MINI BRIEFS

Environmental Portraits:

Environmental portraits are a genre of photography in which the subject is photographed in their own environment, this could be their home, work or just a place that is important to them. Environmental portraits provide more context and background to the story behind a photo and so can appear more intriguing to the viewer.

Examples of environmental portraits:

I chose a range of different types of environmental portraits as examples, they use a wide variety of lighting and composition and all have very different feels to them.

Artist studies:

Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman was one of the most influential photographers specialising in environmental portraiture, he was most well known for his environmental portraits of some of the biggest politicians and celebrities of his time, including Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe and Harry S Truman. 

Newman's portraits are compelling and dynamic, I particularly like the lighting used as it is often focussed sharply on the subject themselves and less intensely on the props and background, and it helps to provide a more contextual background to the photos.

Annie Leibovitz 

Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer who has also created some environmental portraits, i chose her work because despite minimal props she still manages to create a complex and intriguing background to her portraits.

For my own personal responses i wanted to try and emulate Leibovitz' portraits and create colourful and compelling images, despite minimal use of props. For test shoots i photographed my friend Solo on his BMX and my friend Lucas at the skate park he most often practises at. 

From the shoot with solo i selected this image, and edited it slightly but i was overall disappointed with the shoot, i lost the majority of my images due to a corrupted SD card and the remaining images feel flat and out of focus. i enjoyed the concept and composition of the shoot so i want to retry the shoot at a later date.

In this shoot with Lucas i focussed more on getting the lighting and colour composition right, i liked this shoot much more than my previous attempt at environmental portraits but i still want to work on the composition of the image. For my final shoot im going to return to the location of my first shoot with solo and redo the whole shoot with added lighting and props. 

SPORTS EDITORIAL:

For my editorial i researched and took inspiration from skate/bmx magazines from the 90s/2000s such as Thrasher, Transworld and Skateboarder mag. I find the photos they feature really interesting and reflective of a culture that me and a lot of my friends grew up a part of. I think the dramatic poses and stunts, and the vintage grainy feel of the images are really intriguing and help to reflect the work and passion inside the images.

I think the yellow THRASHER cover is especially well composed, the bright yellow border helps to draw the readers attention and the photo overlapping on top helps to give a greater sense of depth to the image, and draws attention to the almost choreographic pose of the model. 

Artist Research:

Glen E Friedman

Friedman is one of the most well known photographers in skating culture, he started photographing in the 1970s, and went on to investigate the link between skating and music culture, focussing on punk and Hip Hop. At the age of 14 Friedmans work was published in 'skateboarder' mag and he later photographed the Dogtown boys, some of the most influential skaters at the time, aswell as shooting album covers for artists such as Public enemy, the beastie boys and Ice T.

For my editorial I wanted to take inspiration from skate mag covers, and Friedman's work, i did two shoots, one with my friend Solo on his BMX bike and one with my friend Lucas Skateboarding. I wanted to focus on capturing mid-air stunt shots, and try and create dramatic lighting or saturated colour to try emulate the raw and passionate feel of the original magazine shots.   

The Solo shoot: 

For my editorial shoot with solo we went to a DIY skatepark in Greenwich, i chose this location because not only does it have the ramps and obstacles required for the shoot but it was all made by skaters and bmx riders out of waste materials and concrete, and i feel that it reflects the culture of skating much more than a corporate sponsored or council built park. Its also located under some motorway flyovers, helping to shield from the harsh natural lighting and creating interesting leading lines, and a more intriguing background.

PRE EDIT FINAL IMAGES:

I sorted through all my images from the shoot with solo, and chose these 7 to work on. I like the dramatic mid air poses, the composition of the background and the general look of the photos, I'm going to try editing them into silhouettes and see how they come out to try and counter the harsh lighting and brightness from the sky, but im still happy with these images overall.

Overall i am happy with these images, i really enjoyed trying out the 8mm fisheye lens, i felt that it let me get much closer to the subject and helped to keep everything in focus as i was moving regularly, i also enjoy the feel the wide angle gives to the photos and i think its perfect for shooting action shots. if i had the opportunity id redo this shoot as id like to try and get the lighting better, i feel like lots of the shots were overexposed and too bright, id like to go back on a clearer day so there is more colour in the images, and not just a plain bright white sky.

The Lucas Shoot

for this shoot i wanted to capture images that had more colour and a warmer feeling that the images i shot with solo, we went to a Spot outside Queens Road Peckham that is notorious for skaters practising their flatspot tricks

i am really happy with these images, i think the colour and exposure is much better than the shoot with solo, and i really like the poses, i think they are the most accurate responses to the skate covers i have taken. in future i would work more on getting the shutter speed exactly right as there is motion blur in some of the images, but i quite like it in some (such as the last image i included above)

my favourite (and final) image is the shot with the bus in the background, i think it  is really interesting and the colour in the image is really nice,  having the model on the right woudl leave space for the cover text and info, like in the thrasher cover, and i feel it is the most accurate recreation of a skate mag cover.