A few more images from the Francesca Marotta show.

LFW has kicked off so here are a few pictures that I took at Goldsmiths Hall, St Paul's at the Francesca Marotta show today.

In this final shoot I decided to go out with the young man one more time to see if there way any way of me being let in at all. I don’t think this shoot is as successful as the previous as its very similar to the ones at the start. I haven’t seen a different side to the by like I was able to in the previous shoot. Although I don’t think the images are awful as they remind me of a much more commercial shoot which you would see in a magazine or on a website, maybe advertising his coat or his hat.

I didn’t want to just disregard these images so I took the opportunity to display some digital image editing which I have displayed across the page.

I decided to look at these images as commercial images rather than images that I had done for myself. Therefore I would need to retouch the images otherwise they wouldn’t look brilliant if they were being used commercially. By having past experience working in a fashion photography studio and currently interning at Lumiere London doing the same thing, I decided that it was very important for the images to look clean, especially the model. So I simply masked and blurred the face and body to soften they erased sections that needed to be much sharper. I also darkened the clouds to make the sky a little moodier to match the mood of the young man. 

When I looked back over all the images I have taken throughout the project I realised that they were all along the same lines, in the way that they were all very similar and didn’t really give much of a full scale portrait of this young man, Sam. I wanted to show that there were different sides to his emotions like there are within us all so I decided to go about this shoot in a different way.

I decided to shoot at night and not use a flash but depend on the streetlights for what I would see and record. By being able to capture the defined features of his face by having very particular lighting it felt as if the lights were only showing me what they wanted me to see. As if there was no way of me being able to see him completely or try to discover every aspect of his personality or character because I simply couldn’t read him properly. Although, this only intrigued me more because it made me think about things like, ‘would I ever know this person completely?’ and ‘would he ever let me in completely or would I just be constantly trying effortlessly to understand him?’

When I look at these images I feel as if, even after recording him for weeks, this is never going to be enough to understand this person and the transitions in his life that he has previously been through and the ones he is currently ongoing. I feel as if the dark shadows surrounding these images will just always be there and not just with this one person but with all of us. I don’t believe that any of us will truly ever let someone in completely. There will always be things that are left untouched, maybe even hidden, for the rest of our lives. As if we are the red light trying to surround this person but it’s just not good enough.

I also converted the original images to black and white as I thought they were a little bit clearer but I’m not sure whether the red in the images really bothers me as these images are not about the colour but the amount of light that is illuminating the figure. 

This is my favourite image from the set because unlike the other images, Sam is not smiling or relaxed. He actually seems tense for the first time in the set and probably the first time in all the images I have produced since working with him. This one image alone put up against any of the others gives you a straight look into another side of his personality which is something I don't feel I had managed yet. This is his reality. What I have been trying to capture for quite some time now.

Don't Tread On Me - Ben Rayner

I came across Ben Rayner a few years ago when I was doing my A level in photography and I still think he is a fabulous photographer. This series 'Don't Tread On Me' is one of my favourite series' and I feel as if it connects with the kind of images that I'm trying to create. 

Over all the times I've done a study on Rayner's work I've become very fond of the characters he chooses to shoot. In this set of photographs I feel as if it's more photojournalism as there is almost a story that's being told throughout the set of images. He not only shoots the people but almost sets the scene by capturing the surroundings and clothing which helps to paint the scene. His ability to capture the emotion and moment of every image really makes you feel as if you were at the scene and lived it yourself which is such a special talent that involves a lot of patience and making sure you're in the right place at the right time. 

Here are a few images that I selected from the images I took before Sam and his friends went to 'Vegas', a grotty place in Greater Manchester that they nickname Vegas due to the all round tackiness.

I noticed how Sam seemed to loosen up a lot throughout the couple of hours as the alcohol flowed which was only to be expected but this made it much easier to photograph him as he accepted the camera, being much more relaxed. Or rather, he paid more attention to the fact that his photograph was being taken. Towards the end of the session he would look at the camera whenever he felt it pointing at him as if he liked the attention he was getting. This obviously could be related to the fact that he had drank a lot and was becoming much more comfortable around me and in front of the camera as we have spent a lot of time playing around with this activity now. 

From the point of view of someone who doesn't know Sam, here you would a twenty year old man, who happens to look a little younger, galavanting with his friends before a night out. Although I feel like even just in the few photographs that I selected to include here you get a range of emotions which give you a slight insight into the mind of this young man and the kind of person that he is.