Still Life Photography

Once Fashion Photography was finished we moved right into Still Life Photography – which is basically the promotion of fashion items without using a model or alive person, just like when doing art and getting a fruit bowl and drawing it.

I did a chose of who I was going to aim this project at. The choices were: Dazed & Confused, Karen or Wonderland. Since my last project was based on i-D I decided to move on to a more higher/upmarket publication to show diversity in my portfolio and that I can work to many different brief and market levels including aiming at diverse target markets. The good thing about Wonderland is that they are a creative embracing magazine and have so many unique style photoshoots for promotion.

We had to research into 8 photographers, that were not normally fashion photographers as they all had different and unique styles. After this we moved into taking 4 of them and collection 4 fashion objects (accessories) which represent them making it 16 objects all together. For this we had to photograph them in a studio against a white background. As this was the first time of me using the studio since the first week at uni it was quite daunting but it was easy to use and now have skills in working in that environment. The photographers which I chose to base this shoot of were:

•       Richard Billingham
•      Kevin Cummins
•       Martin Parr
•       Pierre et Gilles

I had lost of different compositions and displays of the objects but I had to choose one which represented the photographer. Keeping in mind that it had to be appropriate to Wonderland.

These are my studio images of the photographers:

Richard Billingham

Kevin Cummins

Martin Parr

Pierre et Gilles

Moving onto location photoshoot we could use the photographers that we used for the studio, however I decided to change Pierre et Gills to Nan Goldin. We had to select 4 fashion accessories which were contemporary and would have been featured in the publication. We photographed the objects in the style of each photographer making it 16 images for the final. It had to promote and advertise the product.

From all of the learning through the module all about the juxtapositions and to think out of the box had to show if we were given these products by the magazine to photograph and promote.

Richard Billingham

I thought of many different locations for him but I wanted to keep to simple. His work is mostly known for “Rays a Laugh” and images about dirty places. So for him I decided to use a dirty plughole that I think goes well with the products shape such as the ring as it is circular and the roundness of the sunglasses.

Kevin Cummins

He photographs in Manchester LAD culture and football. So for this location I decided to use a brick wall just like at a football stadium grounds.

Martin Parr

His work is essentially British are on holiday such as Holiday Showdown like in Benidorm, Blackpool or Butlins. This false image of glamour/sophistication which his subject are trying to show like with fake nails, tan and cheap jewellery. Therefore taking all of this into consideration I decided to look at the foods which these types of people would eat on holiday so I went along to my local chippy and used this as my location a home away from home.

Nan Goldin

Her work is best known during the 1980s photographing and documenting the creative underground subculture of New York. By studying her images I used this to inspire my location of old furniture with soft lighting which would have been in the flats of the subjects.