FMS403DBBeautyThorpeN: 2015

Bibliography

Time lapse video shows model’s Photoshop transformation, 2013 . YouTube

ALEXANDER, E., 2011. All in the eyes. Vogue, 1 June

ANON., n.d. BILLY NAME [viewed 6 December 2015]. Available from: http://billyname.net/about%20billy.html

ANON., 2014. Beauty retouching from the early 1900s: A portrait of actress Joan Crawford that’s ‘Photoshopped’ [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://petapixel.com/2014/10/17/beauty-retouching-early-1900s-portrait-actress-joan-crawford-thats-photoshopped/

ANON., n.d. David Bailey: Look | photography | agenda [viewed 6 December 2015]. Available from: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/picture-galleries/2010/april/13/david-bailey-look/

ANON., 2013. Disclaimer for airbrushed models: An effective solution? [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://www.about-face.org/disclaimer-for-airbrushed-models-an-effective-solution/

MILLAIS, S.J.E., 1851. Ophelia[viewed 8 December 2015]. Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506/text-summary

NAME, B., n.d. BILLY NAME IMAGE GALLERY[viewed 6 December 2015]. Available from: http://billyname.net/photo%20gallery.html

ANON., n.d. [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://i1.wp.com/okmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/beyonce-unretouched-loreal-photos-10.jpg?resize=980%2C551

ANON., n.d. [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/828315/thumbs/o-NATALIE-PORTMAN-DIOR-AD-BANNED-570.jpg?12

ANON., n.d. [viewed Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413

O’BRIEN, G., (2008). Factory workers Warholites remember: Billy name

Time-lapse 90 minutes of retouching in 90 seconds, 2015 . YouTube

RIGGS, T., 1998. ‘Ophelia’ Sir John Everett Millais.

Citations, Quotes & Annotations

Time lapse video shows model’s Photoshop transformation, 2013 . YouTube

(Time lapse video shows model’s Photoshop transformation2013)

ALEXANDER, E., 2011. All in the eyes. Vogue, 1 June

(Alexander 2011)

ANON., n.d. BILLY NAME [viewed 6 December 2015]. Available from: http://billyname.net/about%20billy.html

(Anon., n.d.)

(Anon., 2014)

ANON., n.d. David Bailey: Look | photography | agenda [viewed 6 December 2015]. Available from: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/picture-galleries/2010/april/13/david-bailey-look/

(Anon., n.d.)

ANON., 2013. Disclaimer for airbrushed models: An effective solution? [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://www.about-face.org/disclaimer-for-airbrushed-models-an-effective-solution/

(Anon., 2013)

MILLAIS, S.J.E., 1851. Ophelia[viewed 8 December 2015]. Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506/text-summary

(Millais 1851)

NAME, B., n.d. BILLY NAME IMAGE GALLERY[viewed 6 December 2015]. Available from: http://billyname.net/photo%20gallery.html

(Name n.d.)

ANON., n.d. [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://i1.wp.com/okmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/beyonce-unretouched-loreal-photos-10.jpg?resize=980%2C551

(Anon., n.d.)

ANON., n.d. [viewed 3 December 2015]. Available from: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/828315/thumbs/o-NATALIE-PORTMAN-DIOR-AD-BANNED-570.jpg?12

(Anon., n.d.)

ANON., n.d. [viewed Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413

(Anon., n.d.)

O’BRIEN, G., (2008). Factory workers Warholites remember: Billy name

(O’Brien 2008)

Time-lapse 90 minutes of retouching in 90 seconds, 2015 . YouTube

(Time-lapse 90 minutes of retouching in 90 seconds 2015)

RIGGS, T., 1998. ‘Ophelia’ Sir John Everett Millais.

(Riggs 1998)

Evaluation

So, this unit is over and I have to admit I'm a little bit sad. This speaks volumes about my feelings on the Unit:

Unit ID	Unit Description	Your Attendance % (For Date Range)	Unit Avg. Attendance % (Unit year to date)
FMS403	Digital Image Production 1	100%	60%

I loved the hands on approach to this brief. There's only one part that I didn't enjoy but I'll get to that later. Chris' lessons have been great. All of them. I walked away from each of them not only with new knowledge but a million questions and ideas through what I'd been taught.

