Inspiration #5- Steven Klein

Steven Klein is an American photographer who takes photos of some celebrities and is well-known for his unique take to images. One of the images I have taken inspiration from is this:

One of the main reason this caught my eye is the arrangement of the images. The way he has aligned the pictures gives the image a more interesting take. I like the way the centre looks like an older style of image even though it was taken quite recently. The way they are lined up also reminds me of a film strip which again links back to the time. The effect of the image also looks really effective. I like the way this looks and want to recreate something similar.
 The way the images look blurred even though they aren't shows skill and technique. The model also doesn't look at the camera directly which almost creates a distant relationship from the audience and the photographer. It shows how the three different views are all combined in the one image and 6 small images.

Inspiration #4- Fay Godwin

Fay Godwin is a British photographer who is well known for her landscape photography. Yet she takes the most stunning portraits. One of which is this one:

The reason I like this image and the reason I chose it out of hundreds of results is the colour scheme. I found the sepia effect to really catch my eye as I haven't seen many shots like this recently. Most imagines are in black and white or colour and this is different. 

Another reason I personally like this picture is the framing. I think the way Godwin used the model and the bird cage in a line picture work really well. The fact the cage is above his head makes the picture look longer. I also love the limited detail and the way nothing is taking the focus. This meaning, I like how the picture doesn't have a focus point and if I was to choose a focus point it would be the centre of the image. I can tell the photographer has thought a lot about the audience and linked this with the framing.

She tends to stick with black and white and sepia which I think could maybe link with the emotion of the man. He doesn't look like he is feeling a specific way but the fact the image is quick dark it shows he doesn't feel a specific way, almost his poker face is colour-less?

I want to try and use this technique in some of my work as I feel it would be effective and create a much more interesting image. 

inspire #3 Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier, Self portraits in the street.

These photos I found intriguing as they are so simple that it makes you think. I like how their facial expressions are real as they are just doing daily things. The type of camera is also intriguing as its an older camera so catches your eye linking due to the audience being modern. This type of image is also square so tend to catch attention as it isn't the usual image size we typically see. 

inspire #2 ALINA Bettina Von Zwehl

Bettina Von Zwehl.

Bettina's pictures from research are very minimalistic and I personally felt like because of the simplicity that each image was truly realistic. ALINA is a project that Bettina photographed to highlight the emotions of the people. From online I can find that she played a specific piece of music and saw their reactions. Here is a description I found of the photographic series:

"This series portrays young women photographed at a contemplative moment.  Her subjects sat in a soundproofed space in the dark and were played a mesmeric piece of music by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt called Fur Alina (1976).  During the second half of the piece, bright flash lights were activated and von Zwehl photographed the women still meditating on Pärt’s music.”

These images just caught my eye because of the simplicity and minimalistic feel that Bettina Von Zwehl captured perfectly.  I like the way she keeps the photographs the same yet the lot change is the model and their emotion. This also shows the variety of women and the way the piece of music effects them all differently. 

inspire #1 Irving Penn

Irving Penn. - Nadja Auermann 1994

I chose this picture as it caught my attention out off all of Penn's pictures. Irving Penn uses the B&W effect which creates not only depth but it's very easy to read emotion through the photographers work. I especially focused on the amount of depth in her eyes as It's like she's staring straight at me through the picture and you can see the emotions are genuine. I also love the faded background which is an opposing effect learnt in lesson as the background fades black to white and the face contrasts and fades the opposite direction. Also after taking out more research I found the woman in the photo is a German model so not only is this a beautiful image but a beautiful woman.

PORTRAIT

This is the first project we have been given and therefore I am really excited about it. I want to take lots of images with quality and show advance skill. To do this I want to research multiple photographers and look at their work. From their work I want to take inspiration so when I am taking m own images I keep them in mind. I really looking forwards to producing images in black and white to show emotion and depth but overall really want to take high quality images through the whole project. I am also looking forwards to working with not only digital images but also try and incorporate film photography and look at the different methods. I want to achieve a collection of portraits that show the character of personality of the person in the portraits.