Through the lens: Birds of Feather

This post is slightly different to my other photography posts, this time I was inspired by a photograph rather than the photographer herself. This particular picture was taken by Julia Dunin which I didn't find out until writing this. She is a professional freelance photographer from Galway Ireland who takes some really beautiful portraits. She started photography at aged just 16 by taking experimental self portraiture in her home town of Warsaw in Poland.

These are the pictures that I came across on Tumblr quite  a while ago and was inspired by. I love the lighting and the way that she has captured the models skin with almost an iridescent glow. I was also inspired by the almost native american feel to the picture without it being cliche. It was this 'feel' to the picture that inspired me most and it was this that I tried to recreate in my own work collaborating with Charlotte Harvey for MUA and model.

Lending Face

I like to help people, I also like to have fun and try new things. It is in my nature to do the weird and wonderful whenever I can. What is the point of a boring life? because at the end of the day all we are left with is our memories and I want mine to be memories I am proud of, memories that make me smile when I am low. You know what I mean. Part of my philosophy is to say yes to as many opportunities that come my way as possible. If it turns out to be a terrible experience I just think well I am never doing that again ah well at least I tried. If I love it it could be that start of something beautiful. You cannot loose!

So with this in mind, a few weeks ago I was asked on thee separates occasions by three different people if I would lend my face to their work and help them out by modelling for them. Of course I said yes! (It is very flattering you see and I have a hideous ego to maintain.) Now each of these three shoots where very different from the next; The first was for a magazine article on the growing asian impact on western fashion, the second was a look book for a fashion students portfolio and the final shoot was for a graduate show and was a nude shoot for her to showcase the strength of the female body.

I really enjoyed each shoot for completely different reasons, partly because its fun being on the opposite side of the camera. The first shoot was fun because of the interesting concept and the locations that we used. The second was great because the garment I was wearing was really intricately beautiful and I kind of fell in love with it.  Finally the last shoot was enjoyable because it pushed me to my complete limits of comfort and it was strangely liberating afterwards.

The Editorial 

The Look Book

The Gallery Opening

Burlesque Fashion (does it translate?)

I am part of the NTU burlesque society a hugely underrated society full of incredible ladies who inspire body positivity and self love. I go to rehearsals every Tuesday and Thursday and always have a really good time. On the 5th we had our annual showcase 'Relentlessly Rouge' at the Forum. It was a completely incredible evening full of sparkles and great routines. It was all over far too fast and as soon as the curtains closed I wanted to go and do it all over again.

There is a very specific aesthetic to the burlesque dancer and it had me thinking that although I am hugely bias to anything even remotely iridescent is there any part of fashion that takes inspiration from the burlesque movement. Burlesque gets a bad rap in society, it is seen as being a sleazy and cheap. However things that are stigmatised by society are usually appropriated within the fashion industry. This got me interested in doing some research. 

Now we all know that Dita Von Teese has a huge impact within the fashion industry often being seen on the FROW at fashion events, she has modelled for numerous magazines and constantly references fashion icons such as Isabella Blow and Luisa Casati. But Von Teese is also dubbed 'the queen of burlesque' for good reason. So yes fashion has an interest in burlesque but maybe it is just the safe, interest in a person rather ate the whole movement.

I personally don't think that burlesque wear will ever become completely adopted by the public because the whole nature of burlesque is risk. Risk just isn't something that translates well to the masses so it will always remain niche. But I think this is a good thing, because once everybody is doing the same thing it ceases to be special and that would be a tragedy. 

Through The Lens: Tumultuous Fragmentation.

Why is it that we are all always drawn to the sea? Personally I am drawn to any large expanse of wanter, almost magnetically. I had the most strange experience a few weeks ago when visiting relatives in sussex. We had gone for a trip to the seaside to see the storm induced waves as they were reportedly extremely tumultuous that day. The reports were correct, it was an extremely angry sea that day. I was armed with my camera but what pulled me to the seas edge most was the danger of the water. I knew that it was not safe but I just needed to get closer, I was so drawn to the sea it was almost scary. (I am writing this so obviously nothing bad happened).

Now to the real reason for writing this post: A photographer who has been on my radar for a while is Clarke Little He has an absolutely stunning ability to capture waves and seascapes. This is an area of photography that up until the moment I was presented with such an angry sea myself I had never even thought about trying. But the memories of Littles images flickered into my brain and I decided that I would give it a shot (literally). To give you an idea of the amazing work that little does here is his 'be different' advert for Nikon.


My seascapes are obviously nowhere near as polished as his as I was not prepared to lay in the sea to capture them nor do I have a waterproof camera, so it would have been a short shoot had that been my decision. But using a very short shutter speed I was able to capture some fragmented moments of beauty within the chaos of the raging sea. Here are my best:

Experiment: White Paper

In a seminar a few weeks ago it was suggested to us that a great brand should be recognisable though the most simple forms, for instance a piece of white paper. We were asked to take said piece of paper and using only that, represent a brand of our choice. I thought that this was an incredibly interesting exercise and wanted to play around with the idea a bit more in my own time. This time including my fondness of photography. Could I use a piece of blank paper and my camera to represent different designers and brands, I have tried to represent a range of different designers and brands of varying popularity to see which ones had the strongest brand awareness.

