simple but effective

I have just found this on a website and thought I would blog it before I forget to do so! I like the idea of fashion not being about photographing a model, but capturing an object. The flow of the swallow stencil creates a movement with the image, making the eyes follow a path from bottom to top, weaving around the prop. I like the idea of creating a path/journey within an image as it is engaging the viewer with the image for a short period and making the viewer question the situation, question the reason why the stencil is a swallow, what it is representing and why it has been placed where it has.
The overall aesthetic is simple, pretty and neat, proving that not all fashion images have to contain theatrical make-up, overt styling and branding to be beautiful...

little quote...

"Maybe it's Maybelline!".... or maybe it's Photoshop. Who knows?

Found this quite amusing, but maybe it shows that people expect for all photographs (especially fashion/beauty)to be photoshopped before their display.

Have we all become obsessed with perfect images? the perfect body?
or is it our voyeuristic nature that wants to see others' perfection?
or are people so used to seeing 'perfection' from post production that we do not bother about it anymore, it is something we now expect and maybe ignore?...

Books to read

Picked up Fashion as Communication by Malcolm Barnard and The Face of Fashion by Jennifer Craik from the library today...background reading for the essay and inspiration for the upcoming photoshoot!

Should be interesting reading!

Stimulate the Senses...taken from The Cool Hunter

I love the latter of the images, as it combines a modern model within a traditional style, I am not sure whether the model has been maniupulated into an old photograph or whether the model has been photographed in the clothing and the hair has been illustrated into the image...a disadvantage to the image, for me, is the drawing of the hair and its style. I wouldn't take inspiration from this part at all. However, I do think the beading on the model's face is beautiful, I guess they have taken inspiration from masquerade masks or traditional netting from a hair piece.
The doll is an alternative take on having a human model within fashion photography...there is an opportunity to not have a model but focus on props instead.
Finally, the top image, is a bike store in Germany, in which the store is focused on the exterior wal of a building instead of a typical store layout within a building. This is another alternative to product placement and advertising, however could be seen as not being 'fashion photography'...

Stimulate the Senses...taken from The Cool Hunter

I have chosen to include these images from The Cool Hunter as I think both are interesting and effective. The gummy bear sweets add an alternative effect to typical imagery and could easily be asociated with body image, size zero and diets. The winnie the pooh balloons add a comical side to the typical fashion shot, ironically changing the pouting model for a happy, children's character, while keeping the clothing of the model and brand on show.
I would like the idea of including something comical within the photoshoot, as it breaks the project away from the typically serious, straight-to-the-point clothing and model fashion photography, gives it a different edge, while possibly being more creative than the standard model, pose and location aesthetic...

More Maurizio...

Marizio Azzuri

I mentioned this photographer and artist in an earlier post... I was introduced to his work at Paris Photo 2010, his mixed media work interests me a lot and I would love to be able to work in a similar way. I have not worked within mixed media at Uni, but worked this aesthetic a lot during my A-Levels and feel there is a lot more I can do to explore this style of practice.

little quote...

"Women dress alike all over the world: they dress to be annoying to other women."
Elsa Schiaparelli
I found this quite amusing...fashion and materialism hand in hand...status, economics, gender, attitudes towards each others... all inevitable, sometimes in its ugliest form.

Inspirational Interior...

This image is showing a social hub within an ultra modern office block. The graphic lines and use of vivid colour blocks could be inspirational to the colours/shapes/function of the clothing used within the inevitable fashion shoot...

Arty faces

I have chosen to post this image as it depicts the style of art and photography that I like. I love the use of mixed media within photography...so in this case...painting a models face...or even, painting a background for a model to be situated within/in front of, stitching or adding similar texture to photographic prints, like Maurizio Azzuri (saw his work at Paris Photo 2010 and loved it!)

But this has already been done...need to find something unique, original, beautiful or not, it will be new and different, engaging for good or bad reasons...

Tom Ford Returns...

Tom Ford: “I do not understand everyone’s need to see everything online the day after a show,” he says. “I don’t think it ultimately serves the customer, which is the whole point of my business—not to serve journalists or the fashion system. To put something out that’s going to be in a store in six months, and to see it on a starlet, ranked in US magazine next week? My customer doesn’t want to wear the same thing she saw on a starlet!”

This is a typical fashion image and does not inspire me at all for this project, but I find it interesting that Tom Ford has styled the shoot with his clothing brand and to comment that his customer does not want to wear the same thing that his models are photographed wearing within the adverts...

So, the start of PH2011...

One of the projects for PH2011 - The Fashion Image, is to start a new individual blog and from this create a group photoshoot taking a concept from each of our blogs and creating a final set of 5 images...

NEED TO PUSH AGAINST THE STEREOTYPICAL fashion image

BE CREATIVE

BE OPEN TO NEW FORMS OF INSPIRATION

edgy, NEW, abstract, ADVENTUREOUS, demanding, ENGAGING

I am going to start with my very initial inspirations...the start of the journey!