Portrait Photographers day 1

Nick Knight

Alexander McQueen

Devon, 1997

Susie Smoking, 1988

Okay, so my tutor today opened my eyes to really engaging with photographers work, so I have decided to chose a photographer every once or twice a week to talk about. Some I will have know for ages and some will be newly discovered I am excited to see what I can find. 

This week I have decided to talk about Nick Knight and why I love his portraiture work. First off I'm going to start by saying how much I love these three images. I like the colours of the last two images, its a strange mix between pastels, which is subtle compared to other photographers work. The first image reminds me of David bailey's portraits. The black and white combined with the closeness of the subject with the camera really brings out how bailey takes his portraits.

I swear this one is finished

finished shots

Glenn Woolsey Photography

Three finished shots 

A shot from today with and without texture. 

fashion 

A NEW SERIES!

Okay, so my last series was a bunch of portraits in the bath water and with this new idea I'm sort of going back to the bathroom shooting portraits, but the two series couldn't be more different. I will start shooting tomorrow hopefully. Until then here is two VERY primitive practice/test shots.

Location Testing and Test Shoot

A grave yard fashion test shoot. 

This idea came from listening to the Smiths. It was a sunny day and I met my friend Sian at the cemetery gates. 

A Break From Everything

So a couple of times this week I found myself bored sitting in my room, whether it was with a friend or by myself. The one thing I always turn to when I'm bored is one of my many cameras. 

I really love portraits so I have decided to take a portrait of someone every time they come into my room. The portrait won't be atmospheric, they will simply be of their face and chest area. I haven't done too many portraits before apart from my water portraits so I'll be interested to see how my skills progress. 

 Model: Tom Courcey 

Photographer: Glenn Woolsey 

Photographer & Model: Glenn Woolsey 

These are two I have done already, I'm not really bothered about the difference in shadows and colour as they were both taken at different times of the day so it really does reflect who was in my room and at what sort of time. 

My Year

http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/en/MyPortfolio/

This week one of my FMP images got accepted onto vogue italia, I know its only a small achievement but it made me realise how far I have come with my photography and as a person.

Before going into this course I thought of photography as a hobby and even after leaving college I wouldn't get anything out of it. However after these past months I have come to understand that I was wrong. I think about photography 80% of the time and can't help to take pictures wherever I go without being forced to. I have always been a wall flower and never jumped right into anything, however with the help of a great tutor and some really understanding friends I am starting to realise what I can achieve if I just apply myself and have a bit of trust in myself and my work.

This year has really helped me for the better and I can't wait to see what the future brings.

New FMP Shoot

The second image works so much better for me! I feel as though I am getting better at taking these portraits already.

The next shoot will be after this weekend!

Arjan Benning

So I came across this photographer when going through my personal Tumblr account. One of my followers had reblogged some of his work with a model in black water and I instantly loved it. 

I went on to look at his website and found portraits of people in water! I wanted to try it straight away and thought it would be a perfect idea for my FMP all I need now though, is a concept. I own none of these pictures below they are just to show what I was trying to achieve from the shoot I done the other day.

these are all done in landscape however as I only have a bath to work with min will be shot in portrait. another problem I can see arising is not enough people that I can photograph for the project. 

A Developing FMP Idea

So this is a shot that I was happiest with from todays shoot. Mostly because my camera lense is playing up and doesn't focus right. However I did do a couple of shots on a disposable camera, which is on the verge of falling to pieces as I tried to do a double exposure with it today, which involves smashing the camera around a bit. I also took some on a film camera and on a mobile phone.

I'm happy with how they're looking so far, the only problem I am going to run into is finding 12 people to photograph, and the concept of the idea which I still have to make out.

Three Point Four

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-Point-Four/195034633935801


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A Boredom Shoot

There wasn't really anything to this shoot other than the fact that I was bored and found myself listening to The Cure again. As you can tell from my work and later posts I am obsessed with the 80s. I decided to shoot as if I was looking into a scene of the youth in the 80s. As it was an industrial time I picked to shoot outside the Brick Yard in Whittlesey.

Cheesy Shoot That Fell To Bits

I had a great model and a good idea but I honestly feel my dedication to this brief lacked and my final images showed this. I did however love the destruction of the cheese under the studio lights and the way it contrasts with the red back ground. However I feel some shots look as if they are suited for a McDonalds porno.

The bottom half of the dress is clearly better as the cheese slices are overlapping each other. All I have to do now is write about how I have failed. I wish it could of gone so much better...

Camera Phone Brief

So I'm coming to the end of my camera phone brief, by this time next week I should be all done and dusted. 

Today I decided to shoot myself as Morrissey from The Smiths to link into my 80s Icon theme. 

I'm so Happy with this particular shot as I have made full use of the props. The image was taken on an iPhone 3gs with a self timer app. 

Beauty Images

 Unedited 

Edited 

I will finish editing when I'm back at college on monday, however this is what I have got so far.

