Juergen Teller - Fine Art and Fashion Photography
Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller is a german artist and photographer whose work I find very interesting because he does not differentiate his 'fine art', personal work from his commercial work. I really like this idea of blending together commercial and personal work as I think it's something that artists do a lot nowadays.
I think the idea of putting clothes in contexts that are entertaining and provoking is the main thing that captured my eye when looking at his work. His work in a way makes me think about Wolfgang Tillmans' photographs because both artists have introduced very tough-provoking ideas and Tillmans' photographs somewhat seem similar to Teller's.
I chose this photographer as I wanted to create a fashion shoot and editorial using my family as the models. As this is something I have never done it before, I wanted to challenge the idea of using ordinary people in the context of high fashion. If I thought about doing my first editorial for a magazine I would want to include my family in it as, from my perspective, it would be a much more intimate experience and the outcome would hopefully spark some ideas to the viewer.
I think the way Juergen Teller approached this photo-shoot is very interesting: the pictures from this editorial resemble the traditional family pictures any person would take at a family dinner. I was really drawn to these photographs because I can somehow relate to the images and the context in which they were taken. Being able to connect with an artist's work not only draws my attention to it more but, from a commercial point of view, it achieves what clothing brands wish to achieve which is creating a bridge between them and the consumer. I think this is why Juergen Teller's work is so effective both visually and commercially.
By looking at his work and analysing the way Teller approaches a fashion shoot I think I have learnt a lot and I might use the idea of shooting ordinary people and placing them in a fashion editorial in order to create a connection between the viewer and the images. I would like to experiment with this idea more and perhaps try and use flash photography to give that sense of spontaneity to the images. I think for my next shoot I will try to shoot on film as the grain of the images may resemble the old times where people would print the images they would take and create photo albums.
Perhaps it would also be interesting to create an editorial that resembles a photo-album but this is just an idea I could experiment with after producing the images and looking at the work more closely.
Balenciaga
Fall 2018
Fall 2018
Fall 2018
Resort 2018
One element that interests me when it comes to styling is layering: this year Balenciaga came out with really 'weird', extravagant layering and styles. Wearing dresses the other way around or stitching shirts in front of hoodies are the two things that caught my eye from the pictures above. But it is also interesting to see how different textures are combined together and how the stylists decided to place two very contrasting patterns next to each other. This makes me think a lot about androgynous looks and creating very gender non-conforming styles and looks as a way of pushing the boundaries of fashion and style - which is something that I have seen more and more people do in the recent years.
Vetements
As for this project I would like to focus on shooting an editorial that somehow involves the family and individuals that may not necessarily be models, I researched a few examples to have ideas from. From these pictures, especially the first one above, I really like the idea of taking an ordinary family picture on holiday and place it into an editorial. The contrast between the familiarity with these kinds of pictures and the context in which they are placed creates a very effective result. In my opinion these photographs create a much better reaction than normal editorials because of the element of family in it.
These 3 photographs also seem very posed; as in my photography work I never really shot any fully posed pictures I think this will be an interesting element to explore. Perhaps fully preparing how the pictures are going to look like before shooting them will help me organise my photo shoot much more. Although I would like to experiment with completely staged photographs, I would also like to try and see how the pictures would look if they were half staged. I am thinking perhaps trying to have a conversation with the subject and take the picture when their mouth is open would create a very unusual outcome. Or maybe recording the conversations and adding a QR code on the editorial that links you to the conversations the models and I had whilst we were shooting would be more interesting than just presenting the photographs only. These are ideas that are just floating in my head at the moment so nothing is set in stone, but as a way of developing my work I think that would be very compelling.
Vetements
Spring 2019
Spring 2019
Fall 2018
As one of the words I had to follow for the styling and photo-shoot is 'black', I found that these 3 looks effectively represent the types of outfits I would like to style. In the first look above, I really enjoy how the face of the model is covered by a zipped hood and we can only see the eyes; the idea of covering most parts of the body is quite interesting and it is something that I want to do in my photo shoots especially when styling the models with various layers. Perhaps I could make the models wear very black, baggy clothes and place them in a landscape that completely differs from the way they look such as parks or places where you would normally not find models doing a photo-shoot. Although these are just starting points for my ideas I would like to develop them much better and refine my ideas properly in the next few days.
Another big trend that is recent is wearing reflective clothing, or workwear that is usually worn by people who have working class jobs such as deliveroo drivers or builders. Although I do not really know how to feel about big brands making these clothes high fashion (it just seems to me like they are trying to appropriate working class culture) I would like to try and include one reflective item in one of my looks. Perhaps just to see how it looks like with the other clothing I will use to style my models.
Nikki Krecicki
After creating my first photo-shoot I came across this article on i-D about Nikki Kreicicki, a photographer who shot this year's Pratt collection on her 91-year old grandmother. I thought it was quite interesting to compare the way she took pictures of her grandmother and the way I did.
I think when styling and taking pictures of my grandma my idea was to create something raw yet light-hearted, a series of images that really portrayed the relationship between my grandmother and I. I feel that, on the other hand, Nikki Krecicki's photographs seem much more refined and gentle than mine. Her grandmother seems to be very confident and graceful in front of the camera which is something that I really enjoyed when looking at this body of work.
I think I am going to try and photograph my grandmother posing as gracefully as Nikki Krecicki's grandmother poses and perhaps direct her more in the next shoot whilst still trying to create raw portraits of my grandmother. I also really like the film-like colours and texture that these photographs have, they somehow remind me of old vintage-retro photographs which create a very suggestive effect. So perhaps shooting on film could be a great option to explore and try.