Beauty, Fashion and Portrait Photography...
Traditionally women are photographed using lighting techniques that will reduce blemishes and imperfections in skin and produce angles and shadows that are used to ‘shape’ the model and make them look slimmer. High Key lighting is seen as more ‘flattering’ for women as it bleaches out the skin, eliminating all shadows, making the skin look flawless.
Women also tend to be photographed from an elevated angle emphasizing the size of the eyes and making them look slimmer. In contemporary fashion, beauty and portrait photography we can see these rules being broken.
Another issue that ties in with this is that Fashion has been a male photographer dominated industry for a considerable amount of time, now obviously women are dominating fashion and beauty photography more and more. Do men and women photograph women differently? I think this question is relevant to my work as I am a female photographer photographing women. Also the main model i have used is my sister, which i think effects greatly how i have photographed her. For example i was a lot more comfortable and confident directing her than i was with my other model's and as a result i have produced more successful images in terms of composition and poses. Also i could be a lot more sensitive towards her, making her feel comfortable in front of the camera.
Air brushing and excessive editing is prevalent throughout the industry but is a controversial issue within the fashion and beauty industry. The media is blamed for distorting our views of ‘true’ and ‘real’ beauty. The Dove Real Beauty Campaign is a perfect example of this, using women of all shapes and sizes and being regarded as ‘real’ women rather than size zero, air brushed models. The advert ‘Evolution’ also shows how much an image is digitally manipulated before it is used in an advert.
Considering Martin Parr as an example, his collaborative work with the designer Paul Smith involved photographing real people on the streets as the basis for the advertising of Paul Smith’s Autumn/Winter 07 collection. Can this be considered a more honest approach to fashion photography?
‘The people were delighted to be photographed; unlike real models they were dead chuffed to be wearing Paul Smith and in the end it's us ordinary people who wear the clothes rather than the models,’
I have considered most of these issues within my work.
I have chosen to use low-key lighting to emphasize form, texture and contrast and to create more of a dramatic impact. I have photographed my models from a variety of angles and compositions, with my main concern to create an interesting image rather than sticking to any ‘rules’ of how women should be photographed.
I have chosen to use minimal editing, simply desaturating my images and slightly adjusting levels. There has been no airbrushing of the model's skin.
Bettina von Zwehl photographs her subjects in moments of vulnerability: after waking up, holding their breath, standing in the rain, listening to music in a dark room. The physically extreme or bizarre conditions she imposes upon her sitters captures them at the threshold of their private, inner world and the donning of their public persona. The sparse compositions and stark lighting forces us to focus on the details in each: freckles, blemishes, flushed cheeks, red noses, tired eyes, wrinkles, and dishevelled hair.
In the "Rain" series of portraits from 2003, Bettina von Zwehl references the cinematic use of the advent of rain to suggest a psychological turning point. Although her photographic portraits are reached through a systematic means of observation that relates directly to the Becher tradition, the encounters that she sets up with her sitters are pre-arranged and theatrically contrived. In this real yet make-believe downpour, the psychological state of her sitters is both manufactured and documentary. The artist attempts to reveal a truth about her sitter that a more conventional sitting would inhibit, but is prepared to enter into an untruth to achieve that result.
These images can be considered quite similar to my photographs involving talc.
I had never come across this work before and I found it very interesting. It can be related to the issues I discussed earlier about representing real people in fashion. Bettina Von Zwehl has tried to evoke and portray real emotions within her work and therefore given us a true representation of the subject. Although this is loosely linked to my final images it is definitely something I will look into in future.
Women also tend to be photographed from an elevated angle emphasizing the size of the eyes and making them look slimmer. In contemporary fashion, beauty and portrait photography we can see these rules being broken.
Another issue that ties in with this is that Fashion has been a male photographer dominated industry for a considerable amount of time, now obviously women are dominating fashion and beauty photography more and more. Do men and women photograph women differently? I think this question is relevant to my work as I am a female photographer photographing women. Also the main model i have used is my sister, which i think effects greatly how i have photographed her. For example i was a lot more comfortable and confident directing her than i was with my other model's and as a result i have produced more successful images in terms of composition and poses. Also i could be a lot more sensitive towards her, making her feel comfortable in front of the camera.
Air brushing and excessive editing is prevalent throughout the industry but is a controversial issue within the fashion and beauty industry. The media is blamed for distorting our views of ‘true’ and ‘real’ beauty. The Dove Real Beauty Campaign is a perfect example of this, using women of all shapes and sizes and being regarded as ‘real’ women rather than size zero, air brushed models. The advert ‘Evolution’ also shows how much an image is digitally manipulated before it is used in an advert.
Considering Martin Parr as an example, his collaborative work with the designer Paul Smith involved photographing real people on the streets as the basis for the advertising of Paul Smith’s Autumn/Winter 07 collection. Can this be considered a more honest approach to fashion photography?
‘The people were delighted to be photographed; unlike real models they were dead chuffed to be wearing Paul Smith and in the end it's us ordinary people who wear the clothes rather than the models,’
Martin Parr (http://www.wallpaper.com/fashion/martin-parr/paul-smith-project/1589)
I have considered most of these issues within my work.
I have chosen to use low-key lighting to emphasize form, texture and contrast and to create more of a dramatic impact. I have photographed my models from a variety of angles and compositions, with my main concern to create an interesting image rather than sticking to any ‘rules’ of how women should be photographed.
I have chosen to use minimal editing, simply desaturating my images and slightly adjusting levels. There has been no airbrushing of the model's skin.
In terms of imagery it has been pointed out to me that some of my images look like stills from films such as Sin City. I did intend my lighting to be quite cinematic and theatrical, as I was very much influenced by Glen Luchford’s lighting techniques. Bettina Von Swehl’s series of photographs ‘Rain’ have been described as having a ‘cinematic allure’. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DF133EF931A25750C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=)
Bettina von Zwehl photographs her subjects in moments of vulnerability: after waking up, holding their breath, standing in the rain, listening to music in a dark room. The physically extreme or bizarre conditions she imposes upon her sitters captures them at the threshold of their private, inner world and the donning of their public persona. The sparse compositions and stark lighting forces us to focus on the details in each: freckles, blemishes, flushed cheeks, red noses, tired eyes, wrinkles, and dishevelled hair.
( Paragraph from http://www.worldclassboxing.org/exhibit_inrepose.php)
In the "Rain" series of portraits from 2003, Bettina von Zwehl references the cinematic use of the advent of rain to suggest a psychological turning point. Although her photographic portraits are reached through a systematic means of observation that relates directly to the Becher tradition, the encounters that she sets up with her sitters are pre-arranged and theatrically contrived. In this real yet make-believe downpour, the psychological state of her sitters is both manufactured and documentary. The artist attempts to reveal a truth about her sitter that a more conventional sitting would inhibit, but is prepared to enter into an untruth to achieve that result.
(Paragraph from http://www.likeyou.com/archives/fiction_taylorgallery_04.htm)
These images can be considered quite similar to my photographs involving talc.
I had never come across this work before and I found it very interesting. It can be related to the issues I discussed earlier about representing real people in fashion. Bettina Von Zwehl has tried to evoke and portray real emotions within her work and therefore given us a true representation of the subject. Although this is loosely linked to my final images it is definitely something I will look into in future.
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