I have been briefed to create a front cover and double page spread for VICE magazine. Throughout this, I have to make my subject (model) completely unrecognisable to the audience, within their personality standpoint and physically. I will explore this task by using  the Phase one camera and Capture One editing system in a professional studio, experimenting with different lighting scenarios, camera settings and angles to create a unique photography spread for VICE. 

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My first initial approach to this was to research into what a standardised VICE magazine looks like, looking into how they are set up and played out for its audience. The magazine is very fashion orientated and dives into different subcultures, exploring the people and attributes within. Through this I discovered that Vice is very experimental with its work, pushing the boundaries between what the normal publishings will put out there. Comparing this to GQ or Vogue, VICE has a certain way of removing this masking effect on what we can and can't put into a magazine, creating an entirely different and diverse audience as opposed to its other fashion magazine competitors. Advertising things from skateboarding to cigarette papers, and up and coming creatives, VICE brings a whole new view into a weekly subscription mag, fore-siting its effective marketing to branch out to many different people.

For my studio shoot, some inspiration was from the photographer Irving Penn, who dives into the creative task of lighting experimentation. Throughout his work, he wants to use light to create and deter the mood of a shoot, to evoke the emotion and raise questions about his photography. 

These templates are given by VICE magazine to upload my photography with. I have the choice between a black or white logo, whichever fits my final images.

Through researching more into his work, I would like to inspire my portrait to his style, simple and full of character. This form of photography has been utilised many times through many different photographers work, however my final piece shall endear a sense of mystery to it, as my task is to change my subjects appearance in as a creative way possible. Though Penn's work still drives this motive into effect. He will experiment into how his models will stance themselves, as well as formally change their own environment into the studio, as he has done in the photograph above. Looking into what fabrics shows the right effect, how he places the lights, how those lights bounce off and interact with the final product.

The next photographic sequence I chose to explore more into was the work of Wifredo Lam, a Cuban artist from the early 1900's. Although his professional work is as an artist, a painter, these photos taken of him was when he was in the moment, working on his next piece. These drove some inspiration for how I wanted to set up my studio space, 'Through The Eyes of the Artist'. I have been I fan of Lam's paintings for years, studying and attempting to recreate his style myself. However for this project I wanted to show the true thought process and configuration which these artists portray when in their own studio space.

The second photograph above is one of the most famous photos taken of Lam, being exhibited in the TATE modern, London where I first saw example of his work a few years back. However the photographer behind most of his studio pictures are taken by his friends and family, so I was never able to backtrack how each photo was taken. 

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The pictures shown above are from my first test shoot, figuring out how to set up the correct lighting, experimenting with the Phase 1 cameras, and using the capture one software to edit our final process images. There is a step process behind a studio shoot before you take your first formal photo. First you must account for all equipment in use, make sure everything is in reliance and working. Then even more important, setting out your equipment and marking on the floor where everything goes, making notes and mental images of how the space is set up. This is all before questioning the lighting variables and taking a light reading to make sure the camera settings along with the lights are compatible and exposed correctly. 

These photos shown above show the experimentation and realisation for my lighting arrangement, figuring out out how to set up and conjure up different aspects of lights.

I mostly work out my ideas using pen and paper, this project is no exception. My notes allow my to be more expressive, messy and 'sketch like' with my work flow and enables me to be able to portray my ideas in my own way.  These notes show a rough idea on how I imagine my final project to be. How the lights are set up, and my equipment list fully fledged out to what I think I may need. My work flow is a lot faster by writing my ideas out by hand, I am able to place my ideologies out infant of me almost as fast as I thought of it

-Phase one camera

-80m lense

-45m lense

-Tripod

-Grey paper backdrop

-Backdrop stands

-Black foam board

-Soft box

-1x lighting rigs

-4x light stands

-Soft box

-Props (ezle+canvas/ white shirt+baggy trousers/ face-paint/ stool)

-Skyport

-Flashmeter

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Pablo Picasso 

One of the worlds most respected and famous artist too date, he is also part of one of my favourite photography instalments: Pablo Picasso's life in pictures.

The positioning of the subject (Picasso) in each photo depicts an expression of thought and focus throughout the shoot, showing different times in his life and yet he never changes his persona. I wanted to recreate this in my final shoot, to show not the final image and expression of a finished product, but the initial creation of it. The thought process behind the artists design flow and work.

Photographs above show the making of the Ezle used for my shoot. I wanted to create my own visual representation for my shoot, so I decided to build my own props, giving my final images a unique feel towards my magazine spread.

The images above show the pre-shoot, testing the lighting, the white balance with grey cards. Choosing where to place each piece of equipment as close to my final sketch design as possible.

Explaining my shoot too my model and assistant to grasp an overall knowledge of my idea.

The photos shown above are the unedited RAW files taken on a Phase One camera through the software CaptureOne. They where heavily inspired by the 'Power" photos taken from my artist research, using the shadows to mask one side of his face, and covering the other side with paint splatters (along with his arms; shoes; and shirt).

The work shown above shows the best creditable images taken in the limited amount of time we had been given (50 mins each). This was to set up our lighting, shoot, then clear everything up ready for the next photographer. My shoot was second out of the three, which was under my own request as I wanted to be able to warm up during assisting someone else shoot, finding the feel and motion of the studio. 

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Overall I feel that my final turnout went better than expected, whilst I went into the studio with a plan for my magazine spreads, I left with more photos than what I intended to capture, leaving on a more positive note than what I had originally thought. 

With this ideology set out, my final product became easier to work with when choosing the final design.

-Have a better laid out lighting diagram which is more understandable for my assistant. 

-Have a better understanding on what each piece of equipment is used for and how I can use it too my benefit.

-Take more photos, (this doesn't just mean more poses or lighting arrangements, but more photos on the same pose so there is less trial and error in post. Take two or three of the same photo to tackle this)

-Explore more into the subject of hiding the models identity, I feel that the shoot changed his personality throughout the photography as with his sense of style and punctuation. However on a more physical note I could have hidden his face more, adding more shadow into the shot and more paint on to his face.

-I made sure that I went the route of quality over quantity, resulting in 90 percent of my photos becoming usable throughout post.

-I feel that my final two images fit well into the VICE magazine template.

I used the second image as the page crease will go through a blank space in my photo, whilst not distorting any main subject of the image.