The seminars were really engaging topics. The one that will forever stick in my head will be the post production one. It sparked debates within the lecture and it was something that we continued to talk and debate about countless times afterwards. It was a very honest insight into an industry that is about capturing the best and worst of someone.

I felt really intimidated at the beginning because I couldn't tell you the first thing about an SLR camera apart from how complicated they look and my photography skills were limited to a trip to Italy were my mum gave me her SLR camera and my selfie skills. I feel more comfortable now, I might have to have my notes with me but I don't think that's such a bad thing. Eventually I'll have it all memorised but because I don't shoot as much as I should, it's not something I've learnt by heart.

Feeling uncomfortable in front of the camera was something that I knew was going to be a natural thing. I'm in a group with people who are absolutely beautiful and know their angles and then there's me: little miss naturally awkward. It's interesting how people know how to pose and how natural it is to some people. It became apparent when doing test shoots in class, that some lighting suited some people and how it wasn't as flattering for others. I know how to adjust this now.

The lessons we had on lighting are probably my favourite. I've spent hours poured over photography books in the library just learning how the lighting works. It's still something that I'm yet to be comfortable with. My problem throughout this brief is that I become really frustrated with myself. I have a million and one ideas rushing through my head and I know how I want the outcome to look but I lack the knowledge to achieve it. I had to lower my expectations to my actual skill level and that was something I struggled with.

Once I got rolling on a shoot it was so much fun. You pick up on little things like a dress strap being twisted, or a single hair getting stuck to the lip gloss. I enjoyed trying to capture the moments in between my model posing. Some of those photos are the best I have (In my humble opinion.)

As always, I've loved researching about the photographers and I adored watching 'Rankin: 7 photographs that changed fashion' There's tonnes of books, articles, videos and model testaments about the photographers and I realised that the photographers almost seem more famous than their photos.

The only thing I wasn't overly keen on in the brief was the Photoshop element. I've never used it and it seems absolutely terrifying. There's so much to learn and I felt completely overwhelmed. I don't feel as though I was given enough time in the last few IT sessions to get to grips with the basics (ie Healing tools etc) This is something that I've got to try and do in my own time over Christmas so I can feel more confident in the New Year with my new brief.

Time management is so crucial. It can take a while to get the lighting right and I struggled with this to begin with. On my first shoot I was so nervous about getting everything wrong that I began to over think things and I didn't think that trial and error would be a good approach but in actual fact this method worked in my favour.

All in all this unit was an incredible eye opening experience. You don't realise how much work goes into a single image until you've got 6 to edit. Chris was a really helpful and understand tutor that never made me feel stupid about my lack of knowledge and he really helped me when I needed it and for this I'm extremely grateful.

I love the vibrancy I was able to capture. Billie has a really expressive face and I think that she suited what I was aiming for.

The only thing I would change about this are my post production skills (or lack of) This is something I hope to improve on over time.

I'm really, really happy with my photographs. I think that I captured the mood I was aiming for.

If I were to go back and do this again, I would try and get a softer light on the face to really capture the Hollywood Glamour aspect.

Billie Shoot.

I had a meltdown. A deadline creeping in and no photo shoot planned or booked. Billie swooped in and told me that she was free and that she'd help me do a shoot. I began to have the cogs whirl and started thinking up how I wanted her to look. At first I instantly jumped on the Tim Burton route, unfortunately I looked over my brief and I didn't think that I could have done this initial idea justice with the 'One colour' limitation. Billie has the brightest hair. I didn't want this to out stage my make up. So I just went with a really lightly defined eye with black eye liner flicks and a bright magenta lipstick. Billie can wear absolutely any single lip colour and I thought this just did the whole 'pin up' look justice.

In pin up pictures, they tend to have a bright red lipstick on but this is me and I wanted to 'Nikkify' the idea, and my Dad has always told me to K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) and I think I made the right choice.

Ross has come in to give me a hand with the hair and for that I'm forever grateful. I would have ran out of time because I didn't realise how long it was actually going to take. It was an odd experience to do someone's make up while there is someone do their hair. You're trying to not get in each others way and it's working in a lot of weird and unusual angles. We worked well together though, we didn't really get in each others way too much and if we did we just laughed it off.

