Blogger Style

The return to University is not pretty, my dissertation and projects are haunting me in my sleep! However the return to Wales does mean that I'm able to snap more street style images of my favourite fashion blogger Parris.

Alexander James Interiors

I am passionate about architecture and am a keen interiors enthusiast also. Last year I assisted Alexander James, a lifestyle and interiors photographer, for several weeks on a number of amazing shoots in London. Alex has shot for World of Interiors, Country Life and two other main publications that I assisted him with - The Sunday Times and Living etc. I thoroughly enjoyed assisting Alex, I learnt a lot about photographing interiors, lighting, set-up and how meticulous you have to be! 'Move that 1cm to the left, no back 3cm, no back the other way!' was the usual talk of the day! There were long days, hundreds of angles to photograph from but it was SO worth it seeing them in the magazine a weeks later, plus keeping the owners dogs and cats in and out of images was fun! Below are some image spreads that I assisted on - shot by Alex for The Times Magazine. These images came from Vinny Lee's blog, the editor of the publication.

Space

These are a few images I have taken for my latest project, temporarily named 'Space.' The project is about viewing this estate as a Utopia, seeing it as it was meant to be seen. 

Maurizio Anzeri

I studied Maurizio Anzeri's photo embroidery during my Art Foundation year at my local college. I was studying mental health issues, specifically schizophrenia and found his work relative. The sewn patterns stemming from figures eye's, covering their face and sometimes more reminded me of how schizophrenia takes over someones mind, and how it could change a persons identity. Maurizio Anzeri sews into found vintage photographs. These are a selection of my favourite. As well as the individual portraits Anzeri has manipulated group photographs also. Each image has its own individual embroidery, the shapes are unique, each colour, direction and pattern made suggests a different and new identity. A new life for the forgotten, unidentified people in the photos.

Round Midnight
This is a vintage 'glamour shot'. The artist has sewn a veil to protect the girls modesty. 

Penny

Family

I find Anzeri's group pieces extremely interesting. So many conclusions can be drawn form these images. The shapes and colours of the threads create new persona's for these people. The thread work and new visual aesthetics force the vintage image to become up-to-date, a contemporary portrait. 

The artists work has inspired many others. In 2011 the artist collaborated with photographer Richard Burbridge for an incredible editorial, 'It Came From The Sky.'  The thread work on these already contemporary images adds graphic and abstract elements. My favourite artists and photographers are always changing however Maurizio Anzeri will always remain one! 

More can be seen on my favourite website, Trendland. 

Flip Dujardin's Impossible Architecture

Belgian photographer Flip Duhardin exhibits his latest photo series, "Architectures Imaginaires" in San Franciscos's Highlight Gallery, March 19th. Originally a standard architectural photographer he became bored with the all too ordinary, all too-real structures. I've looked into Duhardin's work because similarly to mine (coming soon) he distorts architecture and plays with the audience. Sometimes the manipulation is hard to decipher, sometimes it is blatantly obvious.
'Adding shadows, that's the main trick,' Dujardin told ELLE Decor. 'The building becomes real if the shadows are well done.'
Below are a few images from the project.

Denis Darzacq – La Chute

Denis Darzacq – La Chute 2005 – 2006 French photographer Denis Darzacq wanted to respond to the ignored youth in suburban housing after the 2005 riots in France. In 2006 he dreamt up ‘La Chute,’ meaning The Fall, being partly inspired by the 9/11 falling people. Darzacq visited hip-hop, dance and break dance shows around Paris to find his subjects, asking them to collaborate with him and recreate a move he had photographed them doing in the show, in a different location for his project. His images were very successful, the audience didn’t know how these people were in these positions, this was the photographers intention, he wanted his work to be open to interpretation. Taken in an urban area not specific of any arrondissement in Paris, location in France nor of any other country, Darzacq wanted his images to be relatable to everyone. The ground floor windows, doors and blinds are boarded up and closed, the artist responded by saying that crime exits in Paris, no one on a ground floor flat in the capital had an open window, everyone is scared of each other. (The Guardian March24th 2007). This significance of closed blinds and doors also had meaning to Darzacq, he questioned; who would see these people fall? A child fall? Will anyone notice them and care? There are references to the French film La Haine, watching it you learn the character Hubert repeatedly saying ‘Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good... so far so good... so far so good. How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land!’ Shot a moment before landing Darzacq’s technique created tension, putting the forgotten youth back in the viewers minds. 

Karen Inderbitzen Editorial

In this editorial Karen Inderbitzen shoots Rag Simons s/s 2013 menswear collection, for Black Magazine. I loved reading the credits to find a female wearing menswear. The poses aren’t too stretched or far-fetched for a fashion shoot which is what I prefer, they mirror surroundings and engage in the environment and buildings, even just standing straight creates a line which runs parallel to elements within the image. The clothes are very structured, with sharp lines and mostly block colours, this helps them to stand out against the concrete environment. 

Shadows. An Urban Fashion Story.

MINI SHOOT. I wanted to have a play at shooting an architectural inspired story, a test shoot to help narrow down my ideas for my final project at uni. My model PARRIS and I styled the shoot together keeping mainly to one outfit and just alternating the layers underneath. Keeping the styling quite similar for the shoot helped to create and keep a narrative throughout the different locations. 

I was really interested in having my model engage with the different shapes and lines of the architecture around her, we also played with the light and strong shadows made by the structures to help emphasise their strength. 

http://www.hayleynashphotography.co.uk/

 

Giasco Bertoli – Tennis Courts

When researching my previous post about Ward Roberts photo series – Courts, I discovered a comparison to Giasco Bertoli’s -Tennis Courts.

“I started photographing empty tennis courts in southern Switzerland in 1999, on the border to Italy. The work came about by chance. Some time after I’d moved to Paris, I was back in Switzerland, walking in the woods near were I grew up and I came across an abandoned tennis court. I photographed that one, then courts around the neighbourhood where I grew up, and have continued to photogragraph deserted tennis courts ever since. In general I think about images from my adolescence and also think of the visual experiences I’ve had with film as an experience of real life.”
Giasco Bertoli, Spring 2009

http://www.giascobertoli.com

I find his images equally as eye catching as Roberts’ Court series, both shot in a similar way. There’s something about deserted places that I love, especially when shown un-embellished and simply.  Here are a selection of my favourites.

Ward Roberts

Ward Roberts series ‘Courts.’ 

Courts is a project photographed over 4 years, shot on film. Roberts documented sports courts around the world in places such as Hong Kong, Melbourne, Bali, New York and London. Photographed nearly always empty, these images feel stark and eery, emphasised or contrasted by their location and colours. I am attracted to the lines, colour and symmetry within them.

I think his book will now be on my christmas list!

Check out my other favourite Ward Roberts projects, ‘Minimum’ and ‘Billions’ on his website >> http://www.wardrobertsphoto.com