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.