For my project looking at fashion among youth culture in Jersey, I am aiming to produce a magazine for my final product. I have briefly mentioned this intention in previous blog posts but I will now begin to publish blog posts that show my research on different magazines I will be taking inspiration from in terms of design, style, layout, graphics, text content and actual photography.

I have chosen to present all work produced for this project in the format of a magazine because the actual content I will be producing will fit most appropriately into this style of display. The magazines I will be researching are all magazines that highlight music, fashion and youth culture – the latter is what I will be covering in my project. As well, magazines are becoming much more popular now and there are many more magazines for many more reasons in this current day which cover lots of different things such as fashion, music, TV, home, lifestyle and photography/art. 

PUSH

PUSH magazine is a very small, independent company that produces regular issues of their free magazine focusing on music and fashion.

Their issues are free of cost and all the customer has to pay is the postage and packaging cost and they can also choose to donate £5 to charity on their checkout.

PUSH magazine have so far published three issues of their magazine. The first issue’s cover star was the British grime MC and producer, Novelist. The second issues cover star was Guernsey born electronic music producer, Mura Masa. Their third and latest issue, published at the end of last year, which I recently purchased had two cover stars to celebrate music in 2017 and these were J Hus, the UK-born rapper and IAMDDB, the Manchester based rap artist. This issue also featured interviews and editorials on Ty Dolla $ign, Mahalia, Rich The Kid and 808ink. The magazine’s priority is promote the music of artists whose name may not get exposed otherwise.

In their magazine, at the front of each issue, they credit all contributors to the issue and these include the editors, writers and photographers. From this, I was able to search all the names of the photographers who photograph for the magazine and these consist of about 10 different photographers; all young and upcoming and specialist in their field.

PUSH magazine is a very current and trendy magazine that is at the forefront of fashion and music. It is a great magazine form myself to take inspiration form when producing my own and other magazines I will be researching include i-D and Dazed & Confused.

In the most recent issue of PUSH magazine that I own, one of the pages includes their own brief manifesto which outlines their intentions as an organisation and what their ethos and culture is as a company. The page reads:

“THEY ALWAYS TALK ABOUT PUSHING THE CULTURE,

BUT IT TAKES MORE THAN ONE TO MAKE A MOVEMENT.

EVERYONE EXERTING THEIR OWN FORCE, MAKING WHAT CONTRIBUTION THEY CAN.

TOGETHER WE CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS,

IF WE ALL PUSH.”

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. 

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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

 

Here are the Instagram pages and websites of the other, smaller artists I will be following and taking inspiration from for my project looking at fashion among young people in Jersey and the different trends people take up and the brands they where. The artists listed below are people I follow on Instagram and who I will be using as a guideline in terms of the style of their imagery. Some of the photographers listed will be part of a sole blog post where I look at their work, analyse it and discuss how it will influence my onw but some of the photographers below are smaller, less influential photographers who photograph for the magazine PUSH and these will just be shown in this blog post as a guideline for who I will be looking at for my own project.

The purpose of this blog post is to include all relevant to links to my inspirations for easy access for myself to access at any point and for readers to see, all in one lace, the photographed who I will be taking inspiration from for my work.

Vicky Grout 
Instagram
Website

Saskia Ivy
Instagram
Website

Ben Awin
Instagram
Website

Kay Ibrahim
Instagram
Website

Adama Jalloh
Instagram
Website

Ali Arrowsmith
Instagram
Website

Charlie Cummings
Instagram
Website

Filmawi Efrem
Instagram
Website

Willem Verbeeck 
Instagram
Website

For my exam project, I have decided to focus my time on exploring the theme of fashion photography, and, in particular, streetwear fashion and the photography that surrounds this genre in relation to both freedom and limitations, but more so freedom. I have begun planning this idea briefly but intend to carry out much more research on the background, history and context of this type of photography because it something I have never done before but have wanted to for a long time; also a contributing factor to why I have decided to carry out a project like this.

My primary intention was to use streetwear fashion as a way to combine my interest in fashion and brands with photography and document this ever-growing and ever-changing industry with my camera. I then started developing my ideas more and began to think of other ways I could explore this. I began collating some inspirations and other artists I could use as well as thinking of what I want my final product to look like. Artists I saw I could as inspirations include modern, contemporary and young UK based photographers Vicky Grout, Ben Awin and Saskia Ivy. Furthermore, I had recently purchased a music/fashion magazine called PUSH. This a UK based company that produces monthly issues of their magazine which covers upcoming artists and their fashion and the trends they are following. The magazine is completely free and the only fee paid is the postage an packaging price. As soon as I saw this magazine, I was instantly attracted because of its heavy focus on design, graphics, typography and photographs; visuals as a whole and when the magazine arrived and began reading it, I was hooked on creating a magazine alike to this because I felt I would be able to utilise my ability to create effective design and graphics for features like the cover page and different layout styles within the magazine. I then decided that for my intended project looking at fashion and trends of youth in Jersey, my final product could be a magazine and I came across this feature to create magazines on Blurb when I was producing my book for my coursework.

I began carrying out some brief research into other contemporary artists I could use as inspiration and as a guideline for how to go about producing my own fashion imagery. I started looking on Instagram for any new artists I could follow and began to come across recommendations for young photographers to follow when browsing the internet. I found several different websites which were advocating the work of several young, UK based photographers who are beginning to make it big in the fashion/music photography industry, in particular, an artist called Vicky Grout, 20 years-old who has already established herself as a household name in the way of grime music photography and has photographed the likes of Stormzy, Novelist and Skepta and J Hus.

A website I came across which was representing the work of five different young UK-based photographers can be found here and this is where I came across the work of Saskia Ivy and Ben Awin and in my PUSH magazine, Issue 3, the photography team is made up of about 10 different artist whoa re responsible for providing her visuals of the artists they are covering in the magazine and I can take inspiration from these photographers also for reference of contemporary work which will provide the main body to where my work originates from.

Furthermore, although I will be using the contemporary photographers such as the ones used above as primary influences to produce my own, it is important that I explore the history of fashion photography because it is so rich in information and visual evidence that has shaped the way fashion and art have integrated over the last 50 years as we have progressed into the 21st century and fashion is ever-changing with new trends. The line shave gradually been blurred between the combination of art/photography sand fashion and people feel it necessary now in a world driven by social media and photo sharing where people are constantly in the face of the public to be fashion-aware and document this with their camera and this why photographers such as Bill Cunningham made such a success out of his work as a street, fashion photographer and events such as London/Paris/New York Fashion Week do so well in terms of popularity, publicity and attendance because people see it as a chance to flaunt their to dress well and show their knowledge of the fashion world. I intend to produce blog posts outlining all my inspirations for this project as I continue to plan for the several shoots I hope to end up with which will contribute to my end product.

To enhance the sense of my final product being a magazine, I will be using text within also to add more structure, depth and body to the hard copy which will accompany the images also be written by me. The words will consist of interviews or statements from the models/individuals I photograph and my own words throughout to put into action my research produced throughout.

The project will consist of several shoots produced by myself looking at individuals in Jersey, and in particular young individuals and their own fashion and unique look – because everyone does have their own look and style which makes them stand out and it is these people that I will approach for the project. I have not yet decided whether I want to photograph both male and female or solely male. I came across a mini project by Saskia Ivy which looked at teenage boys in London and I feel like this could be a fascinating project if I were to also look solely at teenage boys in Jersey and photograph them both individual and in groups. However, I will explore all options further in other blog posts and alongside this, I intend to carry out practice/experiment shoots with models to get a sense of how I want to go about it.

Alongside these photographers, I will be exploring the work of classic fashion photographers who pioneered the genre such as Bill Cunningham, David Bailey and Jurgen Teller as well as, briefly, the work of Terry Richardson, all of whom also pioneered the use of the street as a studio and this what I want to do throughout and don’t intend to use my camera in a studio set up at all so I can add to the feel of an urban look heightened by the fashion and clothes/brand worn by my models.

In terms of how I will retrieve models fro my project, my intention is to approach particular people with a style I feel will works – because I essentially a director in a film where I have to create shot lists (the photographs), the script (the interview questions), pick a cast (the casting director for models) and then I have to produce it all and make it all come together. Therefore, I will approach particular people I may be friends with but also may have never spoken to before but am aware of their style and look which I feel will fit the part. I already have ideas of models and these included my friends as well as people I am not too close with. However, an alternative is to distribute an advertisement on social media such as Instagram and let people come forward themselves but it nay result in me rejecting some people if I feel they will not fit the look I want to achieve.

My shoots will also require a lot of planning where I outline the colours and looks/style I want my model to style. I may, if I know a particular them of clothing I want he model to wear, tell them to wear it or will likely leave the outfit they wear on the day up to them. However, once on location for the shoot, I can improvise with poses and shot styles whether they be close ups or long shots. I will also need to plan thoroughly the locations I want to shoot in and intend for these to be quite urban, for example in town or in multi-story car parks like Minden Place on the top floor which is open air and over looks the whole of St Helier. I will also need to take into consideration if I am shooting with females, whether I want them to wear makeup or not and the style I want this to be.

The only issue I have encountered this far with my plan is my actual confidence with my intentions and whether to not I can carry my intentions out and follow through with them because I never done anything like this and don’t really know how to go about it. I will need to be every proactive, confident in myself and my abilities but my people skills are good so believe this will aid the communication between myself and my models and I wish to make the whole project fun, especially when out on shoots – it should be fun and exciting.

I also need to decide what format I want to shoot with but intend to, as I did in my coursework, to shoot on all formats, including digital, analog; in particular, with my half-frame film camera and as well as on my iPhone. The shots taken on my phone with the app ‘Huji’ will likely be informal shots to contrast that of the more formal, intended posed shots. I also want to combine colour and black and white.