For my project, as much as models and the actual concept is important, now these two important factors are more or less decided upon and finalised, it is vital that I chose the specific locations where I will be shooting wisely.

After looking at several artists who have inspired me and observing their work, I have realised the importance of setting and where the shoot will be carried out. Most of the artists I have looked at this far have been streetwear photographers who photograph their subjects, most of the, on the street and in urban areas of where the may live. I have come across a few times, examples of where photographers have shot in a studio set up where the background is an infinity screen and this would have been done in a typical studio. Doing this achieves much different results then when shooting on location in town or on the streets where photographs become more informal and more characterised as a result.

Using a location for a shoot adds much more character to the subject and brings out their personality more than if you’re shooting in a studio, in my own personal opinion, and this is what I what to achieve in my onw photographs as I will be focusing heavily on individual people who will essentially make up the body of my project. It is important that I show them as best I can and to do this, I feel the use of urban areas to heighten and emphasise the focal point of fashion and clothing brands such as The North Face, Tommy Hilfiger, Carhartt, Supreme and Stussy in every shot. These are the types of brands I expect my models to wear.

For my shoots, I do not intend to tell my models what to wear and instead leave this up to them because if I ell them what to wear and or the style they should attempt to achieve in their look on that day, this will take sway from the realness and rawness of what my shoots should be where I am photographing the way teenage boys in this modern day express themselves and how they do this through what they wear where it is so easy to be judged, fell judged or judge someone based on their looks and what they may wear. I will, as a means of heightening the emphasis on freedom, leave the choice of outfit up to the models. I know that whatever hey may wear, whether it connotes vibes of a vintage feel or street feel, it will fit into what I want to achieve. And so to coincide with this emphasis on fashion, I want the locations to also be fun, fitting, vibrant and I want them to hold an element of exclusivity – that when I am photographing my subjects in these locations, it feels exclusive and important to focus on the location as much as the subject.

Furthermore, a concept I want to explore is the effect that photographing the location on its onw as well as the subjects within this location may have. I believe this idea could work well because I could pair an image of the bare location with another image of my models in that exact location but from a different perspective – because the model will be the focus. It would be interesting to see the effect of focusing on the features of the location and then talking an element of this away by pairing it with an image that could be seen as worse – that I am ruining what may be a location of beauty by placing some teenagers in the centre of it. I retrieved this idea from Tiane Doan Na Champassak’s work and in particular, the book I looked at called ‘Sunless’. This project saw Champassak visit prostitutes in Thailand through booking appointments with them, and instead of visiting them for the reason everyone would think – to engage in sexual activity with them, instead Champassak went along to these prostitutes place of business, whether it be a hotel room or their apartment and photographed the location – the area in which he found himself as well as images of these men and women naked on the bed. He produced a book which confronting questions regarding gender and sexuality and it was same up of alternating images between harsh, very heavily contrasted and shadowed black and white images of the location and much more delicate and elegant close-ups of the prostitutes naked body which were much more vibrant tin colour and the curvatures of some of the women’s body’s imitated that of the walls and decorations that Champassak found in their apartments. This concept of dividing a body of work up through alternating images between location shots and subject shots is very effective and is something I could experiment with.

It is important that I begin to plan where I want to shoot and that I have an idea of different locations and setting on the island that I feel may work best. I have not gathered many ideas of locations to shoot in yet but intend to in the next few days so that I am not lost for ides when it comes to the day of shooting. In Jersey, there are many areas of urban scenery that would be perfect but it is about finding these areas because I am yet to discover them. Looking at the work of Grout and Arrowsmith as well as pioneers in street photography such as Bailey and Klein, they have used the mundane settings of streets but with the addition of lively subjects who are performing for the camera, the locations can come alive and I feel this is what I can achieve in my work.

Examples of locations where I have thought of to shoot thus far include areas like town, however, not on Kings Street because this is often too busy and crowded with people shopping and therefore, I would focus more on smaller and quitter alleyways and side streets in between shops in town. Furthermore, it would be great if I could find some areas in Jersey where there is a long stretch of wall with some graffiti on. However, it is likely that I may be out on location and coincidentally come across a perfect little spot of wall that has some colour on and would be great as a backdrop for a couple of shots.

My mate was telling me about an area near Fort Regent where there is brick wall and on this, someone has spray painted the words ‘Welcome To Jersey’ and if I could find this spot, this may be very effective.

Other areas like skate parks would work well where I can also get some shots of some of my models actually skating if they are of this group of people who skate regularly. There are quite a few skate parks in Jersey and give off the perfect urban look and feel.

I have also thought to photograph at Les Quennevais estate for example as I know this area well where there are garages upon garages in rows that would look great as a backdrop because the are not too busy with textures, patterns or colours and would quite subtle but effective as a setting.

Furthermore, one location that I am set on using and will probably be the basis for one of my first shoots is Minden Place Car Park in town and in particular, the top level of this car park as it is open air and overlooks St Helier and its vast array of building tops.

some ideas for locations

• Minden Place Car Park, top story
• town – back streets and side streets where it is less busy (maybe Kings Street)
• graffitied walls 
• plain brick walls
• Les Quennevais Estate, the garages 
• any other estates 
• skate parks 
• casual streets or pavements 
• outside any apartments/flats 

To aid my understanding of my own project to help me produce responses to artist research and other research in the planning stages, I have chosen to produce a manifesto which outlines my intentions for my project looking at male fashion and it’s link to how males can express themselves as they develop in adolescence. 

In my manifesto, I will outline my aims for the project as a mini statement to help both myself understand where I want to go with it and to help my audience understand where I started and if I have carried out my rules/intentions as stated at the beginning. 

what is a manifesto?

>> a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

Manifesto’s have become vital to art and conceptual art/photography to provide a way of thinking that may not have been considered before. Manifestos can change peoples views and opinions on things and completely alter the way a person may view art. This is shown in the manifesto below where in artist, Grayson Perry in his Red Alan Manifesto states that popular art work will be displayed above head sol we can see it. This is an very interesting thought and words ‘popular’ and ‘see’ have been emphasised through underlining and capital letters. Manifestos and the rules set in manifestos can be quite controversial but it is the controversial nature of manifestos that can make them so impactful.

An example of a industry-changing art manifesto that had huge impact on the way people changed their view of art from what was originally believed art was a few decades ago is the manifesto produced by Grayson Perry of the Red Alan Manifesto in 2014.

The image below shows the document produced by Perry entitled the Red Alan Manifesto. In Red Alan’s Manifesto, created for the Royal Academy, Perry provides a witty response to some of art’s biggest issues, such as: Can anything be art? Who decides whether art is good or bad? The manifesto is written under the authorship of Red Alan, a ceramic sculpture of his childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles.

For my manifesto, I will be creating a set of 5 rules that I intend to follow for all my shoots that I aim to carry out in this project. These 5 rules will be the basis of my thought processes and I will attempt to obey these rules at all times because they will be the foundation for creating exciting, new and different work that challenges my comfort zone and own skills as a photographer. From these rules, I hope that it will encourage me to no longer create any more boring art as first pioneered by John Bald.

I will use the screenshot of my note on my iPhone where in which I wrote a paragraph/statement advertising my need for any models for this project I am carrying out. I uploaded this advertisement for people to help on my Instagram and I will use what I wrote to inform my rules to create this manifesto that will provide a basis for the way I approach the construction of imagery that will in-turn give the body for my fashion photography project.

The image below shows that screenshot of my notes app on my phone in which I wrote a couple paragraphs stating what I was after and then I uploaded this to my Instagram story.

The rules of for my manifesto come from this advertisement based on what I was first after at the beginning of this project.

My manifesto is shown below.

'hmu' (hit me up) manifesto


_ make it fun
_ speak to people you haven't before or haven't spoken to in forever
_ ignore the factor of awkwardness and get on with it
_ be cooperative 
_ just take the photos