David Severn

David Severn is a 21 year old Fine Art Photographer/Artist from Nottingham. He is part of  'Quad' and he has done an 'Exposture' project. He will be exhibiting work in Derby. He got into this by just applying to the  exhibit, by sending his work off, to see if he would get picked.
He is very interested in people and places, and he likes to photograph these subjects/themes.
He has done work about people and their environment, including his own, where he grew up.
He did a project caled 'Thanks Maggie', which was taken in Nottingham, around areas and the location he grew up in. The project explores his memories, which are very personal to him.
The photographs include:
1.Working mens club (alot of working mens clubs are closing down now). He didn't ask the people in the clubs if he could photograph them, he just did sneaky shots. He shot in colour film (6 x 7) He enjoys processing the film.
2. Image of his dade getting ready to perform as an Elvis impersonator. This was the last time he did an Elvis tribute.
3. The Village with terrace house which are due to be knocked down, there were plans to build a new shopping centre there. In the photo, the windows on the houses are boarded up. It is a rough neighbourhood.
4. Homeless mans tent - He took a photo of the man who lives in the tent, but he preferred to shot of the tent alone. It was more ambiguous. His photos are atmospheric and moody.
5. Portrait of a man who he met in a cafe by accident. They got talking and he took his portrait. The man was a miner and he told him a story about a man being in an accident and severely injured, however he recovered well and lived, and it turned out to be himself he was talking about. He is now a performer poet. He shot the photo on Kodak Portrait 400.

Some of the photographs have been set up/arranged through contacts. However some are not. They are spontaneous. There are of people he meets by chance. He usually finds that people respond well - they are usually happy to get involved and be photographed and interviewed.
His photos are documentary style, they include portraits, landscapes, and still lives. This project got published and exhibited in a few different places. The shots were taken at different times of the day, and varying composition. He is very aware of light and more and essentially what is in the image.

He found out what else people do on the site where he was taking pictures - where he lives. He photographed people hunting on one of the pit sites. The group asked a lot of questions because they didn't want to get in trouble so they made sure he was genuine. David spent time with this group so he could gain their trust, which he did. The photos of the hunters remind him of classical paintings.

He recommends when starting an assignment do lots of research, such as reading books and internet. David likes to work alone. He is not a fan of working in groups, and he does not require an assistant for help.
He says an influence of his is Michelle San, who takes portraits in a town and explores people and place, and does the same as David. She wonders around and taking photos of whatever she likes and comes across. Much simalar to Davids images, Michelles photos are of ordinary people and places.

David Severn did a photographic project of travelling showmen, which was a very recent project.
He video recorded the conversations he had with the families, while photographing them. He took photos of them in their caravans/trailers. His experience was very positive. The were very welcoming and open with him.
He also photographed some people at the fair taking pictures and using their phones.

He is also a commercial photographer, as well as documentary. He didn't go to University and he dropped out of his A levels, which he says he wishes he didn't do and he fount it really hard to get where he is, and he had to to it the long hard way. However, he said he would like to go to University in the future.

Rebecca Beinart

Rebecca Beinart is a Nottingham based artist, who did a fine art degree, which was a 3 year course at Nottingham Trent. She works with people from different disciplines. At uni she become interested in how art could be an experience looked at narratives. The things she made were visual but shown as an event. Her degree project was a treasure hunt - clues led you to a place. It was fun but also educational - you would learn something form the hunt.
She went to do an MA - Art and ecology in Devon. The course was experimental by nature. She was taught by writer, artists, scientists and more.
She uses photography to document her work and live events.
She has done comissioned work.
In Bristol she did work where she held a drawing infront of a view. She walked along a river in Bristol seven times and took sketches of it, and place that in the landscape.
She learnt a lot of different facts about the river and also some stories.

In London, she went looking for food to create a meal . Not from bins, but from the wild life in forests etc. She works on her own and also in groups to do workshops.
In Loughborough she made her own bread, which was passed on like Herman which means she used some of it and added to it and passed it on for other people to add things, to lots of different people.

The next project she worked on with her sister was origination - investigation of own family history. Identity - family tree. She made a video in Africa, of a dinner party with no guests but the food gets eaten. It was in response to finding out that their great great grandas sold salt so the performance was set up on where the salt was.

