Portraits DWB:
The last portrait taken of Mac Miller before his death in September 2018, by Christaan Felber for NY magazine. I like the contrast of light and dark tones in the picture, but also how the focus of the image gives the subject matter lots of detail in the foreground and middle of the image only, which draws you to the hidden face and peaking eye. Mac does not give much away in this picture as he is hiding his face but I think everything that he wants us to know can be taken from the look in the one feature he is showing us.
Portrait of $crim of SuicideBoys, taken by Parisian photographer and graffiti artists ABOVEGROUND in New Orleans in the Mississippi River. Again in this image it is framed quite simply with the subject pretty much front and centre, and the background blurred from detail, but still identifiable as a river bank. $crim does not have to do to much in the way of posing, as he is already very interesting to look at with so many defining feature and tattoos but despite this he still gives attitude to the camera. The lighting and river setting bring a nice palette of soft colours to the picture as well
A picture of Burna Boy taken by Kojo Dwimoh taken at a show in Accra Ghana. The simplicity of this picture makes it very striking and beautiful. With Burna Boy being spotlit on the stage and mid performance against a black background there is little to the image to focus on aside from the subject, and especially highlight his jewellery and skin tone, whilst contrasting the two against each other. I think also this image projects the star power of someone like Burna Boy, as it shows he does not need to be against a vibrant background or dress particularly flamboyantly to hold a presence on the stage.
Vice magazine research:
Vice is a Canadian-American magazine founded in 1994. The magazine initially started as a response to the alternative punk scenes that the founders were part of but rather quickly grew into a multi media platform concerned with a wide array of journalism. The journalistic style of Vice mag is something of the new era, with there being less focus on reporting objective fact and current affairs, and more on introspective, investigative journalism into issues and subculture particularly. Vice is a highly stylised and topical magazine, with the images and content being highly cohesive to the issue theme which varies greatly from issue to issue. Issues have been focused on The Syrian War, to bodily functions.
Reverse engineering:
Thinking about why images are stimulating to us in some way can be broken down into the various aspects that go into taking a picture. By working backwards from a finished image we can gain insight into the process of taking it.
Composition:
How is it shot
What is in and out of the frame
Foreground and background
Simplicity vs Complexity
Lighting:
What is being highlighted by the lighting
What direction is the light coming from
The mood of the lighting
Where are the shadows
Depth of field:
What is being concentrated on in the frame
Important for setting
Is there depth of field being manipulated
Framing:
What is being put in the image
Where is it within the frame
Where is the subject looking/perspective
Pose:
Requirement of direction from the photographer dependent on the experience and feelings of the subject
Birds eye view lighting diagram
Cross sectional lighting diagram
Dizzee Rascals Boy In Da Corner (2003) cover. I want this image to be the main inspiration for my cover image, and I will use grime covers and UK rap artists to inspire my project as a whole.
Further inspiration for the shoot:
Test shoot images:
A quick tester for the Cover inspired by the Boy In Da Corner album cover by Dizzee Rascal. I think using having the subject in a corner in the cover will make for an interesting shot, not only because it is recognisable, but I think its actually quite well proportioned in the frame and I like the way the angle is quite aggressive. For me it also fits the theme of radical change, as the media often portrays young people, especially males to be violent offenders when discussing knife crime etc. I am aiming to flip the script with this picture, showing that it is actually the young people who are being cornered and poked to aggress by their environment. The link to grime and UK Rap in the cover image will also be appropriate as this is the kind of story/spread that Vice and I-D has built their reputation on, and also Boy In Da Corner is very much the opus for Introducing grime into wide critical reception, being the first Rap album to win a mercury prize.
The Final Shoot:
I think that overall the final shoot turned out to be a big improvement on my previous effort both technically and ideas wise. I say this because I think this set of images of a lot more intricacy in the composition and use of colours, but also I think you can see a lot from the subject himself and the emotion on his face. Also the inside spread and cover image show some variety whilst still looking cohesive in my opinion, and adding some variation was one of my biggest areas for improvement from the last shoot. I also think using a proper manual exposure has also added another layer of technical skill to the image, and the prudence of that know how is being shown in the quality of the image, it being well lit and the details pretty much being in focus. I also think that this is quite similar to something that you would see in an actual vice magazine which is always a plus point. I am happy with how this has come out and I'm proud to show this work.
