Sooo that's my series :)

'nother folio shot

I'm not entirely sure I am a huge fan of it, but I guess it's not a horrendous shot. The tone is still too warm I think. Shot this with the modelling lamp (no sync cords left in the studio and I ran out of time). This was the shot I was drawing some inspiration from:

Kotaro

Zhang Jigna

zemotion.deviantart.com

So I guess it relates and makes sense to that end. And they sort of work together at the moment:

Moar shoots soon - two (possibly three) models on Sunday, and another one on Tuesday. I decided to include the last one because it largely uses things that I learnt from zemotion - using space, lighting well with a little shadow and a little light on the other side than the main source, and the position is something that I think I drew very much on subconsciously from her. It also has a bit of personal meaning that I like to bring with me, don't think it's obvious, but I like having a shot that means more to you than a pretty face in a series, even if it's in a subtle and personal way. So there we go so far.

Old shots that I just found....

...From the last zemotion attempt. Feels like a long time ago now. I hated them passionately at the time but now I can step back, reedited and at least they're sort of interesting now... Not that I'm proud of them, but I guess it's good to learn from previous times. I didn't have any sort of technical skill at that point which sort of ruined the whole shoot... this is all that i could pull out of it. 

Anyway, there you go, that was early last years attempt. Fail.

Folio Proposal

For my folio, I think I'll be continuing with "conversing" with my favorite photographer's photographs. You can see some of her photos in the post below, but here are some more (these are more of my favorites).

http://www.zhangjingna.com/ her wesite

http://zemotion.blogspot.com/ blog

http://zemotion.deviantart.com/ deviant art account

I think she has a really interesting and varied look at fashion. Last semester I had a crack at fashion but didn't go so well. I think it was largely from lacking direction and motivation with what to do. Taking some of her images and building on them/responding to them I feel is a good way to learn about how to shoot fashion in a way that actually interests me. I found that it was a lot easier to shoot a decent image last week with brief 6 with a specific idea of hers in mind than it was to even begin last semester. It also lends itself to both studio and location work which suits because she shoots both quite evenly.

A few of the things I was looking at working with (which can be seen a bit in the above and below photos) were frame within a frame, oriental themed shoot, negative space, portrait in a landscape, movement, simple but strong (beauty portraits above), the shape of a body and lighting it, and movement/shape of a dress (which I have already shot, see below). This leaves me 7 images to shoot, all with their own look at an aspect of zemotion's shooting style.

It's not so much that I want to copy zemotion at the expense of developing something conceptually stronger, I'll talk about that in a second, but it has more to do with the fact that whilst I think a lot of people think I'm good at using the lights etc, I don't think I am very comfortable with running a fashion shoot - taking other people's time and resources, being the "leader" on a shoot and in particular, I usually don't have a particular image I am trying to pursue, but whenever I do, I find it easier to direct, be confident, and the shot usually looks better. See the difference between the below shot and last semester's folio. While I feel like I have a little bit of that, I'd like to capitalise on it and learn from it.

So that's probably what I'll do. The other thing I suffered from last semester was being indecisive and letting it all get too late, so I think I will do this series either way. Just get on with it. I have nothing to lose really.

The other brief I was keen to develop was the placement/displacement one. I found the brief really interesting to look at from my own standpoint and it was also really interesting to see other people's reactions and interpretations of them. On the other hand, I intentionally made the two photos quite easy to read different things into, it was one of those things where you could tell a lot about the viewer from what they thought. Don't get me wrong, they had a very specific meaning to me which I chose not to share in front of the class, which is part of why I'm not sure it's the best idea to do it for a folio. Food for thought, but I really need to think about it and how I would push it further and whether I'd be ok explaining it. Anyway, we'll see on that one.

Formative Brief 6 - Photographer - Zemotion (Zhang Jigna)

Here's my shot:

The following are zemotion's shots which I took inspiration from... They aren't necessarily my favorite shots, but I love how she has a way of photographing a dress in a non-conventional way, I think she uses movement, shape and texture in a beautiful way and its a take on fashion that I adore, so I wanted to give it a go. Have more zemotion inspired shots around, will post them soon - my placement/displacement were aesthetically inspired by her. Anyway, the following are here images... Link and details at the end.

Zhang Jigna

http://www.zhangjingna.com/ her wesite

http://zemotion.blogspot.com/ blog

http://zemotion.deviantart.com/ deviant art account


And just some similarities between my placement/displacement photos and some of zemotion's.... completely subconscious, I guess her shots are so ingrained into my psyche...