We go into the Infinity Cove where I've booked the studio and there's no free studios. Which is odd, because I had definitely booked it. I peak around the curtains of the studios in use and when I get to the last one, there is just a bunch of people sat there watching another shoot. I politely ask them to move and begin pulling the lights above and setting up. I decided to go with a black Colorama. In technical sessions I've found it a challenge to get the lighting right because of her hair and I thought black would be a good starting point.

At first the lighting was horrible. I didn't do it right. I adjusted the lights and I was really happy with the first lot of photos I'd taken. One thing I did notice was that trying to catch a natural pin-up pose with Billie was a challenge. She loves posing. She's good at it too but I didn't want it to look too posed. So I had to work extremely quickly to catch her when she was in between poses. I really eased up not long after the shoot had begun and I had a direction I wanted it to go in so I became really conscious of little things that needed to be adjusted in between frames.

When I felt happy with the amount of photos I had taken on the Black Colorama, I decided it was time for a change. We swapped the black for a grey. I like this change it really made Billie's hair pop. I took some more pictures and then I wrapped the Black and White shoot.

The main studio in the infinity cove had become free so I moved all of the equipment over and decided to shoot the 'Colour Pop' All of the main studio is white so I thought this would work in my favour. After snapping a few test shots I readjusted the lighting because it looked too intense to start with. I found it was really easy getting the photos for this brief. I was more impressed with the results from shooting on the white background.

Something I have learnt from this session is that I need to learn to not get really stressed out when things don't work out straight away.

'Curiosity'

I guess you could say that this is the true inspiration behind this. Only two photos on this board show the models making eye contact. I love this. It makes you curious as to what they are looking at or what is captivating their interest and attention.

This is the mood board for the black and white segment of my photoshoot with Billie. Unlike the colour one, I didn't include things like lipsticks, lips or eyes. Instead I focused on the mood I wanted to create with the photos. I looked at 1940a photographs for inspiration as it was around this time that pin up was created. The lighting would be soft, and a lot of impact that the photos have on the viewer is because of the emotion in the eyes.

Dita Von Teese was a great source of inspiration because in photographs like the one in my mood board, she gives her a sultry feel. I really like this era of photos because it makes me think it's the last of the Hollywood Glamour.

'Colour Pop'

At first I really struggled with the 'One Colour' part of my brief. I felt as though it was really restricting and I wasn't sure how to go about achieving a good look and keeping to the brief. While packing up my make up kit, one of my lipsticks fell out and it was a matte fuchsia colour. I decided that I was going to use this colour for basis of my look. I was going to build a make up look based around a matte vibrant lip.

Seeing as there was a modern pin up twist to my shoot, I looked for photos of similar ideas to mine. I remember the first issue of Bizarre magazine that I purchased had a pin up style shoot in it and I've included those images on my board.

I made a point of putting the bright pink lipstick on my board because that'll the focal point of the shoot and the idea. The background is a of pink, purple and blue feathers and I liked this because it reminds me of Billie's hair.

Nixxiie: Billie Shoot

CALL SHEET

PRODUCT: Photo shoot
TITLE: Colour Pop and Curiosity

DURATION: 120 minutes

SHOOT DATE: 18th November 2015

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Nixxiie Make Artistry
Email: nixxiie.mua@gmail.com

LOCATION

Infinity Cove Studio.
Floor 4

JM Building
Solent University

CALL TIMES

Filming - 2 Set Ups

3pm: Billie in for make up
3:20pm Ross in to be briefed for hairstyling
3:30pm Ross begins hair
4:00pm Move to studio
4:05pm Set up lights for Curiosity shoot
4:15pm Begin shooting
5:15 Break for Billie and Ross while I set up for Colour Pop shoot.
5:45: Make up touch up and begin shooting
6:15: Wrap Shoot and pack up

UNIT

Model: Billie

Make Up Artist: Nikki
Hair Designer
Lighting
Photographer
Director

Hairstylist and Photographers Assistant: Ross

FEATURED ARTISTS

Hair: Ross Kershaw

CAMERA EQUIPMENT

Cannon 550D
Hot Shoe Adaptor
SD Card
Tripod
Tether Cable
Sync Lead
Prime Lense 50mm

LIGHTING EQUIPMENT

Beauty Dish
Soft Box
Reflector: Silver
x2 Polyboards White
White Colorama
Black Colorama

MOVEMENT ORDER

Location 1:

Full Address

Infinity Cove Studio
Floor 4
JM Building
E Park Terrace, Southampton, Hampshire SO14 0YN

Main Times

Technical Session 29/10/15

I've always found Chris' technical sessions to prove to be essential. I've made so many notes. So here's some of the notes I've made from this session, just typed up.

