My main point of focus for this project started off with getting inspired by Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2013 fashion show and collection itself. The collection is inspired by honey and bee-keepers. Showcasing the sculpted and structured shapes, which make us study the female form. Strong silhouettes in the collection are underlining the importance of the hip and bust. The show was filled with extravagant tiered corseted, caged and crinoline gowns recreating the shape of the queen bee. Waists were wrapped in golden belts to embrace the female shape and curves. There’s also a hint of erotic within each piece of clothing included, because of the use of specific fabrics and materials such as honeycomb mesh and jacquard. Most women are recognised as being as hard working as bee workers hence how the idea of the collection has come about in the first place. So from the fashion show, I moved to a campaign shot by David Sims, showcasing the collection on a model Raquel Zimmermann. White background and strong light shows off the garments with every visible detail. The model was made to look like a mannequin with stiff poses and a pale skin tone to create a strong look. There was one shot included in the series of a close up portrait of the model, having honey poured down her face. That’s the photograph that I’ve chosen to re-create as my copy image, because I thought re-creating such an iconic fashion photograph would be a challenge that I was willing to accept. After setting for this image, I also found a shoot with Cara Delevingne taken by Mario Testino for Allure Magazine showcasing an avant-garde approach in the art of modern makeup. One of the photographs is also a portrait of the model having foundation pouring down her face and chest. It’s a typical beauty shot with slightly different lighting setting than David Sims’s shot. Both images are fairly similar and both inspired my ideas for the copy and the series. I like the idea of using thicker liquids that look effective on a human body when dripping down. Combining the idea of embracing the female form and how hard-working females are, with the idea of beauty imagery in the fashion world – that’s where my idea for the series was born. I wanted to capture different female body parts with a layer of thick paint pouring down their natural looking bodies with close-ups, no retouching. Shot as it is and how you see it to empower women and how real female bodies look like.
I’ve been inspired by a photographer like Paul Jung. His signature style is sleek, graphic and intriguing. His fresh take on minimalism creates a confident and succinct portfolio while still maintaining a dark sense of curiosity. His subtle and refined colour palette focuses on the illusion of a monochromatic image but is full of nuanced tones, producing a powerful and unique aesthetic. He shows you just enough to leave the viewer wanting more. He has mastered a very significant style which not many would do the way he does it. His simplistic shots of hands gave me an idea for my first shoot for the series. Where I’ve focused on my model’s hands and placed lilac paint all over. The next photographer who inspired my series is Alexandra Von Fuerst. Her work shifts between different themes, starting from the relation between subject and space, to the sculptural aspect of the body and finally to the study of shapes, textures and colours. The body in her current production becomes plastic, it loses itself in the environment, becoming an object in space. Her work is a lot about colour matching objects with the space behind (backdrops, walls etc). She uses soft pastel colour palette as a key recognition of her work. I am intrigued by her use of lighting. There’s no single shadow dropping anywhere, everything is carefully planned and thought about. All her photograph are like a canvas, a piece of art has been created with every single shot. There’s a contemporary approach at beauty and fashion shots which works well with an idea of mine. Alexandra Von Fuerst inspired the use of different colour backdrops and matching them with the specific colour paint being used on the day of the shoot. The last thing I was inspired by is a company called The Arts Room London. I’ve stumbled across their Instagram page a while back now, it’s a London based photography and film studio where outstanding work is taking place. I feel like this page has given me many inspirations to do with my final idea for the series, focusing on colour matching liquids with studio backdrops. The work that is produced there focuses on simplicity, colour matching backdrops and different props and items with a clever use of framework and angles. This sort of work made me reconsider different angles, poses and ways of cropping my images.
Photographically speaking, composition of my images was very important because with each shoot I was focusing on one section of a female’s body. I wanted the series to look simplistic and fresh, only focusing on one thing – the body part that is being photographed and the match of colour paint with a backdrop to make it more visually appealing. Lighting wise, I went for using three different light sources when shooting my copy and the series. Two hard lights were being used to light the background and to fill in the shadows on the outline of my object and I had one soft box coming from the top to light the middle of the subject with a softer light. I’ve also used two black boards to keeps as much light as I can in my framework, they were placed next to the hard lights on the sides of my model. Colour wise, I stuck with the idea of matching the backdrop with the colour paint I was using with every shoot. Making sure the lighting is far enough not to change the tone of backdrop too drastically. I feel like it’s hard to define the genre of my series, it falls somewhere in-between contemporary, fashion and feminist photography.
When shooting the copy, I’ve learned many useful skills about using studio lighting and the distance between the backdrop, object and light that has to be kept in order to end up with the result that you want and how certain shoots can be very time consuming if you want to get it all right. The only weakness in this matter would be when I had an assistant pouring the honey all over my model’s head and face and having to capture it as precise as I could. The honey doesn’t run the same way as it does in the original image, but it’s very hard to recreate a liquid pouring down in the exactly same way.
Shooting the series made me challenge myself when using a medium format equipment that I haven’t used properly before. I had to be extra careful with the shots I was taking since I was only getting 10 shots per shoot, because of the 120 film. If given more time, I’d re-shoot one of my shoots because of the amount of shadows appearing that I didn’t actually want and I’d also start my colour printing earlier than I did. Getting everything right with one print is very time consuming. My final prints look slightly rushed.
