DGP18203 Images that perusade: Advertising

For this brief we have to shoot a story for a magazine from the options we have been given:

After looking at the different magazines available, I thought that the best magazine to go with would be M Le Monde as the idea i have in mind for it is fairly documentary based and partially conceptural.

For this assignment, I want to look at south asian people in the creative industry. As a south asian myself I'm constantly finding myself questioning where my people of my ethnicity fit in a landscape that is largely middle class and white. As of recent especially I have been asking myself the question of how this can be changed and a story celebrating south asian creatives is a strong idea in my opinion as it will hopefully shine a light on SA people and hopefully inspire more people to express that side of themselves to boost representation as a whole.

It can be said that representation of SA people is growing, but it is still slow and needs improvement.

At first, it makes sense to gather some inspiration for this project, so I will look at other shoots that are based on south asian representation, one i liked in particular was by @takemorephotos and shot by @shenellkennedy.

This project as a whole has a lot that I can take inspiration from, for starters the concept is quite similar to what I want to do in the sense of drawing eyes to a community that has been marginalised in the past.

Kennedy shoots a lot of ethnic minorities and focuses on interersting people with a story to tell. As someone who is looking at creatives from a often forgotten about community, this is something I can most definitely 

Another project I am particularly drawn to is that of "Layers" by my photographer friend Simmy Kanda. This project was shot for Selin Magazine 

This project is about rejecting criticisms from other people about clothing and feeling free to express yourself how you see fit.

It can be said that being South Asian comes with certain expectations of modesty and this project rejects all of those.

"Being Punjabi; wearing certain clothes shouldn’t fall into the brackets of being labelled “an online hoe”, or “not knowing where you’re from”. - Hridika

As a practitioner, Simmy focuses on working with smaller brands to help them come up, building her own community of friends and brands that she has worked with, an approach I largely respect and want to adopt in some ways. 

I find this project so inspiring that it is one of the reasons that I am going to shoot simmy as one of the south asian creatives for the project.

Creative #2: Laviba Miah

Another south asian creative I am going to shoot for this project is Laviba Miah, a female Bengali instagram influencer and content creator. She is also a stylist, meaning she has a fashion background within all her work. She uses her platform as a voice for muslim women all over the globe and is representing a marginalised group of women in a market and world that is middle class white dominated.

I have shot her once before so theres already a good relationship with myself and her professionally.

Creative #3 Rajvi Bhogaita

The third creative I want to highlight is Rajvi Bhogaita, an Indian Graphic designer out of West London, her work looks at combining aspects of south asian culture and her minimal, clean and vibrant aesthetic. 

Creative #4: Aaiza Arshad

The fourth and final creative i want to shoot is Aaiza Arshad, a British Pakistani Creative who has ties to the fashion industry, illustration and soon to be looking into architecture. She has championed sustainability in her pieces as a fashion designer and looks to bring change to the world in ways that can benefit us all on a day to day basis. Being in a white dominated field such as fashion there are barriers that breaks down constantly, those of which involving race and discrimination against POC.

Michelle Williams Gamaker is a British South Asian film director whos work focuses on, as she puts it, fictional activism. She looks at films that were previously her favourite and judges them through a new woke scope.

Her 2017 documentary "House of Women" looked at the female silent dancing character of Kanchi in the 1947 film "Black Narcissus" for what it really was. A South Asian character with damaging characteristics, played by someone of a completley different ethnicitiy, therefore problematic to say the least, for numerous reasons.

The role of Kanchi is recast in "House of Women" through use of interviews with South Asian actresses.

"Black Narcissus" was produced in the latter stages of the British Empire and it can be said that colonised women in films were used to depicted as ignorant, promiscuous people who needed guidence from colonisers, or as noble savages with desirable traits such as modesty, purity and chastity.

Looking at projects from Michelle Williams Gamaker make me want to present the south asian creatives i have selected for my photoshoot in the best light possible and i feel like using Gamakers project as a do and dont guide is a key way to make my take on M Le magazine du Monde as successful and empowering as possible.

Magazine Research:

M, Le Magazine du Monde, translated to "Magazine of the World," is a publication that comes free with Le Monde Newspaper in Paris and is one of the most widely respected newspapers in the world. It is considered to be liberal, making it a left wing magazine. This accomodates for my story perfectly as it stars children of immigrants, something that a right wing publication may never support.