"Mains Power Flash Kit"
- This is great for out of studio shoots. You have to book it out from The Hatch. It means you can shoot anywhere that you can plug in the lights.

Lenses to shoot with:

50mm
85mm
100mm

Theses are fantastic for beauty shots because they give you a really crisp image.

Hold the AV and turn the wheel on the camera to change the Aperture. (This is the hole that limits how much light it lets in) In turn this effects the Depth Of Field.

Working with Natural Light:

This light is really flattering for people. It can be really hard to recreate in the studio but it is do able. In this scenario we're using a windowed studio. When shooting using natural light, it's important to have the camera and photographer closest to the window

Window --> Photographer --> Camera --> Model

The closer you bring the model to the window the brighter the image will be.

M= Manual You need to make sure you have the right ISO and shutter speed.

Aperture- AV Priority can only change. So put the ISO up.

Auto ISO. 6400

Good Composure, Good Exposure and Images in Focus are all crucial for good photos.
It's important to remember your audience. A photograph that's been shot for i-D Magazine probably isn't suitable for The Guardian. It's all about knowing the audience you're shooting for.

Portraits:
Fill in the space or make use of the collar bones.

Profile:
It's always good to go strapless

My 'nailed it in one frame' from this sessions shoot

So there's such a desire to look perfect or try and become 'Instagram famous' that we are constantly editing photos to the point that we 'tag' photos with 'nomakeup' when we think we look a little bit rough. I think that's a shame.

I'm not the prettiest person in the world and there is undoubtedly a pressure to look good. I think it's unfair but I don't let the pressure make me wear a full face of make up, and if I do chose to wear make up I do it for me and no one else.

There's an app called FaceTune and it is like a basic Photoshop to edit photos on the go.

Here's my original photo:

Literally just woken up, no make up. I don't look too bad. I'm having a good skin day.

Now this masterpiece was created in under 5 minutes on my phone. I smoothed out my skin and I then used the 'smoother' option and eradicated any texture. It makes the skin look horrible and really fake. The eye thing is pretty cool only because my eyes are boring.

I can see why this could be a good thing but I'd agree that considering we live in such delicate society where we feed to young girls that they aren't pretty unless they have no make up on, or unless their skin is perfect I can see this be devastating. They'll be acused of being fake when one of these photos gets put on a medium of social media and yet they'd be told they were ugly if they didn't.

Interesting and depressing society we live in.

I'm in quite a big class as it is so when we all pour into the auditorium above Costa, it becomes obvious that there is more than one class here for this session. This is going to make for an interesting lesson because I have a feeling it's going to turn into a slight debate at times but I sit there clutching my mocha and wait for the show to begin.

Annnnd here comes my favourite bit, all the later comers. Chris has a no lateness policy and for those of us who have sat there and been witnesses to people arriving late to Chris' lessons and the outcome of that are sat there cringing. He just shakes his head looking displeased.

Post Production has been going on since the dawn of photography. This to me is news. Obviously I think 'Well there was no photoshop' It turns out the original photoshop was bleach, ink and brushes. Turns out it's dated back to the 1860s where the first use of post production was recorded.

A photographer called George Hurrell is really famous for his Hollywood Glamour photos. They look absolutely flawless. Hurrell was originally a painter who in the beginning had absolutely no interest in photography but was encouraged by his dearest friends to try it. Chris explained to us that to 'edit' photos like this you would have ink, bleach, a selection of brushes and a set of magnification glasses. You would have to look really closely when bleaching away blemishes, removing unwanted shadows because you would ruin the photograph.

Moving forward to the present day, every image is retouched. It could be minor things like Blurring, spotting, dodging or burning even adjusting the brightness and the contrast are all counted as retouched image. However, this doesn't mean that is the only thing to happen to images.

