Wednesday 17 October 2012

Fashion Photography

A portrait image is a picture that focuses on the person in the photograph, its meant to be a life like photo which expresses an accurate interpretation of the person, however most of them now are edited, and the camera can lie, because the subject can pose, so as to not be captured 'naturally'.

A fashion photograph is a picture which is meant to focus on the clothes the model is wearing, however now-a-days the picture focuses more on the models physique. More-over most of the pictures for fashion magazines, are now edited a lot using Photoshop, However they don’t edit the clothes, just the models used.

Portraiture and fashion photography are similar because they both feature taking pictures of people, the main difference is being, Fashion photography is supposed to be focused on the clothes, and making this superhuman image whereas portraiture is meant to be a kind of insight into the person’s life, their facial expressions normally express what they are like. Portraiture is normally unscripted, whereas fashion photography is normally heavily scripted. Fashion photography is the most scripted of all the types of photography there is.

I think that it’s okay to edit fashion photographs to a degree, but i feel that it is wrong to edit the models figure. Most of the models have been edited to a degree that they appear almost inhuman, i feel that it is wrong for women to be looking up to a superficial role model. I think photo shopping pictures is morally wrong.

Cecil Beaton was a famous fashion and portraiture photographer from the 1940's to 1950's, He is known as the man who single handily invented the fashion fantasy. He made models appear dreamlike and the clothes they’re wearing appear even better. Most of the scenes he created and shot were very stylistic, he expressed more than just the clothes, he shown locations they would fit into and this has influenced fashion photography today.

Cecil Beaton's most famous fashion photograph was a fashion based photograph of a girl wearing a hat while shes 'poping out' of a box -



This photo was verry different to other types of fashion photographs at the time that it was taken, The picture was considered very innovative and inspired lots of famous fashion sets. The composition of the photo really helps the viewer focus on the model. The fact that the model is in a box makes it seem like shes a pressent and the fact that she is facing away from the camera almost makes her look like a manakin head, modeling the hat, maybe this is what Cecil was trying to achieve, by keeping the viewers eyes on the hat it would sell the product properly.


Grace Coddington was very inspired by Cecil Beaton's sets, which took fashion photography to a new level, focusing more on the 'set' than on the model. You can see the inspiration in Grace's sets -
 As you can see the sets in Grace's shoots are very heavyily scene based which help focus your eyes on the clothes and not the model, this is a very good way to sell clothes. Also the props Grace uses puts the clothes in a scene giving the viewer idea's of what they would look like wearing them in every day life.
 
 






Wednesday 3 October 2012

Portaiture

A portrait is defined as 'a likeness of a person, especially of the face, as a painting, drawing, or photograph' by the dictionary. Portraiture is basically capturing a 'pose' where as photojournalism is capturing the visual side of an event or occasion.

Portraiture has been around for years, but not in camera form, portraits used to be painted of rich or royal people and in a way it has stayed this way, but with the invention of camera's everyone can take a self 'portrait' photo, Although they may not all express the characteristics of a 'proper' portrait photo.

Tony Vaccaro's portraiture was well known for the way that he didn't like the subject to control the shot, going strongly against this stereotypical portrait method, when he was taking portrait pictures, he would wait until the target wasn't posing, so as to capture the real them. He used this when photographing Picasso. This creates a more honest picture that reflects the personality of the subject more than a posed image. Although he acknowledged that it was his job to 'place celebrities onto a pedestal'. Vaccaro would like to bring the subjects out of their comfort zones.

In contrast to Vaccaro's famous decisive moments, most portrait shots are taken of people posing. The subject will pose and be captured while they are expecting a picture to be taken, Vaccaro's portraits however capture the person as they really are. There is a truth to Vaccaro's portraits in the way that the subject is not expecting a picture and they are not 'lying' to the camera by posing. Portrait shots are notoriously posed and there for are not the real subjects image. Smiles can be faked and frowns can be hid. Portraiture is a lie, covering up the truth of how the person really appears, in everyday situations, although they are used everyday in the form of ID's and profile pictures. 

Photographers have wanted to show more through their pictures. They didn't want to just show what a person looks like, they wanted to express some characteristics and the only way to do this was to capture them unsuspectingly.