The subject matter is fashion, food and design based, making it quite a luxury magazine. The type of aesthetic is quite clean cut and crisp, making a studio based photoshoot the perfect place to showcase the talents of these creatives.

It is because there is a fashion based element to the magazine I am given some free reign with the creative direction.

Prev. Collabs

How have they used graphics + photography

Using this as a template, there is clearly a mix of portraits and some abstract photography, allowing a break in the style. This keeps the story fresh and interesting for the reader.

I knew that I wanted to do my own take on using the scarves from traditional dresses, known as chunnis/dupattas, as my backdrop as I felt like it serves for a quick way to communicate what culture I am trying to represent. If that alone isnt enough, having the models dress in clothes that are traditional in their culture further drives home this theme of South Asian culture.

Another project I have been inspired by recently is unnamed by @radhika.photos. This project celebrates south asian women in through a sense of fashion and community by a way of sisterhood almost.

The sequencing is particularly interesting in that it goes from a crowded image, to then going to a less crowded image with one main subject, and then back to an image with multiple subjects. I do have to say that i dislike the fact that the first and last image are so similar but I like them regardless.

The idea of using multiple models in one shot is something I for sure could play with in that of my own images.

I carried out a test shoot to try out a new type of lighting:

These shots allowed me to attempt some backlighting, attempts at which weren't terrible but definitely need some work:

Initially I wanted to create an environment with multiple models in the shots. The way i was thinking about doing this would have been by creating a lighting diagram, sticking to it over multiple shoot days, and then photoshopping in the models where required.

While this was a viable option, it is one that would have proved to be too difficult with little room for experimentation in terms of positioning of models and posing. As well as this i was not able to organise this due to each models own calendars and such.

Instead I had to shoot one of the models alone and the last 2 I was able to do together.

For the first photoshoot I used an east london studio that boasted natural light, a selling point i had not seen for that price range, so i knew i had to take advantage of:

This is the location of the studio, because it is in a bit of a peculiar location, i included directions on the call sheet as well as weather in case that causes issues in terms of travel fro the crew.

Below is the call sheet i put together:

I set up my lights and backdrop as such:

After shooting i then went through my capture one process to edit down the amount of photos there were, leaving me with my final edits.

I then put the call sheet together for shoot 2

For the second shoot i couldnt use the natural light studio and settle for using flash lights instead. It does mean that the project would have mixed lighting but the fact that the backdrop remains relatively the same establishes continuity within the story.

The call sheet for that of which is below:

I conducted my second shoot in a similar fashion, this time with a make up artist

This concluded the second shoot, leading me onto the third:

Creative #3 had to drop out due to a health issue, meaning that the project would involve one less creative, which was far from ideal, but i knew i could still make it work regardless. All it would mean is that i'd have to use more shots to fill any blank spaces.

Now that the shooting and editing process was done, i needed to play around with my layout to see where i wanted the final photos for this project.

Above shows my final pdf I compiled into my layout for the magazine.

Overall I am quite happy with the layout I have finished with, considering the amount of cancellations and flakiness I had to deal with from certain members of the crew. Through perserverance I managed to create a package that represents that of my culture and the people involved in a regal and grand manor. 

As well as this, this project is one that I have wanted to do for a while now, and thefact that it has come to life in the way that is has makes me proud of myself in some ways.

TERM 2:

Prints

For this term we have been tasked to create a 5 image pdf of pictures that we would sell as prints.

To begin i looked at artists that sell prints, one of which i was planning to shoot for my project last term, but fell through.

The first artist being @shaw.22 on instagram:

She is inspired by a lot of different things that all have and continue to contribute to her aestethic and style, I had this conversation with her to find out what these different things were exactly and this is what she told me:

I think the idea of the 00's cartoons playing a part in her aestethic is visible and interesting in a unique way. It is something that i can perhaps look at myself and utilise in my own way. A brief moodboard i have compilled of 00's pop culture cartoons is shown below:

For one of the prints, ive been inspired by an instagram reel ive seen:

There are many things ive done myself that i can see in this reel but not in the combination that @e.noxz, the artist, has used. I feel like i can apply my own creativity to make something that is reminiscent, fine art, minimal and still my style.

