AOP

To enter the competition by AOP I started with the research of the previous year’s winning images.

The notes I wrote down for the winning images for 2014 were:

for advertising ( portraits )

• colour images
• movement in hair
• creative angles and reflection in windows
• family time, happy time
• lens flare
• retro style

for category potraiture

• wide crop around the person
• snap shots look
• studio head and shoulders with creative lighting
• dramatic dark images

I was looking at the portfolio of the curators:

• James Eckersley

• Nigel Harnimal

• Paul Hill

 

After the general research I started to have clearer idea what I would like to do for this project. As I was always interested in portraiture I decided to enter PORTRAIT CATEGORY …

Inspiration for this project is a painting by Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magrite call The Son of Man

Rene Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964

 

About the painting, Magritte said:

At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

Photography Research

Work by Natalia Samoilova

 

For this project I would like to research different images by Natalia Samoilova. She has very original and creative ideas. She works mainly in the studio and I want to shoot this image in the studio.

Model will be siting on the chair or siting on the top or behind the table holding the flowers.

Nan Goldin

Image by Tim Walker

Tim Walker

 

Tim Walker

 

 

Maurizio di Iorio

Serge Rogov

 

 

Brooke Shaden

Gabriel Isak

 

 

First image – collage

 

Before I did the first shoot I went through my files and looked for the images which I can use for practising for different effects. For one of my college projects I did a test shoot before we went to the location and I asked model to do a movement and dance in the studio to make her relaxed. The first image from the series is my favourite, I really like the soft focus on her face which I feel like it creates the story and model look directly in the camera. The colour of her lipstick reminded me the image of the flower which I took while ago and I tried to compose them together.

Test Shoot

After my research I decided to do the test shoot and apply all ideas which I had from the research. I was happy with selection of the model, but not happy with choice of make-up and outfit. I will change for next shoot also the backdrop to lighter colour, light grey or light blue. I am happy with lighting here and will do similar lighting in next shoot. On this images I also tried different editing methods and effects.

 

 

Class critique.

During the class critique I asked my classmates what image they like and the best feedback I’ve got for the collage. People liked the combination of the portrait and the flowers. They were not sure about the soft focus and the feedback was to shoot this on location. However I decided to do one more shoot in the studio because I wanted to keep the backdrop one colour and use this image for another collage. I will use the different layers to create 3D effect.

The shoot N.3

I was reading one article recently about the underarm hair and celebrities let the grow long and expose them. There are mixed reactions about this and I was curious how this could be photographed to make it look nice. I managed to find an actors which follows this trend and was happy to pose for me.

I’ve choose this portrait because I like the position of the hands and models expression here. Model doesn’t look into the camera as I planned but I feel like it would more relaxed this way. I took lower angel of shooting to make model look confident and strong. The clothes been chosen with flower pattern to match more with flower images which I added on the bottom part. I’ve got inspired to add the white bottom part by this image, Hypnopompic Floral Collages by Rocio Montoya.The second image remind me of the table in front of the model which was one of my ideas I wanted to use for this projects. This way I will also hide the part of the model and make the viewer use the imagination.

 

I worked with the different layers and selections. To separate model from the background I selected the model in the background frame apart of the elbow with helps the optical separation of the background. I’ve decided to add the selection of the pink flower as a headpiece to balance the image and final touch of watercolour layer to add more 3d effect.

EVALUATION

I am happy with this portrait as this is the result of more than one shoot and collage is something what I enjoy to do as is very creative and allows me to create something original.