Alice Sey @ Girl Management photographed by Jay Mawson
Hair & Makeup by Paula Maxwell
Tag Archive - Leeds
On Portfolios
“Hey – do you do model portfolios?”
That question is probably the one I’m asked more than any other, simply because more people are in a position to ask that than “Hey, will you shoot my high profile advertising campaign over a week in the Maldives?”. They see how I’ve made other girls and boys look and want a piece of it.
And yes, certainly for the moment, I do shoot portfolios. I’m good at them – I can bring out the good things in models, emotions and expression, fierceness and aesthetic. Power. I’m not so good at ‘polaroids’ – the static, wistful B&W head shots with hair swept back and eyes fixed straight ahead. Headshot, three quarter length, full length. Strappy top and jeans. I’m happy to leave those to the agencies to take in their basement – actually on a real polaroid (no skin retouching needed – the magic fairy inside every polaroid camera does that) or a point and shoot. I’ve chosen models for commercial work based purely on their polaroids – they’re the most valuable shots in a new face’s book. They tell me what I need to know.
On Blogging
No, I haven’t given up already – just been genuinely busy with jobs since musing On Glamour photography…so as a quick ‘filler’ post I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to.
Do you know how long an off-the-cuff diatribe actually takes to write? Literally several minutes, and I just haven’t got that time right now…
I don’t usually open my diary up – incessant Facebook posts about all the amazing things people are up to grate on me and I figure I can’t be the only one, but at least here you have the choice to read it or just go look at some photos instead.
On Glamour Photography
About a year ago my mother dropped into conversation that she’d told her friend I was a glamour photographer. I hit the roof.
I shoot commercial and editorial fashion, beauty, my cat and the very occasional sunset – but surely I don’t shoot glamour. Do I?
It doesn’t help matters that, as with most genres, there is no fixed ideal of what ‘glamour’ photography is – it’s simply another labelled bucket for people to throw things into. The connotations though are definitely slightly negative – “oh, he shoots glamour” is seldom spoken with the same respect that someone might say “oh, he shoots high fashion”. In fact it’s often on a par with “oh, he shoots donkey porn”.
I’ve tried before to think of a suitable term for that side of my photographic identity. Fashion models who want me to shoot in that style call it ‘edgy fashion’. Great, but vest tops, slogan tees, watermelons and toasters have never been the height of fashion. Plus, I still have no idea what ‘edgy’ actually means.
Edgy Fashion...
On Photoshop #1
Photographer or Digital Artist?
When people look at your images what’s the first thing they’re reacting to, your photography or your photoshoppery?
Every blog by every photographer will likely cover their views on Photoshop, retouching or digital art at some point, so I’ll get mine out of the way early. In some ways it defines who I am as a photographer, so it’s a good place to start.
This isn’t written for professionals – they’ll have realised most of what I have to say years ago and formed their own opinions – but to anyone who’s approached photography through the same self taught route and insulated online communities as I have it might strike a chord.
When I first started looking with interest at fashion, advertising and commercial photography I couldn’t understand the popularity of Terry Richardson, Juergen Teller, Martin Parr. Anybody can do that. Anybody could have taken those snaps. I looked at the great and the good on Model Mayhem and marvelled at the highly polished images (because that’s what you do when you start out and haven’t had the benefit of doing an Art Foundation course to give you a clue).
Fast-forward to today, and I appreciate the real genius of Mssr’s Richardson, Teller & Parr as photographers. Equally, I can see why the majority of internet photographers never quite make it whilst technically inferior photographers (in their view) regularly shoot high profile campaigns.