The dark/gloomy aestethic to the videos is something i can take inspiration from as I'm really drawn to how striking the colours are.

First i need to find a model, straight away from seeing the IG Reel i had one in mind that i had shot before, @eaphiri:

I backlit the set up to create an extra bit of dimension and I will do so again for the first studio image.

After contacting and organising a date, i needed to sort out wardrobe.

A stylist I can take inspiration from is Caitlyn Moriarty. I would describe her styling choices as striking yet easy on the eye. There are many ways she has accomplishes this look, one of which in an image below is from

I didnt want the wardrobe to stand out too much and thought a more editorial approach could be interesting to go along with the concept. I decided to go for the white tank top and smart trousers approach.

Below is a very quick moodboard showing the styling choices I had in mind for the model:

Another person who has inspired me this unit is actually a classmate of mine: @cain.law

His style is very ambigous and cinematic and it is something i have wanted to explore for a while now :

Something else i've wanted to explore is a black mist filter as i feel like it would help me accomplish the cinematic and filmy look, as it diffuses the extremley bright spots in photos.

To find out if this was the right choice for me i did some research on different diffusion filters:

Looking into some of his inspirations, even there, i can see aspects that i would incorporate into my own photos. One of which being Andrei Tarkovsky, a Soviet film maker whos imagery connotes themes of isolation, mystery and ominosity. The way Cain uses the frame to create a story about his subjects is particularly interesting s there is not much on screen at all

These images are very hazey and desolate, an aestethic that i can take inspiration from for sure

There is clear consideration of the rule of thirds, displaying an interesting and thoughout provoking composition.

His work has been compared to that of poetry, portraying a developed and thorough meaning throughout every frame of film.

I heard once you can tell when a film has been shot well when you can pause at any moment and feel like it could be a painting you'd have on your wall, and I strongly feel that way about Tarkovsky's work.

I felt like i had enough inspiration to begin to plan the shoot out. To begin i tested a lighting set up with a model in one of my classes:

I really liked the results from the test, some unedited images shown above, and I felt like i had a good idea how to carry out the shoot. I drew out a lighting diagram:

I then shot the model in the set up that i had pre planned and filmed a tiktok for marketing purposes:

After shooting i went through my capture one process, importing, editing, corrections and colour grading, exporting:

For one of the shoots i had in mind, i wanted to do a Spring/Summer themed editorial and use some of the images from that for this project.

I made an initial moodboard with references of images that I would take inspiration from:

I made this on pinterest and there are a lot of images and takeaways from it.

I looked into one of he images from the moodboard to use as a reference, and it was shot by a photographer called: Connor Franta.

The photo looks like it could be a part of an editorial, the styling is very bright and stands out, while complimenting the background overall. The photographer works, in fashion, music and commercial environments

I think this image was shot on a 50mm lens with a digital camera as aestethically it is quite clean and sharp overall, using natural light from the sun. The model is posed on the slope of a hill, with what looks to be daisies around him, adding to the warm feel of the image overall. When researching, this image caught my eye because of how well it suits the spring and summery theme of the shoot idea. I plan on using these points in my own work by using a standard length lens from slightly far back, this will allow for my images to have a lot of detail in them while keeping the model the main subject.

There was a lot of pre planning that went into this photoshoot as I collaborated with a creative director that i have taken photos of before:

I scouted for a location and found a place not far from my house called "Horesenden Hill," where I did a brief recce:

We agreed that this location would be appropriate.

After this I needed to find models, two of which I messaged on instagram and arranged the meet up time with, the third the creative director found. We worked together closely to put together the aestethic and look of the shoot so that we had it down to a T.

We needed to plan a day out and looked at the best day for weather

After extensive planning we shot our images as well as a bts reel, again for marketing puropses:

I then went through the indentical capture one process as my previous shoot for this project, leaving me with a pool of images to work from for both shoots.

After shooting both concepts, it was time to edit down to 5 images that i felt were my best, this is what i decided:

After conversing with my tutor i decided that the 3rd image would be best to print due to how ambiguous and unique it is.

Overall i really enjoyed this unit due to how i experimented with my style and aestethic, while keeping it close to me. I really like the work that i produced and am looking forward to continuing with this style.