In portraiture we expect the picture to be posed, which gives a slight insight to the truth behind the method. With photojournalism we are meant to be being told a story, although you can't see whats really happening , only a single frame of the moment. So in a way they both lie, making us out to believe the pose or the frame.

Portraiture can be shown anywhere from a £5 note to a gallery. Most of Vaccaro's work is now in art museums and the famous Leica Camera museum.



Tuesday 2 October 2012

Thomas Hoepker Profile

Thomas Hoepker Profile

Thomas Hoepker was a photographer born in Munich in Germany. He is a member of a company called magnum photos , which is known for its glossy looking pictures and vivid colours.

Hoepker started out taking pictures at just 16 years old when he recieved an old camera from his grandfather. He developed all his images from home and made a little money on the side selling some of his printings to friends and family.

In school hoepker studied archaeology,  art and history at Goettingen, in Munich, Germany, while there he also gave breif lessons on images and composition. While in education Hoepker also sold pictures on the side to help finance himself. Hoepker was an inspiration showing how independant you can get. In 1960 he started work as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall, in which he traveled the world and reported the news.

Then in 1964 he began work for Stern magazine, soon after this he began temporary work as a TV cameraman making documentaries. In 1976 both he and his wife moved to newyork in search for work. Hoepker made it big when he became the director of photography for american GEO magazine.

Over his years Hoepker had many huge accomplishments, He had several exhibitions in his name and multiple films made. He also won 2 awards for his work, , the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Photographie, in 1968 and a first prize for Death in a Cornfield, a TV film on Guatemala, from the German ministry of foreign aid, 1999

Thomas Hoepker Analysis


Thomas Höpker Analysis

               http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/9/2/1314964814888/Young-people-chat-as-the--005.jpg - 27th September 2012
In the devastation that was 911 Thomas Höpker (76) managed to capture a group of Americans who ‘appear’ to relax while the twin towers were collapsing, but this is not the case. Don’t be fooled by the bright colours and relaxed feel to this image. The foreground of the image visually contradicts the terror in the background while the people seemingly relaxing in the sun are actually devastated about what has happened. Höpker callously decided not to ask them how they felt, leaving us ‘the audience’ to guess. Höpker also decided to withhold the publishing of this image until many years after the shocking event, why?

Maybe Höpker didn’t want to shun America, Visually shaming our ‘youth’ for not caring, there are many aspects of this image to take in, one aspect is the foreground, which gives us the feel of that relaxing Sunday afternoon by the sea, another being the ‘careless’ stance of the lady laying down. The image is visually deceiving, I’m sure if they had been closer to the event, the bike would not be propped against a wall, it would have been thrown to the ground, and the person laying back, giving the viewer a “I don’t care” stance would have been displaying signs of panic and stress.

Höpker foolishly decided to leave the image without a quote to caption how they were feeling about the event, so there was no way of us knowing the thoughts in their heads. He decided to leave it open for the viewer to distinguish, which given the bright colours and nature of the group, was a bad idea.

One of the subjects, who, sarcastically referred to themselves as  ”disaffected sunbathing youth” was angry at the nature of the photograph due to its false ‘claims’ to her feelings.
Another of the people Walter Sipster (far right) said that he and his girlfriend who were sunbathing were actually ‘"in a profound state of shock and disbelief".

The juxtaposition of the bright sunny morning and the deep shadows, suggests that the sun was almost at its best, while in the background is dulled which makes the picture seem ‘faked’ the juxtaposition between the foreground and the background gives the effect of two pictures edited together.

We associate the groups ‘summery’ clothes with a beautiful sunny autumn morning, this almost multiplies the shocking imagery in the background by showing how much of a surprise 911 was, it almost seems completely unexpected and it was.

 If you compare this image to other images of 911 there is a huge difference. Usually they would contain ‘disaster’ pictures, focusing on the death and destruction of the event, this picture however makes you almost overlook the background making the disaster become unnoticeable.

All the colour of the image is in the front of the picture, which draws the eye away from the terror in the background. The group almost give a happy vibe, contrasting against all the death and destruction unfolding in front of them.

Content Producer Job Role



i researched the content producer job role in radio, The job basically consists of editing live feed for web viewers, socially networking the latest from your company and editing photos of interviewee's.