Chris begins to show us some photos that have received a lot of backlash over the years. As soon as he mentions this, I instantly think of Dior. I've always seen their campaigns with RIDICULOUS eyelashes. It's painfully obvious they've been retouched in the photos and that very, very few people are blessed with eyelashes like that and those who are tend to be male (My little brother has eyelashes to die for). He then tells us because of the amount of complaints this received it was then banned. I agree with this. I remember there was a time that any mascara advert was unbelievable. The models were clearly wearing eyelashes etc. So for the purpose of selling a product, I think over use of post production is bad as it shows an untrue and unobtainable result from a product you are paying for.

Now, Chris shows us a couple of videos of a time lapse of an image being retouched. The first one is really scary. The end result looks nothing like the model who was used for the original image. During post production they thin out the model's face, reshape the nose, move the eyes slightly and make the eyes larger. They even take out the freckles. This strikes a nerve with me. I've always hated mine growing up, but to see them taken off of someone

As a young girl I used to look at these glossy magazine images think that this was perfection. I used to pine to look like this. To hair the perfect skin but I couldn't because I had freckles. To have big bright blue eyes but I couldn't because I have greyish blue ones. I used to look at the really skinny models and think that that was the only way to look beautiful. Thankfully I had my dad who worked as a model for a while who told me about all the work that would go into making these people look perfect. He'd tell me how bad their skin was before the make up was put on them. He taught me that looking like I've just stepped out of a glossy magazine isn't a realistic girl. Luckily I had this kind of upbringing. Young girls are a target for advertisements like this. We live in a time were we think it's ok to air cosmetic surgery adverts after 4pm on a children/teenage prime viewing time.

There was a photo of Beyoncé before post production. She had bad skin, slight lines around her eyes and mouth. Everyone began losing their minds over this. Saying how bad it looks. Yet these were the same people who a minute ago were agreeing with the statement I made previously. Beyoncé isn't in her 20s anymore. She's done more world tours/tv appearances/music videos/movie roles than we've probably had hot dinners. It's important to remember how stressful her job actually is. Yes you can argue that she gets paid well enough to deal with it, but that doesn't mean the human body won't react to aging, stress and lack of sleep that comes with her job.

Post production can be bad for a make up artist. Especially if you rely on someone to edit the work you've done on lips for arguments sake. If you are relying on the post production to clean this up it means you should be producing high quality make up.

I don't know how I feel about severe photoshopping I think it deters from the original image. I think it should be used to enhance what's already there instead of completely annihilating the original image.

Billie booked a studio.

Billie was in charge of bringing the make up and the camera. I'd brought the hot shoe and someone had an SD card.

We've pulled down what colour poly we wanted. We picked white to start with. Everything is going great. Everyone is topping up their make up. The aim of today's shoot is to get everyone's selfie challenge done for Sharon.

First problem. We don't have a tripod. Thinking fast we get the Mac stand and put the camera on that. Then we realise that we don't have:

- A Sync Lead
- A Tether Cable
- Tripod

This is really frustrating as we've got all of our kit here but none of the photography stuff we need. I guess it's a learning curve. We were so used to coming into a session with Chris and having everything that we need that we took this for granted.

After a slight meltdown and one can of coke over the floor later a random man comes in and tells us that we're not supposed to be in here at this time without an assistant. We didn't know this. We weren't told this when we booked it. No one phoned us to tell us that we couldn't use this.

To top of the end of this session just as the man finished his safety speech, the modelling bulb in the big boom went. At this point we decided to call it quits.

I think that today's experience has proven to be a really important lesson.

I've never made this mistake since this studio time. I've always made sure I've had everything I've needed.

I don't think it would have been anymore possible for Chris to emphasize how important lighting is. It wasn't until I was flying solo in my first shoot that I realised how right he was.

I've had a look in the library for some references and I found some brilliant books on lighting for portrait and beauty photos. I work better from having references, and the basic lighting set ups that we've been taught are nicely laid out in a really simple and easy to follow diagrams. I'm guessing with more practise that it'll become easier to recall from memory because I can say that after doing my first shoot is was nearly impossible to remember everything about the lights without referring to my notes.

I've included on this blog post the scanned pages from the books I've sourced in the library.

