What I've learnt

Before this project I may have never looked into editorial photography, I didn't think I would have the right skills or interests to follow this photographic route yet I was surprised to find out that my favourite types of photography are similar or the same as what is required in editorial work. People are my favourite subject matter and most editorial work is of people. I initially picked the editorial route to practice my time management skills because our tutor, David, gave us about a week to finish each individual brief, I thought if I could do a whole project in a week then my time management skills would increase for the better for the future, I feel as though this did happen. I enjoyed completing the tasks asked of me and discovered editorial photography is right up my street so overall this has been a very beneficial and positive module.

My final photo - How we met

My idea

I wanted to find two people who had a close connection an I wanted some way to show this strong bond through the image so I began thinking of people I knew who could fit the brief. I wanted to try something different to what I usually do when photographing people which is usually serious, natural work, this time I wanted to try out a lighter, funnier way of portraying the people, I wanted a light hearted maybe slightly tongue and cheek story. I didn't want to work too close to my comfort zone and pick people that I myself have a really strong connection with because I wanted to challenge my confidence and see if I could work with people that I wouldn't normally work with yet as my thinking process went by I immediately fell in love with the idea of photographing two of my housemates, the reason behind the choice of people outweighed the greed I had to challenge myself by taking a photo of people I wasn't used to so I went with my instinct and went ahead with using my housemates.

I choice these two people because of how they met, to me it's an interesting and funny story. In the first year of university, Adam, one of my housemates and good friends lived in student accommodation and Andrew, me other housemate lived in the same house as him, on the same floor, in the room next door yet despite living so close to each other, they never spoke, not one word until one day me and Adam went to the local pub, not knowing Andrew was already there. Andrew was quite drunk to say the least, he was stumbling a little. Me and Adam were sat at the bar just chatting when all of a sudden someone drunkenly falls onto Adam, it was Andrew and that was how they officially 'met'. I love this story because the way they met solidifies the stereotypical student in them. They both knew who each other were yet never spoke until Andrew fell into Adam. It got me interested in how little factors throughout the day influence our next steps in life, if Andrew hadn't have bought that last drink he might not have been drunk enough to fall into Adam, if Adam had chose to sit in the seat I chose to sit in then he wouldn't have become an accidental target, if I hadn't suggested going to the pub that day then none of that would have happened. Andrew, Adam and I, plus another housemate, Emily, are very close now and it's all because Andrew fell into Adam when he was drunk, if he hadn't have done that then we wouldn't have mingled, become friends and they wouldn't have suggested sharing a house with us this year. I find it to be a bizarre situation therefore interesting to photograph.

I didn't know how I wanted to capture my two housemates but I did know I wanted the story of how they met to be told, this for me was the priority because it's the interesting part. I also wanted their strong bond to be captured in some way so as of this point it was up to me to draft a few ideas down and see which I felt to fit my view the most.

Brief 3 - How we met

Once again we had a choice of paths to follow for this particular brief, I chose 'How we met', mainly because I very much enjoy taking photos of people and this is what this path would most likely entail. I don't usually go for the routes that I'm used to as I like a challenge and to try new things but this time I thought as I Was taking a risk with the Spring Fashion brief I could play it slightly safer with this one as I knew by choosing something I know and enjoy then I could work to my full potential and create something impressive for the viewer.

My spring fashion photo

This is my final Spring Fashion image. I took some of the inspiration from the latest spring trends and some from my own ideas. I made the background by painting A1 paper yellow then adding Jackson Pollock style paint lines over the top of it to get a coloured web effect, I did this to mimic the stripe trend yet gave it a twist. I cut out some paper flowers and painted them and added them into the background to give the image more of a spring look. The clothes, I wanted to be plain, bold, bright and striking, I went for the orange top to bond the model with the background, I think this works really well. The sunglasses and shorts are another one of the latest trends. Once taken, I increased the contrast, brightened the colours and added a slight yellow tint to the overall photo using Photoshop to make the image look sunny, bright and warm.

I enjoyed the whole making of this image, especially the painting side of things because this is something I don't get time to do anymore. I do like the photo but if I Was to re-shoot I would definitely experiment more with different compositions, expressions and postures because with the lack of time I had on this brief and the pressure to complete the task before my model had to leave, I had to make a quick decision and go with the first image I liked.

