Thursday, 5 June 2014

Oliverio Toscani (Portrait/Advertising)




















Oliverio Toscani born in 1942 in Milan, Italy. Toscani wanted to take up photography because he wanted to follow in his fathers foot steps Fedele Toscani who used to be a photoreporter for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. After Toscani gained his diploma at Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich he went onto working with several magazines including, Elle, Vogue, L'Uomo and Harpers Bazaar. In 1982 he started working for Benetton where some of his campaign work made controversy across the globe. In the early 1990's he co founded the magazine Colors with the company Benneton. He carried on working for Benneton until 2000. Once again in 2005 Toscani caused controversy with campaign ads with men's clothing brand Ra-Re which shows men engaging in homosexual behaviour and then again in 2007 a campaign on anorexia which has controversial because of the shocking photography of an emaciated women (Isabella Caro).






















This was Oliverio Toscani first controversial image and it was of David Kirby on his deathbed dying of AIDS. The image was used in Life magazine as a campaign to prevent AIDS and the Kirby family gave permission for Life magazine to use it. You can tell why it was controversial because it isn't a very nice image, but it sends across a message to everyone to prevent people form spreading the horrible disease around. The lighting in the hospital will just be natural lighting because they wouldn't of set anything up because the family would of wanted some privacy. All the family is obviously grieving the loss of a family member but each member of the family has a different facial expression the father of David Kirby looks distraught in that he is about to lose his son, but then his mother looks like she is trying to ignore what is going on around her so that then she doesn't have to deal with it and then his sister look like she doesn't have a clue what is going and has a sense of shock on her face. The main subject is David Kirby because he is the one that is dying but then there is the other subject of the family grieving. Toscani who took the picture would have had to be standing a bit of distance away to give the family space that they need so he would have had to use zoom to see the expressions of the family.





David Bailey (Portrait)





















David Bailey born in Leytonstone, England on 2nd January 1938.  David Bailey is well known for his famous portrait work.  In 1958 Bailey was demobbed and was determined to pursue a career in photography, he bought a Canon rangefinder camera.  Unable to fold a place at London College of Painting because of how much school he missed as a child he became the second assisstant to David Ollins, in Charrlotte Mews.  He earned 3 pound and 10 shillings and acted as studios dogsbody.  In 1959 Bailey became photographic assisstant at the John French Studio and then in May 1960, he was a photographer for John Cole's Studio Five before being contracted as a fashion photographer for Bristish Vogue.  Since 1966 Bailey has also directed several television commercials and documentaries, from 1968 to 1971 he directed and produced TV documentaries such as Beaton, Warhol and Visconti.  In 1985 Bailey photographed the stars that took part in the Live Aid concert.

This photo is of the Kray twins London's most notorious criminals of the 1960's and David Bailey photographed them before they got sentenced to prison for murder in 1969.  In this photo you can see that both of the man are the subject and they are made more of the subject because it is just a plain white background so that the guys stand out more.  The way  they are both looking, its like they are hard man and they have no care in the world for the things that they have done.  It is a close up photo so Bailey would of been standing relatively close to the subjects and standing closer captures more detail.  The photo was obviously taken before they were sent to prison in 1969 but the photo is kind of in the style of a mug shot so it's like David Bailey knew they would go to prison and it is a pre mugshot before they actually got sent down.  This was a famous photo for David Bailey he claims that he made the Kray twins famous, but also the pose in the image has been used by other photographers using other people.  








   







Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Mario Sorrenti (Fashion)


























Mario Sorrenti born 24th October 1971 in Naples, Italy.  Sorrenti moved to New York City in 1981 at the age of just 10.  He is the son of New York based advertiser Francesca Sorrenti, Mario is also the older brother of fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti.  Sorrenti is most known for photo spreads of nude models in pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.  He has had exhibitions in London, Monaco, New York and Paris Museums of Modern Art.  He has directed several Calvin Klein adverts over the years.  He has also previously worked with Lancome, Paco Robanne, Benetton and Pirelli Calendar 2012.  He is currently under contract with the agency Art Partner.  So as soon as Art Partner get contacted about a shoot they will send out Sorrenti to the shoot.





In this photo Iggy Pop and straight away you know that you can tell it is a Sorrenti photo because all across the image you can see Art Partner and that is the agency he works for.  The lighting in this picture look natural but you can tell the light is coming from the subjects right hand side.  You can tell that Iggy Pop is the main focus in this image because the background behind him isn't in focus and either is the wine bottle in front of him.  Make him the focus draws the people into think what he has been doing at the table, you can tell that he has been eating but his facial expression makes him look like he is upset or depressed or maybe he is just thinking about something but you can't work it out because he is sat on his own if there was something else in the photo that would could help the audience determine what is up with him, put maybe that is the whole point to keep the audience guessing.  The shot is a mid shot so he must be about 6 feet away but also the angle isn't looking straight on the camera is looking across from his left side and also the camera seems to be looking slightly down on him making him look like he is worthless, so maybe this man is poor and that's the reason he looks depressed.  This isn't Sorrenti usual style he mainly uses the sexy look same to Richardson but all photographers will go out of the comfort zone to improve there skills and make there style have a wider range.  










