I have decided to construct a shoot taking heavy influence from Rankin and his new 'Hunger' launch, the majority of shots within this magazine hold dominant experimental values and this is really interesting to me. One of the images that especially excites me is one with a platinum blonde model with bright red lip stick and bright blue tights over her head. Not only does originality flow from this shot I believe there is an underlying sexual tone that features a shocking and vivid expression that really caught my eye. I decided to use this image as the main inspiration for the shoot and this was the shot I took in as a reference.
I did not however just want to merely copy this image concept I wanted to take what I liked about it and turn it into something more original to me. I just loved how animated the model was in the frame and for me this was the selling point to the image, I thought that the choice of costume allowed these types of expression to be played with and so thats why I kept the tights and the bright lip stick but aimed to turn the mood into something a little more dark and surreal.
Concept:
The whole idea was to create an image that spoke as loudly as Rankin's image did but with a slightly different message. I wanted a bold image with lots to say but that also reached out to an audience to prompt interpretation. The feel of the image needed to be slightly cartoon-esque with a dark sexual nature shining through, something quite fresh and personal that I haven't seen done before. I explored the concept of the 'id' and its relationship to I.D magazine as i thought it fitted really well with what I was trying to achieve. The Id "is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality" and that is what I was trying to visually represent only this time from the outside looking in, The hole in the tights where the eye can be seen un obstructed is the window out of the dark recesses of the mind, I chose to leave in some of the skin tone around the eye making it the most human part of the photograph, I find that it offers me some form of relief from the rest of the frame which I find really effective.
Execution:
To achieve a more surreal mood I firstly decided to use a black backdrop that would suck in any light that did not hit the model and so this gave the shoot a darker atmosphere straight away. Next to emphasis the expression of the model I chose to light with a single Speedlite flash placed at an angle to her face so that the contours of the face when animated gave me amazing shadows and curvature that showed through the tights over the face, this was important as it retains part of the human element in the shot as I did not want the image to seem completely unapproachable. The image was taken using the Canon 5D mark ii with an L series 24-105mm lens at f/9 and 100 ISO, this enabled me to get a large enough depth of field to capture most of the detail on the face but also gave the image some depth by leaving the body in the background slightly soft. I believe this was vital as it not only gave the photograph depth but it also complimented the positioning of the model, as her neck is not seen in shot the physicality of the frame would have looked wrong but by having her body out of focus it implies that there is some distance between her face and her body thus providing a visual explanation for there being no neck in the shot.
Make up:
To challenge the human element in the frame I decided to wash out any skin tone and have a white face which would also provide harder and more visually tasty contrasts between the skin and the black tights and backdrop. I loved the sexual connotations provided by the hard red lipstick from Rankin's shot which is why I chose to keep that in the frame, it also allowed me to play with the physicality of the lips much more when shooting as it became a solid focal point. The eye make-up was originally going to be black but after considering the amount of black and white already in the shot compared to colour I decided it wouldn't hurt to add in a little more colour. I had already planned on using a bit of pink within the hair and so I thought about what colour would best create impact for the models blue eyes. I went with blue not only to bring out the blue in her eyes but I also liked the concept of a clashing gender that the colours brought into the frame. By taking away the human element created a far more alien aesthetic to the point where the model could be interpreted as slightly a-sexual, the connotations brought by the clash of gender fuelled colours (blue and pink) I thought worked really well to enhance this. keeping the underlying surreal and alien tone of the image quite dominant and representing the models sexuality through colour representations as opposed to just actual physicality.
Costume:
This is where i took most of the inspiration from Rankin's shot. Going along with the dark sexual atmosphere I was looking to create the black fish nets tights were an absolute must have, not only did they give me the hard contrasts i was looking for aesthetically but they also brought in strong connotations of prostitution, strippers and the red light district which was perfect for emphasising the sexuality of the piece. This was yet again heightened by the hard red lipstick connotative of kissing and fertility. The costume was minimal in terms of it being one item but it played a dominant role in the shot, it polished of the concept and added to the alien aesthetic i was looking to weave amongst it.
This was the shot:
Post production:
After approximately eight hours of acute post production I arrived at what I consider to be the best version of all my explored edits. The image lent itself so nicely to an experimental post production that It became the obvious choice and I had to do it justice. This photo was pretty much shot with preparations for post and retouch, the body paint previously put on the model was intended to make this desaturation over the skin more visible and highlight the contrast between the face and tights. All the colour put onto the model before hand just needed enhancing in photoshop, I did this using various weak opacity solid colour layers with colour blending mode inverted and then painted the colours in using a white brush. After sending the image to Jack Eames for feedback it became clear that I needed to do a little liquify work to polish the entire image off. I took away the ear and made the tongue a little longer, I then darkened the mouth so that it didn't catch as much attention and polished the teeth with a white colour layer inverted just as I did with the colours in the image.
This is the final piece for now and so it will probably be the one used for exhibition.
