Magazine Covers

For my final pieces, I was looking into creating magazine covers, but with 'real' women instead of airbrushes, tightened models which give an unrealistic image to the viewers. These were the first photographs I took to put towards these pieces.

I like the contrast, and the range of colours in the photographs, in my opinion, it makes it look more like a magazine because it has a happy, warm feel to it. The bright flower in the centre of the frame instantly draws attention to the subject and the model, whilst the subtle colour in the background really splits up the model from the empty space in the frame. Using a flower instantly added a warmer feel to the photographs, and because it's covering half the model's face, it made her a lot easier to photographs. Only having half a face to focus on got rid of any uncomfortable looks the model might of had, and in my opinion, made better looking photographs.

I will likely reshoot some similar kinds of things to produce a wider range of final pieces. If I was to make more, I would probably stick with using objects as well as models, because it really brightens the photographs up.

The main focus on the photographs were using little/no photoshop, avoiding changing the models appearances with airbrushing and similar tools. The only editing I have ended up using is a small amount of contrast in the photographs, purely to make them look brighter and bolder, the appearance of the model has barely changed. 

Before

After

The photograph was naturally bright and bold, so the contrast was a very minor change to the image.

This is the first draft of one of my front covers. I think it's a good first attempt, but in some ways it looks too 'cheesy', making it look more serious and more like a magazine (mainly with the text) would improve the work massively. Because it was the first time I'd done anything like this, I found it difficult, which is probably why it didn't look as good as I'd first intended, but it's a good starting point to lead me on to further work. It has also led me to make short articles related to my work to go alongside the cover/covers I might make. 

Weight

These are some photographs I took based around weight. My original idea was to do long exposures of breathing to capture all the movements in the stomach, this was my attempt at it. I used a single Bowen's light with a soft box to the left of the frame, creating a thick shadow on the model's back. This highlights the detail on the model's body in the ribs and stomach.

I don't think the long exposure captured it well enough, although it was a good attempt, it can't be seen very clearly. The model moving made it blurrier rather than a long exposures, which put me off the idea. After that, I decided to photograph the model normally, and overlay the images on each other. I got the model to breath in as far as possible, and out as far as possible to create the biggest difference I could between the two states.

I massively prefer the overlapped version rather than the long exposures, it's a lot clearer rather than blurred. I did it on photoshop by overlaying the images, and making the top one a lower opacity so that the bottom photograph can be seen through it.

The intention with this work was to show the reality of a person's figure, and often how they see themselves. Although it's not the case with all of the people suffering from eating disorders or weight problems, a common mentality is seeing yourself a different size to what you are, motivating you to lose weight more, so I felt the work I produced was appropriate.

Final Major Project Proposal - UAL Layout

Taiyo Onorato - Marzahn

Perfectionism

These are some short pieces on perfectionism, which were forwarded to me by a friend, who sourced them from a counsellor. They focus on the psychological side of perfectionism, how to identify yourself as a perfectionist.

This led me to look at people who undergo surgery to achieve 'perfection' in their appearance. It's a really common thing with celebrities, which I think influences people to follow a similar route to try and change their appearance, unrealistically. A lot of the time, the surgery is unnecessary too, below is an example of it, Megan Fox who didn't look bad beforehand, had surgery anyway, creating a bad influence for young girls particularly. 

Although the change in Megan Fox can't be seen a lot in that picture, some change themselves to look almost inhumane because the surgery is that drastic.

As well as surgery, advertisements featuring celebrities are also unrealistic, mainly because of the amount of makeup plastered on them, and how much they are edited and manipulated. They are made to look 'perfect', which gives an unrealistic view on how people look, mainly women. This is a good example, Beyonce on the cover of Vogue is made to look absolutely flawless

When without makeup and editing, her skin isn't as smooth and bright, her eyes have have bags and darkness and her face doesn't look as skinny. 

They wouldn't be able to put the real photos of Beyonce on the cover, because she doesn't look 'perfect' enough, so it wouldn't sell products, whereas this unrealistic version of beauty that is portrayed will sell, because people aspire to look that unrealistically good. 

This led me to think about how I can link my work in with this, shooting photographs in the style of Vogue and other popular magazines, but with real people, without the editing to look like the real Vogue. I might create a series of front page spreads with 'real' women, maybe even with a couple of articles to go alongside expressing views against plastic surgery. 

Final Major Project - Beauty

I spoke with my tutor about how to focus more closely on a specific area within my project, and mentioned that I'd been thinking of working around beauty. This led us to look at how beauty has changed through the years, with people like Marilyn Monroe compared to modern idols who are a lot younger and skinnier. We also spoke about recreating famous or popular photographs but with 'real' people, instead of models made up and photoshopped.

I think I might do something like this, it would be a good starting point for my final pieces. Although, I would really like to use some of my previous work for my final pieces, including the portraits and body shots produced earlier.

It's a topic I'd like to follow up for my final piece, mainly because it's something a lot of people have strong opinions on. As well as that, it's something that is a part of every day life, and something that can have a massive impact on people regularly. A lot of my research will probably be opinion based, I think that's stronger work that something taken from a magazine, books or the internet.

Perspective

M. C. Escher was a graphic artist who worked in the early 20th century, working with mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. One of his more famous pieces is the Escherian Stairwell, which is a stairwell that appears to be ever ascending. I thought it'd be appropriate to look at following my work on scale and perspective with the jewellery pieces. 
Personally, I really like the staircase, and the sketch of the hands I have included, because it really plays with the mind, and makes you think a lot more deeply about the pieces. Although little of my work is based on perspective, the concept of capturing the viewers attention is something I really want to achieve with my work.

The game series Fallout features 'Vault Boy', somewhat of a mascot for the game. The game is based in a postwar setting, where a lot of the land is polluted with radiation poisoning following nuclear attacks and disasters. A common misconception is that Vault Boy is giving a thumbs up to the player. Really, Vault Boy is a reference to previous wars in real life, in which people would measure if they were in the radiation zone of a nuke by holding there thumb up to the explosion, if there thumb was smaller than the explosion they would be in the radiation zone.

I thought this was something interesting to look at, although it is not art based, it's the subtle use of perspective and real facts in the game that I found interesting.