I wanted the experiment to be quite raw so I haven't edited the pictures at all they are exactly as they were taken.

PRADA 

MARCHESA

CHRISTOPHER KANE

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

ALL SAINTS 

My personal favourites are Marchesa and All saints because I feel that I have captures the essence of their brands, I captures the soft etherial nature of Marchesa and the grungy, worn in style that all saints adopts...I have got to say I am quite proud of that last picture. 

The Met Gala: A Rant

Every Year I sit and eagerly await the Met Gala. The worlds best and brightest stars gather all wearing incredible outfits, I love trawling through the photo archives to see what everybody was wearing, and boy are there some absolutely incredible clothes out there, on some rather beautiful people (in my opinion). So every year I get excited about what they are going to wear and Every. Single. Year. One or Two people look absolutely NAIL that years theme. They are my rock stars. Everybody else is a disappointment. Regardless of how stunning they look. If there is a theme YOU STICK TO IT. It is an honour to be invited to an event such as this, you are not to take it for granted you selfish people!

This years theme was Manus x Machina: Fashion in an age of Technology. Just Imagine what people could have been wearing, Think about the opportunities that that presented designers, What an Incredible brief! It Should have filled them with so much inspiration that they burst with the most crazy wonderful designs! But it didn't. Did it? Now I could sit here and list all those people who annoyed me this year....but trust me its such a long list I think I would go crazy before I finished it. So Instead I will share my personal highlights of the night.

I have a top three who I think really nails this years theme:

Beyonce Knowles 

Wearing a dress designed by Riccardo Trsci for Givenchy made entirely from latex, was the perfect mixture of quirky and beautiful. This is on my list at number three because although the dress was quite beautiful but not groundbreaking, making it from latex was a nice nod to how the fashion industry has embraced new technologies to accomplish this.

Emma Watson 

Emma as always had an agenda which is a really fabulous thing. I am a huge fan of this remarkable lady. She was wearing Calvin Klein who had collaborated with the Green Carpet Campaign. The dress was made from recycled bottles. I was extremely impressed by the foresight to use the theme of the evening to highlight the massive advancements being made in eco fashion. I approve.

Claire Danes 

Now the person who for me, and everyone else in the universe who 'won' the met gala this year was the stunning Claire Danes who wore a custom made dress designed by Zac Posen. This dress captured the imagination of everyone who saw it. Not only was it stunning, it was inventive, enticing and perfectly captured the theme of the evening. It was made from fibre optic woven organza and had thirty battery packs seen into the design according to FastCo. This dress was being broadcast over social media instantly and everybody was talking about the glowing dress.

THIS is what the met gala is about, Pushing boundaries within fashion. It is the perfect platform to show experimental new ideas, people will talk about it. I just wish that more people would capitalise upon this. Maybe next year we will see some really amazing and iconic fashion moments being made.

Walk Walk Fashion Baby

I got to tick off something on my bucket list last night! I am still floating from the buzz of it all. I got to walk in on a professional runway. Though I was walking for the first year fashion students 'White' collection, there was still a paying audience and professional models in the wings waiting to start their collection.

I had seen an email on the NOW about recruiting models for the show and on a whim has emailed back saying I would be happy to help. I thought they would take one look at me, laugh and show me the door...I am 5'3, hardly model height. But nonetheless I was fitted to a very interesting outfit and I got to walk in the show. Queue girly screaming with happiness!

It was great because after we had walked our part of the show we got to sit and watch the 'Style show live' which was part of the Nottingham fashion week. The show was hosted by none other than the stunning Alice Levine from BBC radio 1 who is as lovely off air, as she is on. The style show had six sections all showcasing clothing that you could buy from the Victoria centre: Nauticaluxe, Botanicals, Monochrome, Think Pink, Dreamweaver and Colour Clash. It was a very fun and energetic show, through it was very commercial rather than a high fashion catwalk. the models appeared to be having fun, smiling and interacting with one another. I suppose they were selling lifestyle as much as clothing at an event such as that.

It has gone down in my books as one of the best things I have ever done on a whim. What an experience!

Reign

I am a huge fan of Historical dramas and history in general. I love visiting stately homes, Castles and Historically interesting places. There is something alluring about the past. The different pace of life the horrible and thrilling things that have come before us and shaped us into being what and who we are today. I adore learning about the intricacies and quirks of the different rulers and the numerous plots and conspiracies of the past, I find much inspiration from the past, aesthetically and as points of reference within my work. Whether it be belief systems or the fashions of the past I find it fascinating.

