Photo shoot inspiration:
This week, my main task is to get my final shoot done as I only have a few weeks left to bring all my project together into my photo book. As seen below, my influence for this shoot is quite similar to the last one, lots of out of focus, hazy, dreamlike, heavily nature focused images, but this time I want to do the shoot in the woodlands so have included some folk horror looking forest images too. After looking and learning a lot from Antonio Palmerini's work last week, one of the big things I noticed in his photos was his use of movement during a long exposure to create very dynamic and cinematic shots. This is definitely something I'll be trying for my shoot this week, getting the models I'm using to do a lot of worship and ritual looking movement with fabric to really try and create a ghost like and folk horror feel to my images. I've also included a piece of Max Slobodda's work, who I looked at a few weeks ago. As I'm going to take the lighting kit with me for this shoot I thought it would be good to look at his work again, as he uses light in such an interesting way to make his subjects look like they're glowing and giving his images a very other worldly feel.
Gregory Crewdson:
As I'm going to be using the lighting kit for this shoot I thought that I'd also look at the work of Gregory Crewdson. I think his use of lighting it absolutely stunning, and is definitely one of the reasons his work looks so cinematic. I am also really inspired by the sense of surreal that he creates in his images as well as projecting un-explicit narratives, both things I'm aiming to do in my own shoot.
Photo shoot plan:
As I want to do this shoot in the woods, I've been looking for locations in the new forest with really dense woodland and found this place called the Holmsley Inclosure, pictured below, which looks like the perfect location for my shoot as it looks like very old, dense and remote. I'm going to do the shoot on Wednesday as it looks like the best day weather wise. I want to do this shoot at dusk so that I really can take advantage of the lights and them not be overpowered by the daylight. But just because I'm planning to do it later in the day, I still need to factor in getting there and setting up and not leave it too late like when I took the photos of Corfe Castle!
Photo shoot styling:
Below is my main inspiration for how I would like my models to look for this shoot. In terms of what I'd like my models to wear, I'm thinking all white and preferably long floaty dresses that will really highlight their movement. It will give them that wicca/pagan look which will further enhance the folk horror style of this shoot, it'll link back to the 'Suffocated Bride' legend that I looked at a few weeks ago which initially made me think of using long white fabric in my shoots and, will subvert the notion of white symbolising women's innocence and virginity, and instead I want it to show our strength and powerful connection to nature.
I want this styling to have a similar effect to the Kinderwhore look of the 1990's. Worn mainly by a handful of female grunge bands, and massively popularised by the Hole front singer Courtney Love (pictured to the left), the style took typically hyper feminine and dainty dresses and made them badass by either ripping them up or pairing them with big combat boots and heavy black makeup. This style symbolised some of the messages of the Riot grrrl movement and third wave feminism, all kicking off at the time, which aimed to challenge gender stereotypes, views on female sexuality and saw the emergence of new feminist currents and theories, such as intersectionality, sex positivity, vegetarian ecofeminism, transfeminism, and postmodern feminism.
The reason I bring this up is because that's what I want to do with this shoot and this project in general. I want to subvert gender stereotypes, show the power of femininity and womanhood and prove that even though I have been sexually assaulted, I still have so much strength.
Forest shoot
Contact sheets:
Lightroom edits:
Photo shoot evaluation:
First of all, I'm really happy with how this shoot turned out. I think I've taken some really strong images that perfectly capture the look I was going for. I really enjoyed using the lighting kit and I think the use of lighting in my shots really elevates them as well making the models look like they're glowing, which after looking at Max Slobodda's work, was something I really wanted to have a go at. As well, after using the techniques of Antonio Palmerini of the long exposed shots of movement and editing in high contrast afterwards really emulates that dreamlike look I was going for too. The glow and haze created by the movement of the models and the sheet and the long exposure also really gives the image a very witchcraft/ritual feel, which along with the woodland background and dark time of day really creates the folk horror look I was going for. The styling adds to the pagan feel of the images as well as expressing my feminist message. I think some of the images look a bit too much like a fashion shoot from where I was playing around with the models doing different poses and trying different exposures, but there are definitely a lot of pictures that I can use for my photobook. So overall, I think this shoot was a bit success.
Week 9 Reflections:
I think I've had a really successful week this week. I'm super happy with the images from my photo shoot, and feel as though I've definitely got a lot of strong material to work with now to make my photo book. As I only have three weeks left for this project, I now really need to start putting together my book. I'm picking up my developed film next week which should hopefully have some more material for me to use for my book, and my plan is to do some more photo book research next week so I can really start picturing what sort of look and design I'm going for as well as manipulating and editing my film photos.
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