She went to look how nature (plants/leaves) can be used as medicine. 'Poison' was the name of the next project. She was looking at plants that were poisonous and plants the are used as medicine. She gathered information on medicines and the history of giving out medicines. She made liquid that would be dangerous to drink, but she was interested in how you could create something dangerous from pretty flowers.

She also did a project on wasteland. She took photos of land which was not being used, and where buildings have been knocked down. She says these were place for imagination, because everywhere else is set in stone.
One project within this involved her taking photographs of every 50 steps.
She is working with a few different artists, and they all did this in Bali within the project.

Alongside making artwork, she works in the field of education. She works at colleges and in the community.

Brian Griffin

Brian Griffin is photographer and has been for over 40 years. He started taking photographs using a film camera. He didn't go to university to get a degree, he just has a diploma.
Tony Ray Jones influenced him to do his work. When Brian was younger, nobody encouraged him to have a career in photography, even his family, because they looked down on photography and didn't think you could make money out of photography.

When Brian finished his diploma, he did a bit of travelling, which inspired him to take lots of documentary style photographs, of whatever he came across, mainly street scenes.
Another person who inspired him, was Barney Bubbles. He recommends everyone to check him out.
He took many portrait photos which he then got his friend, Barney to illustrate the pictures with lines - different sorts of lines like straight wavy etc. This was a self published book.

He made his own lighting equipment as he didn't have a lot of money when he started out. He shot the portrait images of his friend, Barney in his apartment as his backdrop - he used what was around him.
He said it has taken many years for people to acknowledge him and his work. He was also inspired by Casper David Friedrick . He knew from the beginning that photography was going tobe his life, and he desperately wanted to make it as a photographer.

He has dones commissions for magazines to earn money (Financial Times). He always thinks of a concept before he takes pictures for an art project.
Deep down he wanted to be a fashion photographer, but ended up taking photos of business men. He thought this was ok to get started and start earning money. As the 80's approached he became more and more famous - people commission him for art projects as well - varying his work.
He always had a side project alongside the commissions he did. - personal project.

He went on to get a studio as he had a budget to work with as time went on.
He liked working with other artists. Barney Bubbles was a graphic designer. hey got money to make a newspaper £4,500. The art world began to support him. When he first started trying to sell his work, nobody was interested in buying it but now he sells books for £300 or more.
He was experimental - did double exposures and played around with light - long exposures and more.
He has also took photographs for album covers.

Brian took photos of politicians and people in high up positions.
He has taken photos throughout the midlands - Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby, Burton and so on.
He is very good at thinking of ideas. Some projects required a team of people. Some images - the tie series - in Broadgate are quite funny. He took those photos in 1987 - it was a response to the development theme.
He also did a series for the workers of Broadgate.
The next series he did was 'Water People' corporate job. He used a variety of equipment for this.
Sometimes he made films in response to his ideas - in Iceland. This was shot on a compact camera - for this he did a series of portraits in London, walking round a building site, so the made him a studio to allow him to achieve his goal, which was to take lots of photographs.

He has embraced digital photgraphy. Recently he has made work about his life. He goes out of his way to take his photos, and he gets what he is aiming for.
He has photographed people who have taken an important role in the olympics. "Part of being a photographer is giving your subject confidence. You need good people skills if you want to be a good photographer." He quoted. He observed people getting married in China, and he took some series of photographs of weddings in China.
On the 8th, 9th and 10th March 2013 He will be taking part in the Format Festival. He will be exhibiting his work, in Derby.

David La Chapelle

David LaChapelle is a modern day photographer, who is known to have made photography modern. He travels the the world to take photographs, and he pushes the boundaries, to get striking amazing images. He He is currently working in New York, taking photographs, but moves around a lot.
He has photographed many celebrities, including Janet Jackson, Madonna, Tupac Shakur, Shakira, Eminem, Paris Hilton, David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Clinton, Muhammed Ali, Britney Spears, Elton John and many more.

He is influenced by Andy Warhol, and he admires his work. He is addicted to the rush of meeting a deadline, and he tries his best to acomplish it. He is interest in popular culture, the world and people in the world.
By looking at his photographs, it shows you he is a contemporary photographer. His pictures are surreal and sexy. He naturally crosses the art/fashion genre.