Lighting is crucial to a shoot. Lighting in itself can set the mood, tone and atmosphere of a shoot. It can also create amazing photos. It's important as a make up artist who is also shooting the look you've designed to research lighting techniques before you begin your shot. Time is crucial especially when you've only got 4 hours of studio time a week. So it's advised that you do the make up for your shoots before your booked time slot. If at all possible it's important set up as much of the studio as possible.

Terminology

High Key Lighting:

High key lighting is great for beauty shots as it brightens the face. This makes the skin look clear.

Low Key Lighting:

Low key lighting is fantastic for dramatic portrait shots. I personally think this lighting is good for black and white photos.

Soft Light:

Shooting with a soft light is good for post production reasons. It's much easier to adjust the contrast

Spill Kill:

This is an attachment put over the bulb that focuses light. They can vary in size depending how you want the light to be in the set up. Just lighting with a Spill Kill is great for men as it creates shadows and it makes cheekbones pop and chisel jawlines.

Shoot Through Umbrellas:

This is a white umbrella that you place over the spill kill on a light. This gives a really soft light. It's advised to have this lighting set up above the camera.

Reflective Umbrella:

The light must be turned away, as the lining of a this umbrella is reflective, if you were to replace the shoot through umbrella and leave the light in the same place the flash would be reflected behind the photographer.

Larger Umbrellas:

A larger shoot through umbrella with give an even softer light.

Natural Lighting:

Natural lighting can be really difficult to create in a studio if you are still new at photography. I really like how natural light looks in beauty photography. It gives the a skin a glow that can look overdone with the use of umbrellas and soft boxes. Moving the model closer to the natural light source will make the photo brighter. It's common to shoot someone in the doorway with the natural light behind you and in many cases I've seen some great results from this. This is a lighting set up that I would like to try.

Beauty Dish:

The clue is in the name here. Beauty dishes are used a lot in beauty, glamour and portrait photography. I had to do a fair amount of research because I know what it does but trying to describe what it is and how it works was a bit of a nightmare. It gives a perfect white circle in the pupil which looks lovely. The light also casts soft shadows over the face and lights up the centre of the face.

Soft Box:

I really like the effect that the soft box has. The name is a dead giveaway, as it creates a soft light for the shoot. Soft boxes work when placed anywhere. They don't necessarily need to be above the camera. Sometimes lighting with a soft box from the side can create a really nice effect. Soft boxes come in a variety of sizes just like the umbrellas and this effects how soft the light is.

Polyboards:

I first experienced polyboards in a practical session. They are huge boards that are used to absorb or reflect light.

White = Reflect

Black= Absorbs

The same polyboard set up might not work for every model. The black polyboards might be more flattering for some people and the same for the white boards.

Reflectors:

Reflectors can come in any colour as they can create a colour cast. The ones I have tried using are black, white and silver. Most of the time I prefer to use silver because I think it gives the brightest reflection. When shooting with men I have found that the black reflector works really well

The biggest thing I've learnt so far with lighting is that it's trial and error. You might plan to use a certain colour reflector but it turns out you get a better result with a different one. It's just about making notes and learning from the photos you've taken.

After researching Billy Name, I was given a gentle push towards Robert Maplethorpe. (He has the coolest surname ever. Fact) When I was shown his work I knew why he was recommended to me.

First, A little about the man himself:

Self Portrait- Robert Maplethorpe 1980.

American artist Robert Mapplethorpe pushed the boundaries of photography in both his subject choice and technique. This has led to him often being remembered exclusively for his controversial and often explicit images.

However, ARTIST ROOMS outstanding collection of his photographs allows these ‘controversial’ works to be considered in the context of his entire oeuvre. Mapplethorpe became famous, not to say, notorious, in the 1970s and 1980s for his photographs of the male nude and sexually explicit gay imagery. With these images he tested the right to individual freedom - they were not meant to be titillating, shocking or obscene, but beautiful in a traditionally classical way. His work therefore holds a significant place in the history of artistic struggle to depict the world as it is with honesty and truth.

