Matthew Lyn is a Canadian photographer and creative director renowned for his intuitive and textured talents in the world of fashion photography. Son of a Chinese Jamaican father and Canadian mother, his visual inspirations hail from his many different homes growing up as a child. Now days Lyn, divides his time creating in New York and Montreal, Canada. His eye for fashion photography has been described as uniquely exhilarating and fresh, while holding true to a bold classic edge. Lyn started his photography career in 2007 focusing on inspirations from Jamaica’s coastal beauty. From there, he channeled his vision through experimentation, collaboration and mentor-ship from highly acclaimed visual artists. Despite no formal training, his early photographs captured the attention of industry insiders. Andy Whalen, Executive fashion director for Vogue Nippon believes, “Matt is a young talent to keep an eye on. He has a vision that I find refreshing and inspiring”. Encouraged by many creative professionals, Lyn solidified his unique style, developing the moody, gray-scale fashion editorials that have become his signature.

Before I move on to my own studio shoot with plastic I first wanted to explore Matthew Lyn’s amazing examples that I have presented below. Although these images are fashion photography related, their undeniable beauty and talented showcase of light and shadow on the material is enough to inspire both my next two shoots. This series, entitled ‘Trapped & Wrapped’ strips away the usual elements for a raw photo shoot. Instead of the simple portraiture techniques this fashion shoot could have contained, Lyn turns the studio into a place of pure movement and form. His model Eryck Laframboise tackles the challenge, clad in plastic and wire creating striking, unusual and emotional depictions. This title, ‘Trapped & Wrapped’, fits in nicely with my project as I am wanting to represent the worlds ‘suffocation’ from this material as well as the damage it’s doing to the environment and therefore man-kind. Although this is a fashion photography project, this series is an amazing inspiration for creating dark and emotional portraits with plastic. I love this idea he shows of wrapping the model in plastic, for me it would represent the way we do this to everything else. Below are four images from this series that I have chosen as inspirations for my next two shoots.

These first two photographs from Matthew Lyn’s collection, ‘Trapped and Wrapped’, are great examples of the kind of headshots I am hoping to create in my first self portraiture shoot. I love the black and white effect in all of these photographs, as it really emphasises Lyn’s talent for controlling light in the studio. The first image on the left shows a straightforward headshot with the model posing in a modest way, carefully wrapped in plastic and wire. Although the meaning behind this image is mainly beauty and fashion, the expression from the model and piercing eye contact creates amazing emotive qualities which can really intrigue the viewer. The image on the right depicts the model holding the plastic tight around his neck, straining as the material covers his face and suffocates him. Because of the title of these images, we are to understand that there is a deeper meaning looking past just beauty and fashion. But as it is left unexplained by the photographer, we can interpret the meaning ourselves. I will be doing this personally when using this simple idea for portraiture to symbolise the global problem of plastic waste. I hope to take inspiration from his use of space shown above, his use of the material and his beautifully crafted studio lighting.

These next two images are perfect examples of full body portraits using beautiful composition and space to capture plastic waste. These images will be a great inspiration for my second shoot, using a model and the material to show this common pollution issue. The first photograph on the left is a landscape shot showing the model breathing in the material and it floats across the scene. Although I will most likely featuring more of my model in this second shoot, I chose this image because of the beautiful composition the plastic creates as it is thrown into the air. I also love the transparency of scene with a mixture of harsh and soft light gleaming from every aspect. The next photograph on the right shows the full portrait of the model using the plastic wrapped around to cover himself. The meaning behind this image is very confusing and the pose he is performing seems unsure, yet the beauty of the light on the plastic that is distorting his body takes on a fashion orientated appearance. I if were to interpret these images with no prior knowledge of the photographer or his work I would say that this is a raw look into our dependence on this man-made material. This is because of the wire symbolising being trapped as well as the essence of the photographs directly pointing towards the effect the material has on the model.