David makes a statement, saying "Have fun with your photos and subjects", as he describes his photos as fun. He tries to make his photographs different from others, so they are striking images.
He was introduced to photography by his mother, as she used photography as an escape, making pictures look better than they actually are.

He is a good team worker, and works with lots of people in a team, helping him set up for his shoots, and helping him with ideas. They help him contruct the images, and the backdrops0.
His approach changed after 8/10 years, as he started off doing wedding photography, however he wanted to make a change and do things how he wanted and be creative. He describes himself as a conceptual photographer.

Money is not a limit according to David La Chapelle. Sometimes he will have to use extra of his own money to get the right shoots. He has worked on shoots over a period of 2 days for big sets. He has colaborated with different artists and painters for his backdrops of sets.

David plays music on his sets, so he can make the stars feel comfortable infront of the lens. He does research on each artist to get inspiration and ideas for his shoots, and then the celebrity/artist would choose their favourite idea. He says "Theast part is taking the pictures, putting it all together and pulling the shoot off is the hardest part/making it work."

He likes to make the people in the pictures look beautiful and sexy, and he says that hius images arent dark or harming the persons career. People are larger than life in his photos, you never really know what you are going to get, there is no repetition within his photos. He said he gets very nervous before the shoots, but he can relax afterwards.

David LaChapelle wasn't born into a rich environment, he did have lots of money to start with. He came from a small town where he didn't feel like he fitted in. He felt that there was no other option but to go to New York, where he could make his dreams come true and make a difference.
He went to art school, where he met Andy Warhol. He got a photography job by him, and his aim was to make everyone look good in these photos. He worked for magazines such as 'Time Vogue' and 'Vanity Affair'. He said the difference between doing an editiorial shoot and a celebrity shoot is the time limit. Celebrities are in a rush, whereas art/editorial shoots are more experimetal and there is more time.

The colours in his photos are bright, rich, bold, full on and over saturated. He is trying to achieve perfection when he takes a photograph and when he edits the photo.
He tries not to over re-touch the photos, so that his pictures are more honest, and aren't fake.
"Photography is like a painting, it can be anything I want it to be" He quotes. He didn't want to photo the horrors of the world, he wanted to capture the beauty.

Some of his photographs look like the theme is a nightmare or dream.
He never thought that his images would be in a gallery, he was only aiming for them to be shown in magazines. He says "Purpose of art is to make people think". His goal for life is to photograph people that make up the world and people from popular culture.

Here are some of his striking, colourful images, they are really in-your-face photographs, and they are fun to look at.

Salbastio Salgado

Salbastio Salgado is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist, who has travelled to 100 different countries to take his photographs.
He started to take photographs in the 1970s and onwards. He was trained as an economist and changed careers to become a photographer. He presents his work in the form of an artists, in published books.

His subject is people, essentially he photographs the result of globalisation. He photographs the reality of out lives, poverty being one of the main themes, and how it effects people.
He used 35mm cameras mainly to shoot with, all of them being black and white. He printed all of his own images himself. All of his photographs are very moody, atmospheric and powerful.
His images are educational, showing how people actually live in different environments.
He doesn't want people to give up on the homeless, he wants somebody to find a solution for poverty.
All of his photographs are beautiful pictures revealing reality, they do not look down on anybody. Just one picture which can take a second to take can show a whole story on what is actually happening in the world. His pictures are very emotional and expressive.
His photos speak 100 words, as they are describing a lot, within the pictures rather than being written down or said.

Salbastio Salgado says it is a privilege to take these photographs, and he has gained trust through living with the people he photographed.
Some people would ask him if he could photograph them, so this gave him a huge responsibility to photograph these people with respect and showing the right message.
His audience are very rich people, with nice houses, have good jobs, a family and a happy life, which he is aware of, these are very different people to the people who are in his photographs, and they live very different lives.
He did a series of head and shoulder shorts, or sitting portraits of children who are homeless, partly because they wanted to be photographed and let him get on with it.
The children look directly into the lens, on the photographs and their eyes speak in the images, showing emotion.