Final Beauty Shoot

Yesterday was my final beauty shoot, I felt that it went rather well. The images I got from this shoot were far more improved than the pictures from the previous shoot. I was lucky to have such an open minded model so I could experiment with different body shapes, without making the model feel uncomfortable. 

What I wanted from this shoot was to make the images more effective than the last. I wanted the quote 'Beauty is only skin deep' to show throughout my work, so I had the model facing her back to me scratching at her skin as I felt it was the only way of showing that emotion through a photograph. 

I also done a few different body sculptures, using two models with their legs wrapped around each other again. I felt this went particularly well, however it took me and the models ages to figure out how to replicate it from the last shoot. 

E-mailing Photographers 1st Reply

http://www.billdobbinsphotography.com/

Bill Dobbins Photography 

I am a photography student from Peterborough in the UK. One of our latest briefs is themed around the topic, beauty. I had a hard time defining beauty as it isn't defined by fact but is actually subjected to opinion. It saddened me how many people turn to fashion and artificial beauty when the brief was set for us. Having said this it did have a subconscious effect on how I was going to engage with my vision of beauty. 

I finally came across your work on body sculpture and was inspired by the way your models were wearing their skin as opposed to wearing clothes. It inspired me right away and I decided to plan and book my test shoot in the college studio straight away. I have attached three of the practice images to this email in hope that you will look at them and give feedback on how I can improve when I come to do my final shoot in the near future. 

I look forward to hearing from you

Glenn Woolsey 

Reply:

Glenn, the camera was invented in the 1830s and I bet the next day somebody asked a woman to pose in the nude.  There have been so many images like this shot that it's pretty hard to come up with anything new.   I would advise looking at as many photos as possible and going to galleries and museums to look at paintings and statues.   Then use the fact that digital photography can be done without spending a lot of money on film and processing and shoot, shoot, shoot.  Let you skills and vison develop over time.  Gone are the days when photo students could only afford to expose a roll or two of film a week

I'm in a different category because the women I specialize in have bodies that have never been available to artists before.   So almost any traditional approach I use in shooting them looks new because they look new.   You job is to find some kind of unique contribution you can make.  But that usually takes time and practice to develop and evolve.

Good luck,

Bill Dobbins

I will use his advice with the new brief that has been set. 

Plan

For my next camera phone shoot I will be using these to help me with my aladdin sane/David Bowie inspired shoot. 

Beauty

Beauty

Beauty

So I have obtained my new brief, the theme is beauty. I wanted to define beauty however this proved impossible as everyone has their own opinion on what is beautiful and what isn't. I brainstormed a few ideas, things that came to mind were; fashion, landscapes, nature etc.

I wanted to do start with something I could experiment with. I got lucky when I found an old film photography book in my photography room which had loads of really interesting ideas which I could replicate into my beauty images. I came across a photographer called Peter Kovach. He used body parts of women to make sculptures.

I did try some of my own body sculptures however it was hard for my models to recreate the image as they weren't as flexible as the women in the image. This is something I could look into and try to get a better image.  

Digital Camera Edits

Comparisons

 Siouxsie Sioux 

 Debbie Harry 

Tina Turner 

Siouxsie Sioux

Lisa Leverseidge

Blondie

Freya Armstrong

Tina Turner

Saskia Cole

Mobile Phone Camera Shoot

I have just finished my Camera Phone Shoot, the aim of the shoot was to bring back musicians from the past.

I used both the camera phone and my digital SLR so I could compare the two images to see what worked better and to compare the weaknesses and strenghts.

The inatial inspiration came from Vinyls my dad had collected in the 80s. I assessed them induvitually and tried to replicate the style of the images.

The first image is of a firend Lisa. I made her dress as siouxsie sioux from Siouxsie and The Banshees. I really like the image as it has an analog feel to it.

The second image is of another friend from college. Freya, took on the role of blondie and I tried to replicate the look and attitude she had.

The final image is of another college friend. Saskia took on the role of Tina Turner as I saw the look in her straight away. I gave this image a warmer colour than the other two images to replicate her warm vibrant look.

New Images

Siouxsie and the Banshees is the driving force of all my creativity at the moment, so I thought as I sit here listening to them I might as well blog as I haven't done so in a while.

The images I just uploaded were taken for my 'Fujifilm Extreme Photography' Brief. The photos are from everywhere. There wasn't much planning done with these images I just needed to know where to look and who has mass collections I could ask to take pictures of. The most annoying thing about this shoot was the time I had, I knew what I wanted to do for these test shots but I had no subject. In the end I pulled it off by strolling around forests and council estates for inspiration.

For my final shoot I will still stick to the collecting theme that has been running through the whole of my brief. I have found the perfect place that holds all of my needs for the shoot, however I will have to wait until friday to actually do the shoot as it is hard to find time between college and college work etc.

Fuji Film