Research - John French

John French came from a British background, he started off working for the daily express newspaper, trained as a commercial artist, but becoming a photographic director in an advertising studio, pioneering a new form of fashion photography. the main influence being to suit reproduction in newsprint. He focused all his attention to the set and posing of his models, however he left the triggering of the shutter to the assistant, amongst whom were Terrence Donovan and David Bailey, established photographers themselves. His life long photographic archive now left to the Victoria and Albert museum.

John French's photography is elegant an inspirational. his use of shadows to bring out the features of the face and to push that classical high key photography. This classical style coming from the film used in his era being in black and white but also being softer altogether.

I personally like the high contrasting white background to the black accessories. the highly thought through posture of the model exaggerates the common thought of classical women being elegant and poised with even her fingers looking elegant. I want to take the inspiration of the accessories being key as well as the posture of the model into my photography to enythesizes the classical direction I am doing in.

The second image here with the women closer up is where I want to drew most of my inspiration from, with the dominance of the flower on her shoulder and the expression on the models face.

Observations - Shoot One

Here I have tried to recreate in my own way John French's work, with this my younger model I wanted to make this light and feminine, as John French focused on accessories I tried to follow that into my own work, to also push the classical elegant style of the era I am focusing on. I feel I have captured the innocence of the model in these pictures, which is common to see in classical photography. I used low lighting with only one light directed at her face, my shutter speed was at 1/60" so my picture was clear but light so i could get shadows like John French and to make her features stand out like French's.

Also looking at John French's work I push the shadows with this shoot. I wanted to have my own take on his work and not to recreate as such, but my use of shadows has given me the opposite effect and instead of bringing out the features of the face it has hidden them. However I have managed to make my photographs high key shots which was my main aim to begin with. I used a slow shutter speed so that my images were soft I done this so that were it isn't so shaded the features and enhanced and detailed to make the images elegant and classically styled.

Research - William Klien

William Klien was born in New York, was a photographer and filmmaker, he has a unique approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in his fashion photography. He was trained as a painter and found early success with the exhibitions of his work, but he soon achieved widespread fame as a fashion photographer even though never trained in photography. he has is most know for his use of wide-angle and telephoto lenses, natural lighting and motion blur. He's influenced many fashion photographers to this day and further more.

William Klien's work is very sultry, his use of black and white, which is also imposed by the era he was in, using the black and white, soft film that was present then, this adds to the romantic perspective of his work but also to his creative setting and dramatic effect.

I like his work for it's feminine feel not just because of his use of female models but with the overall detail, accessories and the poses of the models. He captures the models in a way to show elegance, like a lot of photography from his era. I want to incorporate in my work, his use of movement and lighting to create stories within the photos.

I especially want to focus on trying to recreate his smoking images, as i feel they represent women of this time, making them look ambitious and mysterious. however I also want to look at the women in bed image, I like this image as it makes you try to decide why she looks tired possibly hungover and again hints of the mystery behind his work.

Research - Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon born in New York, began his photographic work working as an advertising photographer for a department store, but was soon discovered by Alexey Brodovitch, by 1948 he had set up his own studio and began providing images for magazines such as Vogue and Life, from this he focused mainly on fashion photography, this was still the early days of photography and so his images were black and white, also with the soft texture to the pictures.

Richard Avedon's work captures the up most of elegance in his models and in general. His work seems to be carefully thought about in material of the items of clothing the models, usual female, would wear, as he creates soft, flowing, movement in the fabric with also capturing the dramatic intensity that comes through in his work.

I like that his work seems romantic but with an edge, as the sense he creates of women being noticed by everyone but not noticing this themselves. I want to try and focus like him on how the picture is set up in urban enviroments and I definitely want to look at how I could have my own take on his expressive foregrounds.

The Images of his that I want to draw the most influence from or recreate are three movement photographes, the first, of the women with the umbrella, I like this as he has made her look as if a ballerina doing the most simplest of things as stepping of a pavement, combined with the umbrella makes it seem as if she could float away, the model being lowly lighted and the foreground so light and detailed makes the model be extremely dominant, which could be easy with a background so eye catching to loose the model amongst it. The second with the women turning on stairs, this is almost empowering, it gives a sense of not just elegance but feminine ambition on a whole, she also has this large sense of dominance in the picture and the soft, gentle flow of the skirt gives the picture the same feeling when you look at it. The last is the female model on her own jumping in the air, I like again the movement of the dress she is wear and that he made thought to make her jump in the first place, capturing this one moment in which the fabric was able to fully show it's textures and lightness.

Observations - Shoot Two

In this shoot I have worked from the pictures by
William Klien, looking at this classical style of photography I used lighting to make these high key to fit with with most of the photography in those days, I done this by placing one light facing the wall to get ride of background shadowing and another placed to the side of her, facing the right side of her face. These pictures of my model with a tired look, creates a sultry, feminine feel, it is focused on the one of William Kliens images with a women in bed with the same tired, sultry expression. it has a strong, romantic suggestion to the images, i tried to emphasize the use of different textures of fabrics to add detail and include the inspiration of Richard Avedon's work. I used an ISO of 600 so it was a bright picture to contrast with the black accessories and fabrics on the model.

Moving on in this shoot, I looked at how I could have the model positioned to add elegance and lengh. I made her extend her neck not only to make her look longer but also added a swan like quality to her position, showing the flower being held gently as it is emphasise a elegant, gentle picture also present in most classical photography. The feminine look to these images has helped by the high ISO and shutter speed for a high contrast photo.

I then wanted to focus on her face especially the eyes to capture emotion and intensity, as most pictures I have looked at have models with intense eyes, I like this as it captures the models eyes and complements the black and white picture. I used a lower ISO of 200 here so that the details of the face are not lost with light.

Research - Fashion In The Mirror

The book made by 'The Photographers Gallery' in 2008, incorporates some of the most famous photographers, such as the ones I have looked at, Terence Donovan, Bert Stern and Saul Lieter. These photographers stood out to me not just for being taken in black and white but also for their interesting contends, camera angles and vivid femininity.

The first, Terence Donovan's, Celia Hammond, London 1961. This dark use of lighting and prominent writing, showing the dominance of this famous model Celia, makes this a extremely dramatic piece, the expression almost sad overtakes your want to look at other details of the picture and draws you into her eyes.

The second picture, Saul Lieter's , Art Director Henry Wolf with model, 1967. It captures a moment in which was not meant for the camera but in this it makes a story, a sense of the type of people in this shoot, The male smiling kindly and her sweet, angelic posture making her seem timid and cooperative. The main reason i like this image is the urban background which was present in Richard Avedon's work, is used here, but instead of being clear cut as Avedon's it is out of focus, meaning the camera would have been on a high F number. I also like the use of natural lighting, adding to this sense of innocents in the image.

The last picture Bert Stern, David Bailey and Veruchka, New York, 1964, Vogue, 1965. This picture feels like he's letting you see what happened on set, how the images are created that we much love. the way in which the model is posed making her seem elongated elegant the contrasting colours not only with the background but the clothing on the man and model maybe symbolised the difference between men and women.

Observations - Shoot Three

In this shoot I tried to recreate the photograph by Bert Stern, David Bailey and Verushka, New York, 1964, Vogue, 1965. I made my own changes to fit in with my own style, like the colour of the dress, this i changed so the model stood out from the background adding definition and a modern twist. I like the old fashion props, like the camera and gloves but also the different angles I used. Before ending this shoot I decided to try get get just the one model trying to show the picture the other model would get if he was really taking pictures. I tried to focus on her torso upwards, as in many of my photographs I have not experimented with the shoulders downwards.