Spring fashion

To find out a bit more on the topic of spring fashion I looked through some magazines at the spring fashion sections to see what was the latest fashion craze. One magazine stuck out to me for having lot's of detail on this topic so I took quite a bit of my inspiration away from this one, it was 'Glamour' magazine. In Glamour magazine I found on the latest spring fashion trends to be 'Bermuda Shorts', 'Black and White', 'Peekaboo pieces', 'Statement sunglasses', 'Stripes', 'Leathers', 'Beautiful Beads', 'Short Suits', 'Sport Dresses' and 'Flat or low heeled shoes'. I took elements of these trends and developed them into my own idea, the trends I wanted to work with were the Sunglasses, Stripes, Shorts and Flat shoes because I could quickly think of ways to incorporate these into my idea where as the other trends didn't seem to fit as well. I immediately abandoned the Black and White trend as I knew from the start I wanted bright bold colours to attract attention and portray an obvious spring scene.

Editorial fashion photography

I've never done any sort of fashion photography before because I guess it's never really been of interest to me which is surprising because my favourite type of photography include people! I guess it's more the documentary side of things that I enjoy to do. I researched into how editorial fashion photography is commissioned and completed. I came across an interesting article by Darren Rowse, on how editorial photography is made.

-The idea or theme for the commissioned editorial fashion photography is normally given by the editor of the magazine for a particular issue.

-The photographer discusses the brief with the art director or editor about how the theme should be interpreted. The photographer gets most of the control from here, he/she inputs their own ideas and discusses what the theme means to them.

-A stylist is usually needed to find the latest fashion trends and provide the clothes to suit the brief. The stylist contributes greatly to the development of the photographers idea.

-The magazine would usually want the stylist to get clothes attached to famous brands as this would normally increase the interest on the viewers behalf.

-The choosing on the model is an important contribution to the whole process. The model needs to fit the look that the photographer is trying to achieve, for example, if the theme was 'Summer Fruits', a model who may be on the heavy side in terms of weight wouldn't make much sense to the viewer.

-The photographer needs to brief the hair and make-up stylists on what he/she should do to the model, but some input from them wouldn't be a bad thing, after all it's their job!

-A mutually agreed date would have to be set in order to get everyone in the same place at the same time and a lot of notice must be given as well as a lot of time before the deadline as things do sometimes get in the way and force people to have to re-arrange.

-The photography should use the make-up artist and hair stylist throughout the shoot, they should be asked to focus on their particular contribution and to speak up and fix anything that may have come out of place because the photographer would find it difficult to focus on all of the aspects of the shoot at once. I personally would be focusing on mainly the posture and expression of the model and would probably not even notice if, for example, a button fell off the models shirt, I would ensure it's up to the stylist to point this out to me.

-The photographer has to talk to the model, he/she has to tell the model what they want her/him to do, what expressions to do, what posture to have and so on. The photographer needs to be clear in directing the model in what to do and has to be confident and ready to give instructions.

-The photographer must be the leader, it is his/her shoot. Informing the crew every now and again on the time would ensure each specific job that makes up the whole shoot, meets it's deadline.

-Once the photos have been taken the photographer would need to process the images into the correct format and might need to manipulate some factors such as lighting, contrast, exposure and colour.

-The page layout for the images is decided by the page designer but the photographer will work along side and ensure that layout gets his/her view across.

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-do-an-editorial-fashion-photography-spread

Brief 2 - Spring Fashion

We had a choice of 3 different briefs to follow but I immediately chose 'Spring Fashion' because I've never done any fashion photography before and as soon as I read what kind of outcome was being asked for I thought of an idea right away and fell in love with it!

When we think of spring we most often than not, think of flowers and colours. I didn't want my idea to be generic and obvious yet I wanted it to be recognisable in the sense that my photo is about spring fashion. My idea was to paint a colourful background, I wanted yellow as the base colour and thought about layering more colours on top of that in a 'craft/do it yourself' kind of way. My idea was influenced by the paint I had on my arm from the night before, it gave me the idea to paint on my model to give her a link to my hand made background. I knew I wanted bright colours and flowers but not shown in the typical 'spring fashion way.'

My portraits

I did some experimenting with different Photoshop techniques and enjoyed the result of each image if I'm honest but when it came to deciding on my final one I went with the simple black and white one which no other added effects other than brightness because I think the other images, the ones with the techniques wouldn't fit as well in a newspaper due to their creativity, not only this but I feel as though the heavily experimented images look too similar to the existing Anonymous photos.

'Anonymous' - Images and Propaganda

In order to get an idea of the overall look that Anonymous go for I've been looking for some photos that they distribute in order to get their points across and also images of how the public see them.

I noticed that a lot of the images express the same statement 'Knowledge is free. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.' I could use this bit of text in my images as it seems to be very common and portrays a strong message of which describes what Anonymous believe in.

Anonymous are very casual with their words and how they express themselves, they don't act too serious yet still manage to get the point across that they mean business. I like how relaxed and sort of humorous they are, this approach along with the fact that they're very much online based and use social media sites makes them seem like a youthful group. I can see why teenagers and young adults would want to join this group, maybe that is their target audience when wanting people to join.

The images I came across are quite scary and very mysterious, they use a lot of dark tones and often block black and white, this combined with the already creepy looking mask make for a quite disturbing and very intimidating feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUheQQd-i_s

The link above takes you to a Youtube video showing a compilation of things that Anonymous have done.

My portrait idea

Since the majority of my research has been based around the online hacktivist group Anonymous then it would make sense for me to find a member of this group and take a portrait of them but as their name is 'Anonymous' and they have no single means of contact, I doubt this will be the case so my mission goes on to find someone who either believes in similar views that this group follow and spread or locate a person who has acted in the same or similar ways in which the members of this group act, even if it's a less dramatic and more subtle way of acting.

I love the idea of using the Guy Fawkes mask in my portrait as it's widely used in Anarchist protests and is a large symbol for Anonymous. After finding my model I will take shots both with the mask and without to later on decide which works best with what I'm trying to achieve.

'Anonymous' - Who are they?

An image commonly associated with Anonymous.
The "suit without a head" represents leaderless organization and anonymity.

-Anonymous is an online hackivist group which largely consists of users from multiple image boards and internet forums.

-In 2003, user of an English-language imageboard website called 4chan began using the term anonymous when refering to themselves as a collective. User registration on this site is not required and users who do not identify themselves are given the label anonymous. In 2004 a 4chan administration manipulated the site to force every user to being displayed as 'Anonymous'.

-There is no 'official' way to 'join' Anonymous other than to simply want to join as there is no leadership, no ranking, and no single means of communication.

-The Guy Fawkes mask has become a well known symbol for Anonymous. The character developed as an internet meme called 'Epic Fail Guy'. Protests against the church of scientology in 2008 were done by Anonymous wearing these masks to protect their identities from church. The character was then adopted for it's wider protests against authority.

-Alan Moore is a novelist who wrote 'V for Vendetta' which is illustrated by David Lloyd. It's a story set in a dystopian future in the UK from the 1980's to about the 1990's. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself 'V' works to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people he encounters. 'V', an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask begins an elaborate, violent and intentionally theatrical campaign to murder his former captors, bringing down the government, and convince the people to rule themselves.

-When thinking up a persona and image for 'V', Alan Moore said: ''Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those Papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? He'd look really bizarre and it would give Guy Fawkes the image he's deserved all these years. We shouldn't burn the chap every Nov 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament.''

-Anonymous have protested and acted on many things just as internet censorship, scientology and government corruption. In April 2012 in protests against government extradition and surveillance policies, Anonymous took down government websites in the UK and left a message on Twitter saying: ''It was for your draconian surveillance proposals.''

-''We anonymous just happen to be a group of people on the internet who need - just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn't be able to do in regular society...That's more or less the point of it. Do as you wish...There's a common phrase. ''We are doing it for the lulz.'' - Trent Peacock, The face of 'Anonymous'

What is an Anarchist?

Well when we hear the word 'Anarchy' we think of chaos, thugs, no control, but I wanted to go further than the initial thoughts because taking the obvious route in a brief is boring not only for the viewer but for me too, I like a challenge and I like to feel like I've achieved something new rather than portrayed something everyone has already seen before.

Anarchy:
-The absence or no recognition of leader
-A state of disorder
-No authority or a society with a violently enforced political authority
-Lawlessness within society
-Political disorder
-Society without a publicly enforced government
-Someone who has cheated out of society in some way

I kept on seeing a lot of photos of protesters when searching for 'Anarchists' so then typed in 'Anarchist protesters' and came across an image of protesters wearing the 'Guy Falkes masks', this interested me because some of our friends once turned up to our house party wearing these masks so something familiar at this point was a positive thing. I thought this would be an interesting topic to take forward so I carried on with my research into it.  

Editorial brief 1 - Portrait of an Anarchist

We were asked to being a magazine or newspaper from a specific list so we could later on analyse them for different purposes. I brought 'The Nursing Times', I merely chose this because it was the cheapest magazine I could find but later on realized it had an influence on what I wanted to do. At one point during the session, our tutor said ''Did you find anything in your magazine that you were surprised to see?'' and I had done. My magazine was full of images of nurses posing happily, mostly just head shots and I found the occasional piece of medical equipment but the one image that did capture my interest was one of a ballerina. I saved this image and stuck it on the wall after the tutor asked us to find interesting images to show the rest of the class. The image was so interesting because it was aside a piece of writing about healthy posture. Out of all of the bits of medical information I had seen in that magazine, I didn't once stop to read about it apart from the information beside the ballerina image. I thought using the ballerina along side something related in the sense that ballerinas have good postures yet unrelated in the sense that an image of a ballerina is not medical, was a very clever and interesting technique to get a reader to stop and find out what the article was about. I kept this ballerina image as inspiration but now it has seemed to have been misplaced. Later on during that session I accidently came across another image of a ballerina, this time in 'The Sunday Times'.

This time, the article was about ballerinas and how strenuous their dances are and how much impact the body receives whilst they're dancing. All of these findings about ballerinas were starting to become that of a 'sign' for me so as it was our first briefing and I was excited to crack on, even before knowing what our first upcoming assignment was yet, I thought I knew that I wanted to do something ballerina related no matter what.

The brief we were given could hardly have been more opposite to relating to ballerinas. 'A Portrait Of An Anarchist.''. Obviously the first thing that came into my head when hearing the word 'Anarchist' was the punk era and I couldn't stop thinking about Johnny Rotton. After getting this out of my head by doodling silly pictures of 70's punk stars I began thinking whether or not I'd be able to include my initial love for the ballerina idea into this anarchist theme. The days went by and I was slacking a bit because I was too caught up on trying to think of ideas of how to create some sort of 'Anarchist Ballerina' idea until I expressed my 'what seemed to be plausible, some how' idea to my brother who immediately burst out laughing and disgraced my ambitious plan...My initial thought to his response was ''I'll show you, I'll find an anarchist ballerina some how'' but then I thought about how silly I sounded so gave up the idea all together! I guess I'll save the ballerina idea for a more suited brief.

Editorial photography

Where is editorial photography being used and how is this work commissioned? 
Editorial photography is often the photography that supports the written word by being the image next to an article or some other form of related text in magazines, news papers, websites, brochures and more things along those lines. Art Directors or Picture Editors from advertising agencies, magazines or design groups usually commission self-employed photographers to take the their desired editorial images by briefing them on the story, the sort of content of the image in order to grab reader attention or link better with the article and the target audience for that particular magazine or newspaper.

What range of photographic work is being undertaken by photographers in fulfilling editorial assignments? 

Producing high quality photographs to a tight deadline and exacting client specifications can prove stressful. In order to succeed in the fields of Advertising and Editorial Photography, photographers should therefore be organised, practical and creative, with a calm, friendly attitude. They must be highly motivated and self-confident in order to promote themselves, and should continually update their presentation portfolio. They need to understand the principles of composition , and have an appreciation of shape, form, colour and tone .

Many photographers in the Advertising and Editorial Photography fields start out by assisting an established photographer and learn on the job. This can provide invaluable experience, offering the opportunity to meet clients, art directors, models, etc., to hear their discussions with photographers, and to understand the details of the preparation, execution and presentation necessary to the job. Editorial Photographers may also start out as a Press Photographer or Corporate Photographer who shows a particular aptitude for taking strong thematic photographs.