Because of this and another (slightly less boastful) hobby of mine; watching films and Tv shows by the hundred. I stumbled across a television series called 'Reign'. It follows the story of the young Mary Queen of Scotts and her life in France. It is a period of history I have basic understanding of but know nothing in depth so I was interested. I am fully aware that this adaption would have few to no links to reality but it has to be entertaining eh? Plus there was a rather beautiful actor involved so I was watching it historically accurate or not.

As I settled into the series I began to realise that though the narratives were entertaining and the acting was good there was something else that was keeping me hooked to the series. It was the incredible costume design. The Dresses, Oh! the dresses! They were stunning, Each outfit seemed to upstage the last, Not only in the main cast but supporting actors and actresses also seemed to have my dream wardrobe of taffeta, lace, billowing skirts and opulent coats. I found I was looking forward to seeing what they would be wearing next. I was laying in bed at night thinking about these dresses and which ones I would wear, who's I liked best. It was distracting me from day to day activities (Fuelling my obsession with ballgowns is never healthy). But who was I to blame for this? Who was the costume co-ordinator for this program, I had to find out more.

Meredith Markwork- Pollack is the costume designer in question, she has also worked on Gossip Girl and Heart of Dixie so her talent is undeniable. She says that she was inspired by films such as 'Le Reign Margot',the Dolce and Gabanna and  Oscar de la Renta collections at the time. But Where did she get some of the gowns? and could I afford them (potentially)? Apparently a lot of the dresses came from Vintage stores in Toronto where much of the series was filmed but others came from Free People, Basil Soda and Alexander McQueen *sigh*. Meredith also says that she gets a lot of outfits from online sites such as Web net - a porter, The outnet and BHLDN. Please excuse me whilst I go and spend a lot of money I don't have on stunning dresses to fulfil my childhood dream of being a princess.

Spotlight on local talent

I have had one of those extremely strange experiences this weekend. Through a mutual friend I ended up being asked to step in and help out with a production at the Nottingham art centre. Apparently a mystery illness has swept through the technical and backstage crew, meaning non affiliated persons such as myself were having to be recruited.

I was looking forward to being maybe a runner doing odd jobs and stuff for the cast and crew, being the lowest of the low but it was going to be fun to do something different. I turned up on the Wednesday morning bright eyes and bushy tailed and started helping move props into the theatre, helping with odd jobs as I had expected, shop runs for super glue and the likes. However when the stage manager turned up it became more and more apparent that i was not, in fact to be a runner for the show. But that one of the spotlight operators had dropped out and I was to be taking over for the shows.

Queue me having a mild panic attack, I am the most technophobic human on the planet, I have an uncanny knack in messing things like this up. But nonetheless this was a role I had been given, so I was damn well going to to my best. At the end of the day it is a crazy new experience I can add to my list.

Wednesday through till Friday was filled with technical run-throughs, dress rehearsals and multiple stops, starts, mistakes and wonderful acting. I soon picked up how to use the spotlight a huge machine that i lovingly named 'Samuel', and after watching the show about 20 times knew most of the lyrics to the songs as well as choice snippets from the script. I was having a really good time. The only downside was the fact that Samuel was about a hundred years old and as soon as he was turned on cooked the person operating him to death. Trapped in a tiny box at the rear of the theatre like a sauna for well over 12 hours in a day was definitely a trial. But a very entertaining one.

The production was 'The Adams Family' it was organised, directed and acted by NTU students who are part of the drama society. I had never seen this musical before but as a fan of musical theatre it was a joy to be immersed within the world of the show. This is almost my love letter to the drama society, they where absolutely incredible! The show looked and felt professional and it was an absolute honour to work alongside them on this project.

So in conclusion, always offer to help if you can, it not only helps other people (which is always really important) but it gives you new life experiences which make you a much more rounded and interesting individual. And its normally great fun too!

Through the Lense: 90's

There has been a rise and subsequent fall of a resurgent trend, one that seems to rear it head in some form or another every few years; The 90's. Crop tops are back, Loose trousers are replacing the skinny jean, The tattoo look chocker is in every girls wardrobe. Thank goodness greasy look hair and thick lipgloss haven't been resuscitated. Some things are best left in the past. 

This recent trend has me thinking about the heyday of super models in the 90's. The faces of Tyra Banks, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss gracing every cover or editorial you could find. Not only this but the iconic style of the photography at this period is something that I have never tried to capture before. So I gave myself a challenge, Recreate the mood of some of these Iconic women through photography...

Photoshoots with supermodels tended to be focused on there apparent perfection. the true beauty of these women, They were not overtly sexualised or extremely posed however they all exuded confidence and created truly memorable images. 

When I was looking for inspiration for this shoot I was hugely influenced by this image. I loved the ambiguity of the models relationship and the balance between direct and indirect adress with the audience. The two shot works well and I decided that I too was going to use two models within my shoot and shoot it in black and white. I wanted to covey the same ambiguity within the poses and facial expression, Balancing between boredom and fear. Here Is what I managed: