Melissa Rodwell is a fashion and music photographer based in Los Angeles. She graduated from the Art Center College of Design in 1987, with a degree in photography and began her career as a fashion photographer right away, gaining her first fashion editorial 2 years after graduation. She is still working hard today, shooting for national publications and advertising campaigns campaigns. I found out Melissa through her blog, www.fashionphotographyblog.com, where she speaks candidly about the fashion photography industry and gives behind the scenes looks and information from her own shoots as well as other great news and information about other fashion photographers and their work. I have been speaking recently with John Henley, my Business Practices professor and commercial photographer who I've interned with, about the importance of showing one's personality on their website and/or blog, as much of getting hired for commercial work is based on a relationship with an art director or simply someone liking you enough that they want to work with you. I know Melissa Rodwell would agree. I have already learned much from this talented photographer's blog and I know that there will be many more posts that are just as great and enlightening.
Photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, more commonly known as Mert and Marcus, are the current darlings of the fashion world. Both born in 1971, Alas in Istanbul and Piggot in Wales, they met in England in 1994 after Alas' stint in classical music and Piggot's in graphic design. Piggot was working as a photographer's assistant and Alas had a little design shop. The two decided to do some tests, realized the results were great, showed them to London fashion magazine Dazed and Confused, and ended up getting them published. They now have photographed for many major fashion magazine across the globe and count some of the biggest fashion houses, such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Alberta Feretti, Mui Mui, Armani, just to name a few, as clients. Their style is considered "glossy and airbrushed" and there always seems to be sense of fantasy to their images.
"The difference between us and other photographers, honestly, is that we care a lot about fashion. We are in the makeup room, working with the hair, involved in the look much more than working on the lighting, the cables, the gels. The technical side is only 50% of what makes an image." - Mert Alas
I particularly love this shoot from Parisian Vogue. The wardrobe and set and attitude are reminiscent of the aristocratic glamour that I would like to portray in my own portfolio. I also love the muted color palate and desaturated tones. It truly brings a look to series that sets it apart from other images. I would like my own series to have a particular look and feel to it that would add something to the story of the spread as well as distinguish it as one collective piece.
London Avenue, 2008 poplar, text, sandbags 96 x 156 x 36 in
London Avenue (detail)
London Avenue (detail)
London Avenue (detail)
I have to admit that I had some trouble getting into the artist lecture given by Francis Cape yesterday. I believe that this was a combination of multiple factors. His British accent coupled with his tendency to speak very quickly as well as trail off at the end of his sentences made it hard for me to understand everything he was saying. I believe that he also assumed that we were all either familiar with his work or well-versed in things that he spoke about. There were many moments when he would mention something that I wished he would explain in more detail or on a more basic level. I do understand that as a sculptor he was primarily catering toward the sculpture students and not necessarily concerned with - or even aware of- artists in other fields in attendance, thus I'm sure some of my confusion may have been simply a lack of knowledge of the sculpture world.
I greatly appreciate the effort that he puts into research (for one piece he said he spent six months in the library!) and how he brings that into the meanings behind his pieces, often in very detailed ways. This is an example of things that I wished he would have elaborated on, instead of simply breeze through. Many of his pieces incorporate multiple distinct themes/meanings, such as the piece shown above, London Avenue, which references New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina, as well as the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the Utility Furniture Scheme. During the lecture I was very confused as to how the three worked together as I felt that there really wasn't explanation other than the fact that they were all incorporated. The information on his website does provide a bit more explanation and I do understand now that the Festival of Berlin was an exhibition whose purpose was boosting public morale and the economy after a disaster and how that relates to Prospect 1 New Orleans, an international contemporary art exhibit, for which the piece was made, held in New Orleans in 2008 to aid the city in it's recovery. I will have to do more research on the history of the Utility Furniture Scheme to completely understand it but he does provide information on its connection to the piece on the page that is included on the desk part of the sculpture. Perhaps part of his desire is that one should have to dig to completely understand his beliefs and what it is that he is saying.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
FORGET ABOUT GOOD.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.
PROCESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUTCOME.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be there.
LOVE YOUR EXPERIMENTS (AS YOU WOULD AN UGLY CHILD).
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
GO DEEP.
The deeper you go, the more likely you will discover something of value.
CAPTURE ACCIDENTS.
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
STUDY.
A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
EVERYONE IS A LEADER.
Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
HARVEST IDEAS. EDIT APPLICATIONS.
Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.
KEEP MOVING.
The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.
SLOW DOWN.
Desynchronize with typical time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
DON'T BE COOL.
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.
ASK STUPID QUESTIONS.
Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
COLLABORATE.
The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight and vast creative potential.
____________
Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven't had yet, and the ideas of others.
STAY UP LATE.
Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.
WORK THE METAPHOR.
Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.
TIME IS GENETIC.
Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future. Be careful to take risks.
REPEAT YOURSELF.
If you like it, do it again. If you don't like it, do it again.
MAKE YOUR OWN TOOLS.
Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities so even a small tool can make a big difference.
STAND ON SOMEONE'S SHOULDERS.
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.
AVOlD SOFTWARE.
The problem with software is that everyone has it.
DON'T CLEAN YOUR DESK.
You might find something in the morning that you can't see tonight.
DON'T ENTER CONTESTS.
Just don't. It's not good for you.
READ ONLY LEFT-HAND PAGES.
Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."
MAKE NEW WORDS. EXTEND THE LEXICON.
The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.
CREATIVITY IS NOT DEVICE-DEPENDENT.
Forget technology. Think with your mind.
ORGANIZATION=LIBERTY
Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, was only able to realize the Guggenheim in Bilbao because his studio could deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a "charming artifact of the past."
DON'T BORROW MONEY.
Once again, Frank Gehry's advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.
LISTEN CAREFULLY.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with them a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires or ambitions, we fold their world into our own. Neither party will ever be the same.
IMITATE.
Don't be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton's version of Marcel Duchamp's large glass to see how rich, discredited and underused imitation is as a technique.
MAKE MISTAKES FASTER.
This isn't my idea-I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.
SCAT.
When you forget the words, do what Ella did: Make up something else... not words.
BREAK IT, STRETCH IT, BEND IT, CRUSH IT, CRACK IT, FOLD IT.
EXPLORE THE OTHER EDGE.
Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can't find the leading edge because it's trampled underfoot. Try using old tech, equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.
COFFEE BREAKS, CAB RIDES, GREEN ROOMS.
Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to. In the interstitial spaces-what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist, an exhibit curator in Paris, once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference-the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals-but no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.
TAKE FIELD TRIPS.
The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time graphic-simulated computer environment.
AVOID FIELDS. JUMP FENCES.
Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.
LAUGH.
People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortable we are expressing ourselves.
REMEMBER.
Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That's what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source and, as such, a potential for growth itself.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we're not free.
Born September 25, 1947 in Ravenna, Italy, Paolo Roversi's debut in photography was as a reporter at the age of 20, concentrating mostly on portraiture. It was only several years later that he became interested in fashion photography in Paris, where he has lived and worked since 1973.
In 1980, when Polaroid released their instant 8 x 10" film Paolo Roversi found his landmark and over the years, his work appears in many magazines on the international circuit: Vogue (Italian, American, British, French & Japanese editions), L’Uomo Vogue, Arena Homme +, ID, W Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair.
Advertising campaigns signed by him include Giorgio Armani, Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, Alberta Ferretti, Givenchy, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Yohji Yamamoto, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Vera Wang, Vera Wang Fragrances, and other luxury brands. He has directed commercials for Chanel, Dim, Evian, Gervais, Kenzo, Woolmark, Galeries Lafayette, Lancôme and recently Guerlain, Shalimar and their new fragrance Idylle.
I truly love the style of Roversi's images. The soft look, muted color palette and vignetting truly allow for a very ethereal feeling. I particularly love the images in this spread shown, shot for W Magazine. I feel as though one gets a true sense of the character in the "story," something that I am working toward in my own work.
