Vice is a Canadian-American print magazine focused on arts, culture, and news topics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the magazine's founders later launched Vice Media, which consists of divisions including the magazine as well as a website, broadcast news unit, a film production company, a record label, and a publishing imprint.
Vice competitors
- Mashable - the leading media company for the connected generation and voice of digital culture
'Vice' magazine has been redefining style and pushing back the frontiers of taste for 15 years with images of nudity, death, drugs, war and more. Its creators say they're in the great tradition of satire – telling their readers what the mainstream media won't dare to.
The magazine's UK editor Andy Capper tries to explain. "Everything we do at Vice has an economic and social context," he starts. "I guess we're like the Economist meets Rolling Stone, back in the day..." and soon trails off. "No, that's rubbish," he sighs. "That sounds really wanky." And with this, he has just identified one of the key criticisms of this voice of a generation; its intentionally provocative content can seem just a little pretentious. But Capper strongly defies this view. "We don't say things purely to be controversial," he retorts wearily: "We take the mick out of everybody because that's the way satire should be; everyone's a target."
"We don't want to offend people," he said. "We want people to realise there's nothing offensive about people with disabilities being funny and expressive. The mainstream media [are] too afraid we will offend their audience."
MOODBOARD
INITIAL IDEAS
- orange eyeshadow, gold jewellery
- close ups, detailed portraits
- wet hair, braids
- funky clothes, patterns, bright colours
- props - cigarettes, sunglasses, chains, jewellery
- emphasize female features with a male model
- show tattoos on my models chest, close up, hand on his face,
- landscape photo - model on the left, blurry arm with tattoos
- detail on rings
- moody lighting / lot of shadows show contrast between his personality
INSPIRATION
Jacob, Vova and Jake at Want Management photographed by Tina Picard and styled by Kyanna Co, in exclusive for Fucking Young!
Luca Antonio Michelli - Swiss based photographer
I am inspired by this shoot because it shows males body in a natural way; the model nearly looks like a woman and it shows beauty in a very simple way. My plan for the shoot is to show simplicity and use open shirt to emphasize male's body with women's props (makeup, jewellery)
LIGHTING TEST SHOOT
LIGHTING DIAGRAMS FOR MY SHOOT
FIRST DIAGRAM
- background light is facing the background but also back of the model
- main light is more subtle than the light on the left
- fill light on the left is stronger to show details on the face. it's closer to me/camera
SECOND DIAGRAM - COVER PAGE
- fill light is stronger again but it's more on the side so we can't see that many details on his face, shadows create dramatic atmosphere
- background light is mainly facing the background, the silhouette of my model is sharp
FINAL SHOOT
final photographs
What worked
- lighting, shadows and atmosphere, very moody - not like my model / contrast between personality and atmosphere of the photographs
In everyday life my model acts happy and he's always positive. That was the main reason why I wanted to create something moody and with dark undertone.
- connection between a viewer and model - his eyes / direct contact but his eyes look dead and we’re 'not' having a direct contact with them but he's still looking at the camera
- styling - accessories - they add fashion vibe to my shoot and they also work well with the colour of his eyes, make up - adds girly undertone and adds different vibe to it
- composition and InDesign template - I am really happy how my final photos turned out and they work really well with Vice template, I used the rule of thirds where I places the main object in the centre of my image (cover) or on the left (spread)
What didn’t work
- the lighting at the beginning of the shoot
- I didn't use all the props because I didn't have enough time
What I would do differently next time
- more time for the final shoot
- make notes what I actually want to do for my final images (poses etc.)
- complete more light diagrams, with every possibility for the effects I want
- try different outfits ( I didn't have time this time but I prepared 3 different outfits)
I used...
- main light - octagon soft box
- background light - rectangle soft box
- spotlight
- tripod
- Phase One camera
more photographs from the shoot
experimenting with cover pages
experimenting with b&w and adding noise (making it more similar to Vice shoots as they are primarily analog shoots)
Overall I am happy with my final photographs although I think we didn't have enough time to shoot it properly and use all the props and change the lighting. The makeup was emphasised by the lighting which was one of my main focuses for the shoot. I am also proud of the post production and that my final images go nicely with InDesign template.