In 1988 Mapplethorpe stated: “I don’t like that particular word ‘shocking.’ I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before...I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them.” Although he is perhaps most associated with these ‘shocking’ works, Mapplethorpe also photographed more traditional subjects such as flowers (in particular Orchids and Calla Lilies), formal portraits and classical nudes. His understanding of form and light, and his meticulous compositions create truly beautiful images that revel in the sensual quality of nature and the human body. (Anon. N.D) Taken from : http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413

When you look at his collection of work, it's really hard to not mistake it for him once you know his style. He is able to capture a beautiful sensuality within his portraits. He is very famous for his heavily homoerotic photographs, The Black Black created a lot of controversy because it his depiction of gay black men. Unlike Name, he has a softness to his photos. I think Maplethorn creates his contrast by the set, the model and the mood of the photo.

Deborah Harry, 1978

I adore the intensity he's managed to capture in Deborah's eyes, this to me, is a perfect portrait. The light is really flattering, the composition is great and the two colours that are in the background break up the image

Andy Warhol, 1986

I'd seen this photo of Andy Warhol before, I just never knew who it was by. I think it was a bold move putting someone dressed in black on a black background and yet he still manages to create contrast with the lighting on his black jacket.

Thomas, 1987

This composition is really interesting. It makes me think of a modern interpretation Atlas, the person who had to hold up the world. Again, the contrast is as bold as Name's but there isn't the striking overexposure. Instead there's a softer feel to his photos. They are very sensual.

For my next black and white shoot I am going to be looking into Maplethorpe more closely to learn how he lit his shoots. I love his work.

Harpers Bazaar October 2008 Cliff Watts

This is the fashion editorial image I've chosen. I remember seen this in 2008 and I instantly fell in love. I was on the bus on the way to Camden Town and I saw this in the Metro newspaper. I really am a fan of how lace looks on really pale skin because it creates an amazing contrast and really interesting negative space. I'm a huge Liv Tyler fan and I think she looks beautiful. It was quite a shock to see her with a lot of make up because she tends to be shot with minimal make up or something that looks natural. I love the pose. There's a real sense of vulnerability.

This is Scarlett Johansson for Dolce & Gabbana. I love photographs like this, when they make a modern celebrity look like someone classed as a timeless classic. In this instance that timeless classic is Marilyn Monroe. I think the image has been tastefully done, they've used her natural beauty to look like Marilyn, but they are still managing to advertise their product. I like the design behind this, as it makes me think 'iconic product used by an icon' The lighting is also really soft and this makes her skin look completely flawless.

'Ophelia' Sir John Everett Millais

As someone who isn't a fan of Tate Britain, it's home to one of my favourite paintings. 'Opehila' was one of the only painting I truly enjoy looking at. There is just something so peaceful about her being in the water surrounded by flowers. There is said to be a skull in the flowers, I think I can see it. It's in reference to Hamlet. I read about the painting process and it's fascinating :

The figure of Ophelia was added afterwards. The model, Elizabeth Siddal, a favourite of the Pre-Raphaelites who later married Rossetti, was required to pose over a four month period in a bath full of water kept warm by lamps underneath. The lamps went out on one occasion, causing her to catch a severe cold. Her father threatened the artist with legal action until he agreed to pay the doctor's bills.
(Riggs 1998)

It's one of those things you always see on YouTube: 'Tutorial for Peacock eyeshadow' and it's rarely done well. I was so excited when I saw this. I love the use of colours; and the use of the look on one eye only. It makes me want to buy all of the colours used and go out in my glad rags and wear it with pride. I like how the model was casted, it's clear she was chosen for her bone structure and chiseled jaw. The 3/4 showcases the face and I think if they had used a different one it wouldn't have done the look justice.

Hoz Shafiei May 2015.

This is my unposed image. It was taken at one of the LARP events I attend. It was mid battle and I decided this would be a perfect time to reapply my lipstick. What makes me smile about this image is my character is fearless warrior and mid battle I decide to put on some lipstick when no one was watching. How wrong was I. I hate having my photo taken but this is probably one of my favourite photos. I always chuckle. It looks really natural too, if I had been asked to pose like this it would have looked really cheesy

This will be one of my all time images of Harley Quinn. She's stood there fearless giving Batman a telling off. What I find interesting is I find this image empowering to women. I just think it's because she's standing up to a man that many other's bow down to. I'm a massive fan of the greyscale theme with the pop of red that's in her outfit.

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