level of the original.

I am somewhat disappointed with the shadows in the image though, as the lamp I used to light the objects was not as strong as the one used in the original image, therefore the shadow edges were not as sharp. To try and combat this issue I used the Burn tool in Photoshop, which I think has done a good job, but has still not produced lines as sharp as in the lines in Kertez’s image.

Another point is that the dish used in the original photo was of a greater height than mine, meaning the shadow of the dish did not meet with the fork. I tried a number of items I owned, but unfortunately couldn’t find anything to create the desired effect.

Although it doesn’t match exactly, I took over 50 images and chose this one as the closest match, and I feel it is a good representation of the original Kertez image.

This is ‘The Fork’, taken by Andre Kertez in 1928. It is one of his most famous pieces from his early works, despite it not being the style he was most famous for, which was portraits. It amazes me that an image so basic has become so famous.

I have chosen to attempt to replicate this photograph because I think it will be very technically challenging. The shadows in this image are very strong and these emphasise the intense contrast. The angle of the photograph is also something that will need to be thought about in order create the same effect as Kertez.

Today I came across an amazing Digital Artist called Luis Miguel Torres who is a freelance designer from Mexico. Her works involve a mixture of photo and vector elements. I love that her work is so brightly coloured and so detailed that you could look at it for ages, always discovering new aspects.

This is my final chosen image for the photographic portfolio task.

I decided to take the portrait of Emily in the style of fashion photography. The reason I did this is because since getting to know Emily I think that she has a good sense of style and loves clothes and jewellery.

I decided on a winter theme for the photograph, predicting that the weather on the day of the shoot would probably not be great, and so I asked Emily to come in a coat, scarf, gloves etc.

From my research, I found that although the clothes and jewellery were the items in the photographs that were supposed to be of interest, a lot of thought always went into the location of the photograph too and I found the location for the shoot whilst walking along the South Bank to take the photographs for the other part of this weeks blog task. I saw the pier sticking out into the river, and was attracted by the array of buildings behind it, as well as the rustic look of the pier itself. Strangely enough, as I continued to walk, I discovered that there is a second pier that is exactly the same, and a real fashion shoot was taking place on it. This was quite a strange coincidence! But I took it as a sign that it was a fitting location for Emily’s portrait. From my research, I found that although the clothes and jewellery were the items in the photographs that were supposed to be of interest, a lot of thought always went into the location of the photograph too.

Another point I took from my research was that sometimes models look into the camera but not always. I tried a number of poses and shots with Emily, some looking into the camera and some looking away, but after reviewing them all I felt that this shot of Emily looking alightly away from the camera had more features of Fashion photography than the other shots I took.

If I were to get the chance to take this image again, I would give more consideration to the weather on the day of the shoot. It was very overcast and cloudy on this day which did lend itself well to the winter theme, but made it difficult to find the right settings to have the camera on. The sky was very bright white, which almost gives it a look of being over exposed, yet the rest of the image is well exposed. I think that perhaps with a blue sky, the exposure would look more even.

These are 2 shots that I decided were not going to be my final shot, but I still feel are worth posting on my blog.

The reason I decided against these images was because I felt that they didn’t portray the idea of fashion photography as well as my chosen final image (which will be in the following blog entry).

I decided on fashion photography as a theme for the portrait of Emily, and therefore did some research to see some existing examples of Fashion photography, to inspire my own shot.

These are the images that I found, and drew inspiration from.

All the images were found on deviantART and courtesy of:

girltripped

hakanphotography

saturdayx

LittleFlair