These are just some of the photographs Salbastio Salgado captured, portraying how these different people live and and how it's completely different from our lives.

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is a freelance photographer, who does commercial work primarily. She is constantly taking photos of everyday life, so her whole life is her subject.
A photographers life is "A life looking through a lens" according to Annie Leibovitz. She is known for taking portraits and fashion photos of celebrities such as John Lennon, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton, Keira Knightly, Sting, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Johnny Depp, Rihanna and many more.

She tries to do as many jobs as she can and not say no to any of them, she has a good work ethic. Annie has travelled all over the world for work, doing massive shoots working with big teams of people such as stylists, light runners etc.

She has 3 children and she does full time work so she has a very busy life, juggling both. Her life is highly pressured- a lot of people demand for her to take photographs, so she has to travel a lot to get to where the demands are. She does two sorts of work - personal pictures and magazine pictures.
She wanted to create a book of a mixture of both.

She is described as "daring" by people such as her clients, and she aways tries to please her clients and she succeeds well. She has photographes a lot of Americans - including actors, dancers and other famous people, her family, political people and more.
Her family said Annies camera is like another family member, and she takes it everywhere with her. Photography is her life.
She went to San Fransisco Art Institute and studied painting first. She did a module in photography and fell in love. She just clicked with photography.

When Annie was studying, she was made aware of photographs such as Robert Frank and Cartier Bresson. These people made her see she could travel the world with a purpose. She was completely inspires and motivated by learning about these photographers.

Now when she shoots, she has technical support, and works in teams, so she doesn't shoot on her own. She went to work for the magazine 'Rolling Stones' in the late 1960s. This was a magazine which she grew up with and loved, and she then went to work with him. This was her first job so it was a great deal for her.

People said she had great imagination, and when she worked for the magazine this was the first time she worked in a team. She said that she loved working for the magazine and that people who she worked with shaped who she was, and influenced her massively. She was given oppurtunities because of her eagerness and enthusiasm. This was proved when she took pictures of the beatles. She observed things very well.

Annie worked with writers and all different kinds of professionals. Some of her images are documentary style, the political ones in particular. She quotes "The best photos are those that are around you. You need to be familiar with your subject and surrounding. You need to become a part of what is around you so you can take the photos you want to take, naturally and with ease.

She communicated well with her subjects good personal skills. People like her which makes her feel like she is 'one of the gang' whoever she is working with, so she feels more comfortable. Years ago celebrities were more relaxed around photographers. They would spend time/ hang out everyday. She was also one of the first female photographers doing this sort of work.

Annie Leibovitz has got life long friendships with the people in her shoots, from what she did with her subjects. She had a big interest in dance, so she photographed many dancers, and created friendships with them. She had to be careful not to get too drawn into celebrities lives. Drugs was a big part of some peoples lives that she spent her time photographing. She is aware of the light everywhere and what would make a good picture.

She moved to New York where Richard Avedon took photographs. She was very worried about taking photos there, where Avedon did, like it was his turf.
Richard Avedon had a very specific style, using a white background for most of his photos.
She said it was a risk moving, she was nervous about her direction here, so she asked other people for their opinions - to help her pick the right images. She was finding it hard to select pictures for her final ones.
Next, she started looking at what other photographers were doing. She wanted to incorporate something about the person in her photos.
He photos are described as 'story portraits' and 'one liners'.

People often wondered who Annie would photograph next.
Annie worked for Rolling Stone for 30 years. She had to go to rehab, as drugs were constantly around her, so she needed to go a new direction and maybe work for another company. So she went to work for Vanity Fair, which is a mainstream glossy magazine. Annies sister said she was very demanding, but worked really hard. She pushed models into doing things nobody else would do with them.

Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this assignment, and i am very pleased with my final photographs.

I created the final images by take 3 photos (portraits) in the studio of 3 different models (Lucy, Danni and Coral).

I then uploaded my photos to the computer and edited them on 'photoshop' and 'picmonkey'. I made them all black and white and changed the brightness, contrast, exposure, shadows and highlights. I also used tools on 'picmonkey' such as 'wrinkle remover' to smooth the appearance of the skin, 'blemish fix' to get rid of spots and a few other tools.

