Approach essay
Introduction:
For my graded unit project I plan to take photographs of people I've met throughout my year and a half in Glasgow and Edinburgh, these people live completely different lives with their careers being completely different. I and these people share a mutual love for kendama which is a Japanese skill toy that is believed to originate during the 18th century, as there's a small community of us in both Glasgow and Edinburgh we all stay in touch and treat each other like a family. Since my closest family is 200 miles away in Inverness, the majority of the time these people are my second family. I want to take portraits of them playing kendama in their work outfits or something that represents their life, taking inspiration from James Mollison's project ‘The Disciples’ where he puts all the photos into one, I want to take photos with a similar light setup to Clean white project done earlier this year and merge the photographs into one panoramic image. The reason I want to display my photographs this way is to make it look like a large family photo that shares one simple love, kendama.
James Mollison (1973- present) Main inspiration: ‘The Disciples’ project 2005 - 2011
James Mollison is a British photographer born in Kenya who grew up in England, this award-winning photographer started his pursuit of becoming an artist at Oxford Brookes University studying Art and Design before continuing his further education at Newport School of Art and Design where he studied Film and Photography. After finishing his education he decided to move to Italy where he worked at Benetton’s creative lab located in Fabrica, which is only 28 miles outside Venice. Between the years 2011 and 2014 Mollison worked as a creative editor employed by Colours magazine where he worked alongside another British photographer Patrick Waterhouse. James' project from 2005 called ‘The Disciples’ where he photographed people outside concerts has heavily inspired my idea for my graded unit project, the people he took photos of were attending concerts like Madonna, Oasis, 50 Cent and Arctic Monkeys to name a few artists. Each one of the people he photographed represented the artist they were there to see, Mollison would bring a small set up with him where he would have a background and some lights to imitate the look of a photography studio. After he took a series of images he would join them together in post-production, as a result, a series of a few images he took at different times look like one wide photo including all of the images.
Oasis 2005
Arctic Monkeys 2006
50 Cent 2007
Reference and image source
https://www.jamesmollison.com/the-disciples
https://www.jamesmollison.com/about
Richard Avedon (1923-2004)
PH Richard Avedon was born in 1923 in New York where he grew up and where he became a photographer at the age of 12 after joining Young Men's Hebrew Association or YMHA for short, Avedon was also a co-editor of The Magpie which was his school's literary magazine run by DeWill Clinton High School in Bronx, New York. In 1942 Avedon joined the U.S Merchant Marine as Photographer's Mate Second Class, during his service in World War 2 he stated “My job was to do identity photographs. I must have taken pictures of one hundred thousand faces before it occurred to me I was becoming a photographer." Which led him to become a professional photographer after two years of service, starting as a freelancer mainly working with Harper's Bazaar, after he was denied the use of a studio he started photographing fashion models in unique locations like the beach, nightclubs, the streets or the circus. His inventiveness massively helped him to become Harpers Bazaar's lead photographer, in 1965 he quit his work with the magazine and started working with Vogue. After working with Vogue for over 20 years Avedon also became the first staff photographer at The New Yorker, his work over the years has helped to redefine the aesthetic of the magazine. Over Avedon's career starting at 22 his work was displayed at 11 galleries and museums, Richard Avedon age 81 passed away after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage whilst working for the new yorker in Antonio texas 2004. After a 60 year long career as a photographer, writing multiple books and establishing The Richard Avedon Foundation, after his death, his work was showcased 9 more times across 3 out of the 7 continents
Reference
https://www.avedonfoundation.org/exhibitions
https://www.avedonfoundation.org
Terry Richardson (1965-present)
Terrence Richardson was born in 1965 in New York City to a mother who was an actress and a father who was a fashion photographer, he wanted to become a musician playing multiple bands as a bass guitarist at a young age following his parent's divorce and moving to California. In 1982 his mother gave him his first camera, he used the camera to photograph his life and the punk rock scene in Ojai, California. 10 years later he quit his music career and moved back to new york to photograph the nightlife in the city, his first work was published 2 years after he moved back to New York his work was published in Vibe magazine in 1994. Following that success, his work was featured in Paris at the International Festival de la Mode the same year. This has massively helped his career as he, later on, started working with The Rolling Stones Magazine, Vogue, GQ and brands like Supreme and Marc Jacobs. Richardsons' first solo showcase of work was at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles in 2012, later that year Lady Gaga has also announced that Richardson is filming a documentary about her. After 25 years of leading a career as a photographer, he retired with 14 publications of his work across the world in countries like Brazil, Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Richardson