Styling&Photography

(Two examples of the clothing used in the workshop, Author's Own)

The images above show the selection of things that i brought in for the internal styling workshop, the items range from whacky sequinned blazers and Mr-T-like chains to an array of white materials including dresses and jumpers. As my mood board is strongly influenced by the colour white i decided to bring in a selection of white garments to work with during the workshop, but i also decided it would be a good idea to let my imagination run with ideas and be experimental so i brought in some vibrantly coloured items too. I started off using the colourful items so that i could throw as many crazy ideas out there as possible to begin with and them tone it down and focus on my initial idea.

(Holly&Ben Modelling for my styling project, Authors Own)

The photographs above show my final images from the styling & photography workshop, i am fairly pleased with them but it was hard to get people to stay focused and do what i wanted them to. The female model (Holly) is dressed in a white mohair jumper, worn as trousers and two completely different blazers on each arm, i decided to experiment with the way in which the models wore the clothes so that the final shots appeared more interesting and showed my thought process of developing ideas. The male model (Ben) is wearing the same white mohair jumper with a white string vest layered underneath to add more depth to the outfit, he is also wearing a dress tied around his waist creating a whacky appearance, topped off with the white accessory of rosary beads. During the workshop i wasn't very happy with what i thought i had achieved, but on closer inspection at home with a little bit of tweaking and retouching on photoshop i was actually quite pleased with my results.

(Modelling white on white, Author's Own)

The next step following on from the internal workshop was going away and thinking about real models and a real location that i could work with, i decided to carry on the White on White theme and compose my shots using white backgrounds. I thought about this carefully coming to a decision that i am not skilled enough to make a white background appear interesting, so i decided to start a locations diary when i was out and about, recording interesting locations that could be used in my shoots. The Female model is actually a young fashion journalist who is currently working alongside me to strengthen our portfolios, she appears in different white locations around her house wearing white clothes and accessories. Considering the female model was my first external attempt at a photo shoot i was over the moon with the results that we achieved together, the shots are clean and beautiful with a strong sense of fashion to each one, the ideas still have a hint of quirk to them, but i feel that they appear well 'styled' and photographed. Similarly the images of the male model (Joe) appear fresh and somewhat quirk, they were strongly influenced by the evening sunlight pouring through sash windows. In this photo shoot i experimented with white face makeup, i have painted a simple stroke of white paint across his eyes to accentuate his gaze, but i decided that the makeup did not work as part of my shoot, i wanted to keep it simple and the presence of the paint made them look too contrived.

(Idea for magazine spread, Author's Own)
Here i have quickly done a trial mock up of a magazine spread of photoshop to demonstrate how i feel my photographs could be used. 

(Joe against white brick wall, Author's Own)

These are some more photographs of Joe experimenting with different backgrounds, i think these work better because of the contrast between the fresh, crisp white clothes and the decayed white wall. I was aiming to photograph models against backdrops like this but it proved extremely difficult to convince teenage boys to do this in public on a weekend ! Luckily with a bit of persuasion i managed to capture some truly aesthetically pleasing results.

 (George against white church door, Author's Own)

Here i have photographed my friend George against a decayed white church door, he is dressed in a simple zipped roll neck, i decided to get him to interact with the zipper on the jumper so that my images included contrasting poses. I feel that i have exceeded my idea as much as possible and i am genuinely pleased with the outcomes i have produced.