     

Mario Testino (Fashion)


Mario Testino born October 30, 1954 in Lima, Peru. In 1976 Testino moved to London, England to study Photography, without much money he funded himself by working as a waiter. He dyed his hair pink to help him get noticed as a photographer. 1982 he permanently moved to London. Testino had wrote fashion stories for Vogue, V, Gucci and Vanity. Celebrity subjects have most famously included Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons. Testino has take photos of many actresses, performers and models including Kristen Stewart, Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts Meg Ryan, Madonna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Kate Moss, Elizabeth Hurley etc. Testino also enjoys photographing the Royal family. He has become one of the world's most well known and celebrated fashion photographers. He has contributed to the imagery to some of the most well known fashion houses including Burberry, Gucci, Calvin Klein, Versace, D&G and Estee Lauder. Testino has received royal recommendations from Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Kent, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, Prince Willem-Alexander and Maxima of the Netherlands and many more. In 2011 he was presented with an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society and most recently on January 14th 2014 he received an OBE by the UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey.




This image I have taken isn't a studio shoot, it is a location shoot and by the looks of the image it seems to look like they have just come back in from a night out and they have walked back into a really posh hotel. Even though you can just see a bit of the foyer you can tell that it is a nice hotel. The way they are dressed you can tell that they are upper class because the way they are dressed and they both have a nice comfortable life. The way the lighting is set it doesn't look like the lighting is specifically on the subjects it looks like its lit just by standard lights like there would be in a hotel. Even though there is two people in the photo its seems that by the women walking a jaguar seem to be more of the main focus because it's not everyday you see someone walking a jaguar and its makes the photo stand out. The facial expressions they are pulling are both different for the male he is looking at the female thinking that she is looking fine this evening and it's like he is staring at her. Then the female has an expression that she is walking with confidence and she looks a bit cocky because she knows the guy is looking at her and she knows why he is looking because she is looking good.  He must have been a bit of a distance away because there is a lot in the shot so to get all of it in you have to bee a bit away but not to far away. You can't automatically tell this is a Testino because he doesn't have a specific style but then there is a celebrity in it with Scarlett Johansson and he likes to photograph celebrities. The only way you can tell it that it could be a Testino shoot because he adds a bit of class to his shoots and likes people to look classy and presentable.











Monday, 2 June 2014

Terry Richardson (Fashion)

Terry Richardson born August 14th 1965 in New York City, New York.  He is the son of Bob Richardson formerly a fashion photographer.  He originally didn't want to be a photographer he wanted to be a punk rock musician, he played bass guitar in the punk rock band The Invisible Government for 4 years.  Terry Richardson's mother gave him his first snapshot camera in 1982, he used it to document his life and the punk rock scene in Ojai, California.  In 1992 Richardson quit his punk rock band and moved from Ojai, California to New York City, New York.  He began shooting scene of young people partying and New York City's nightlife.  Richardson made his big break when he was living in New York City he published fashion photos for the first time in magazine Vibe in 1994.  He did an advertising campaign in 1995 for fashion designer Katharine Hamnett spring 1995 collection.  Following the advertising campaign he moved to London, England where he worked for magazines such as The Face, i-D and Arena.  Throughout Richardson's career he has shot campaigns, fashion brands and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Sisley, Tom Ford and Yves Saint Laurent.  He has done work for several magazine including Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ along with a lot  more.  Richardson has a certain style of work and a lot of recurring themes, notably for putting high profile celebrities in mundane situations and photographing them using traditionally pedestrian methods, he also explores the ideas of sexuality.  Richardson's main trait is the plane white background and he also takes pictures with the person he is photographing.  Also known for his non sexual portraits he has taken non sexual photos of politicians and actors such as Samuel L Jackson, Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, ASAP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Jon Bon Jovi, Daft Punk, LeBron James and Barack Obama.


Here is one of Terry Richardson's  photos and the subject being 'Breaking Bad' star Aaron Paul and straight away you can tell that it is a Terry Richardson photo because of the white background he loves to use, the main reason he uses the white background so that the main focus is only the subject.  The lighting of this photo is coming from the subject's left hand side and you can tell this because of how bright it is on the left hand side and as you go across it gets darker but not that dark because it is a really bright light.  You can only just see a shadow of his head maybe this is because he is really close to the backdrop or they have positioned the lighting to make sure there isn't that much of a shadow in the shot.  The facial expression is unusual for a male to be pulling because it is a expression that a female would pull to make her look sexy, so because he is pulling this face it kind of suggests that he is trying to show that he is a sexy male.  Also the picture kind of looks like a mug shot because you can only see so much of his body so Terry will have to have been standing relatively close when taking the picture.  One thing that stands out is his eyes when the picture is bigger his eyes stand out because they look really bright but when in natural lighting they are darker, so the lighting used makes them look brighter and make them stand out.