Last night, I had the please of attending a lecture by museum curator Jeffery Allison and photojournalist Kevin Morley. The lecture, held at the Richmond Times-Dispatch office downtown, the paper for which Morley works, was set up by John Henley, VCU's Business Practices professor. Jeffery Allison, whose works for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) as the Paul Mellon Collection Educator, spoke first. He began with background information on himself and his career in the arts. He studied photography in school and showed us slides of his work. He also currently teaches the advanced photography class at the VMFA Studio School. He spoke a lot about the benefits of working for the museum and certainly made it seem like a fun and exciting place to spend one's days. He showed pictures of past events and spoke of the many things that are coming up in the future, like the overnight extravaganza the museum is planning when they finally reopen a section that has been undergoing renovations. One of my favorite things that Allison said was that working at a museum was like a never ending education. He goes to work and learns about art, past and present, everyday. Seems like a dream!
Kevin Morley, photojournalist on staff at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, spoke next. He began with a list of the positive aspects of being a staff photographer vs a freelance one. He referenced things such as regular hours, regular pay checks, free equipment, company car, never searching for something to photograph, etc., things that definitely seemed like major perks. But he then discussed a few of the negative aspects of the job, such as not having a say in the things one shoots no matter if they find it interesting or not. This is something that he is willing to deal with though as the majority of assignments he takes on are worthy of attention and the shots that he produces are creatively satisfying. He showed us a slide show of some of his favorite shots and there were so many that were beautiful, emotional, poignant, educational. As an art photographer, I sometimes forget how a journalistic or documentary approach to image making can be just as creative and meaningful. I also enjoying Morley's personal work: his children, who he calls the most photographed kids on the planet. With both of his children he took a picture of them everyday from the day of their birth through their first birthday. I admire that he doesn't leave his camera at his job, as many photographers do. He lives his passion inside the office and out.
All in all this was a great lecture. Both speakers were friendly and open and truly shared their passion for photography and their jobs with us. I feel grateful to have opportunities such as this one, to see successful and happy professionals within the arts. It truly inspires me to know that there are many options for professions within the art community.
I very much enjoyed the artist lecture given by Shimon Attie yesterday. I should maybe clarify by saying that I enjoyed his work but not so much his presentation and presence. Of course, the technical difficulties with the slide projector put a damper on the flow of the presentation but his handling of the situation was almost comical. He acted very annoyed and even made a few off-color comments regarding the people's ability to fix the problem. I believe it was something like, "I bet I could come up there and fix that in 2 seconds," followed by "you do know where that piece goes right?" Yes, VCU could use some new equipment perhaps, but seriously, who uses slides anymore!?
Despite his interesting comments, I really did enjoy seeing his work and hearing him speak about it. The piece about the Welsh town of Aberfan, entitled The Attraction of Onlookers, was my favorite, perhaps because of the meaning behind it. I hadn't heard about the tragedy that took place there in 1966 and I was moved just by the nature of the story. (Read about the Aberfan houses here.) I appreciated Attie's efforts to not just make art that exploits the town's pain further but to seek a way to help them blend back in with the all the villages of Wales. I enjoyed the many small elements to the work that were filled with meaning, such as the static nature of the "character's" in their poses, representing a physical and emotional freezing in response to trauma. My favorite quote from the lecture was when he described these frozen poses as "confronting the decisive moment perpetually." Beautiful! That phrase is something that I will look toward often as I seek inspiration. Another thing he said that struck a chord within me was that "the hardest part of art is figuring out what you want to create." I appreciate hearing an established artist be frank about this point. Art is hard. It takes time and persistence and patience... and blood, sweat, and tears. It's comforting to know that great art is a hard fought battle, no matter the level.
I have been doing a lot of research on different types magazine spreads. I'm trying to figure out what elements make certain spreads more appealing to me and find that I'm definitely drawn to ones that are centered around a specific character. There doesn't necessarily need to be a narrative element as much as a character exploration. This one below is the perfect example of a character exploration. I also love that there is variation on the shots, ranging from full body, medium shots and close-ups.