 

 

Cultural indentity, Barking Mad

When we were given this task, I immediately thought of the quote "a society's moral progress can be judged on how it treats its animals" (this quote has many versions said by many different people but this is from Ghandi I believe). In this context, Australia is completely mad. We treat our pets with jackets, designer collars, beds, kennels, toys of every variety and gourmet foods - when those "gourmet" foods are made up of animals that, in many cases, have not had the ability to fulfill basic biological instincts and desires, like chickens who don't even have enough space to spread their wings. I wont list everything here, but will link to a www.whyveg.com. We turn a blind eye to what goes on in the meat industry, passing it off as "being practical about it." And yet, we are so completely mad over our pets. So, I chose to do a photo of someone looking a little bonkers (thank you Lam! but I did also wear a dress for you so, we're even) with a bunch of the crazy crazy dog food around them.

Formative Brief 3 - Song

I chose to look at a song called Sleep by Poets of the Fall. I have loved this band for a long time, they have some amazing songs. I found there was very little already created around this song. It's mostly pictures of people sleeping, or calm images. There isn't even an official video for it yet as far as I can tell. Video (which is pretty awful):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay-suDoSygc

Now here are the lyrics.

Hear your heartbeat
Beat a frantic pace
And it's not even seven AM
You're feeling the rush of anguish settling
You cannot help showing them in
Hurry up then
Or you'll fall behind and
They will take control of you
And you need to heal the hurt behind your eyes
Fickle words crowding your mind

So
Sleep, sugar, let your dreams flood in
Like waves of sweet fire, you're safe within
Sleep, sweetie, let your floods come rushing in
And carry you over to a new morning

Try as you might
You try to give it up
Seems to be holding on fast
It's hand in your hand
A shadow over you
A beggar for soul in your face
Still it don't mater if you won't listen
If you won't let them follow you
You just need to heal
Make good all your lies
Move on and don't look behind

So
Sleep, sugar, let your dreams flood in
Like waves of sweet fire, you're safe within
Sleep, sweetie, let your floods come rushing in
And carry you over to a new morning

Day after day
Fickle visions messing with your head
Fickle, vicious
Sleeping in your bed
Messing with your head
Fickle visions
Fickle, vicious:

Sleep, sugar, let your dreams flood in
Like waves of sweet fire, you're safe within
Sleep, sweetie, let your floods come rushing in
And carry you over to a new morning 




I chose to look at a tiny part of the song, just the opening, despite the fact that I love the whole thing and wanted to take photos for all of it.


Hear your heart beat
Beat a frantic pace
And it's not even seven AM
You're feeling the rush of anguish settling
You cannot help showing them in
...
And you need to heal the hurt behind your eyes
Fickle words crowding your mind


This bit is mostly what I was responding to. I'm a bit of an insomniac and as such, the few moment before the day begins anew are very quiet and peaceful. To me it's the moment between the frantic thoughts and non-stop-ness of the night and gearing your tired self up for another frantic day. I suppose I know that frantic feeling before 7am, I hate it. It's usually followed by a moment of quiet and peace, somehow away from my own stupid mind, and this is what i photographed. This is followed by that anguish, knowing that there is a whole day ahead of you now, and then a sleepless night, and then a day, and so on. 


That moment in the middle is fleeting, and not even mentioned in the song, but the actual music reminds me of that [sane] moment. The music also feels kind of fuzzy and vague, which is how you tend to feel after several nights of no sleep, funnily enough. So anyway, I was going to photograph your usual insomnia thing, of grainy claustrophobic black and whites with a person looking all frantic and stuff (you know the ones, I hardly need to explain them), but I decided to do something different. The thing is that those images are so linked to insomnia, but I find this sort of photograph is more personal to people who actually have it, or have had it. That little in-between moment is something a little bit special to us insomniacs. So enough talking (I'm meant to be a photographer not an english student >.<)

So, I took this photo, i wanted that blurry, soft feeling to the background (yes, very dodgliy done with a filter, long story short computer issues, I could reedit now but I'm kinda ok with it for now, I'll repost later if I do), and I wanted myself just in the picture. My house is way out in the sticks, it's past Queanbeyan and basically the last house before just bush. We get lots of animals, it's quiet and peaceful and feels very away from the city. The bush around there is lovely and I wanted to include a little of it in the photo (any more and you would see my landlord's house =[) so yes. That's my moment. Drinking my tea. About to kick off for another very tired day. 


As people in the class said "wow! you got up so early to take that photo!!"
But up, of course, is relative. Haaaaaaa.