I then got 3 photos of 3 different human skulls and made them black and white in 'photoshop'.

I cropped the photos of the skulls, and rezised them to make them fit the shape and sizes of the three models faces. 

I then printed both the skull photos and the photos of the models, and ripped the photos of the skulls and stuck them onto the photos of the models. I then scanned the 2 photos together to look like half of the face is  there and then the other half is the skull.

I had to go back onto photoshop to do any last minute editing - by using the liquify tool on photoshop, to make any bits of the skull bigger or small or made to fit the shape of the face.

I then saved the photos and they are now all finished.

I am happy with my photos, however when I scanned them on the scanner, it changed the shading/colour of the black and white a little, so it wasn't as good as before I scanned them.

Overall I am thrilled with my final photos and I will need to enter them into the 'Beauty and the Beast' competition.

Final Images

These are my three final images after editing them and adding the other pictures of the skulls onto them:

Final image 1 - Lucy

Final image 2 - Danni

Final image 3 - Coral

Creating My Final Images

For my final photos, I took 3 photographs of 3 different models in the studio, using a white background.
I edited my photos on 'photoshop' and 'picmonkey' - I found both of these really useful and I will definately be using these for most of my images.
All three models were told to wear red lipstick and fake eyelashes.

I changed the three photos to black and white, and made the skin on the three models clear and smooth by using the wrinkle remover tool on 'picmonkey' and 'airbrush' I also changed the brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights to get the correct light and shading of the photo.

These are the three images before I edited them:

Model number 1 - Lucy

Model number 2 - Danni

Model number 3 - Coral

These are the three images after editing them (adding black and white effect and using several tools):

Model number 1 - Lucy

Model number 2 - Danni

Model number 3 - Coral

Final Idea

For my final photographs, I have chosen to go with the idea of taking a photograph of a girl, and a photgraph of a skull and put them together so that it looks like half a skull and half of the girls face.

I am going to take 3 different photos, using three different models.

I am going to edit my photographs using 'Photoshop' and 'PicMonkey' as these are both great for editing photographs.

I am going to change the three photographs to black and white, (both the girl and the skull).

I chose this theme as it reminds me of life and death.

This is relevent with the theme 'Beauty and the Beast' because beauty is life, and the beast is death, and I think these photographs will portray that very well.

If this idea doesn't go to plan, I will have to use my back up plan which would be to use the same three models, but half half of their face with lots of makeup and half without. This would be relevant with the theme 'Beauty and the Beast' because it would be asking which side is the beauty and which is the beast? Which is more beautiful, natural or fake? 

I am hoping my first idea works as this is my favourite idea. 

Research

This is the photo that inspired me to choose to do this for my theme. I really like it because it is different, and I like how it's ripped in the middle, as it adds more interest to it. I like that it is black and white, and I am going to make my 3 photographs black and white too.
I will need to ensure when putting the two halves of photos together that the skull and the models face are the same size and are acurate. I couldn't find the photographer/artist who created this photo.

These are also some other photos which I like with the half skull half woman idea:

I was going to do the skull makeup but decided that I liked the first photo best with the photo of the skull ripped and put with half of the girls face, so that is the idea I am going with.

Initial Ideas

For this assignment, these are the several ideas I have for the photos.

• Half face with makeup and half without
• Half face with makeup and half ruined makeup
• Half face with makeup and half with makeup/facepaint to look like a skull
• Half face with makeup, and then take a picture of a skull and rip to put on the other half of the face so that it is half girl and half skull
• Half boy with makeup and wig and jewelery(transvestite) and half without makeup

Introduction

For this assignment we have been asked to enter Harman's 'Beauty and the Beast' competition. We have three weeks to create three thought provoking images in response to the theme 'Beauty and the Beast'. My challenge is to show the diversity and contrasts that surround us each day.

All of my images are required to be A4 digital images. I am going to draw my inspiration from the world around us. I am going to be experimental withing my images, both technically and creatively. I am aiming to make my images original, imaginative, contemporary and powerful.

I need to include in-depth research within this assignment, to inspire me for my own images and I will need to make a comparison between my images and another photographer or artists work, whose work inspires me or relates to the provided theme.