I have started thinking about and end result for this project and want to develop the idea of making a magazine which opposes the stereotypical conventions of fashion and beauty magazines. Mainstream beauty magazines sold in most shops follow similar conventions, in the sense that they are traditional in their representation of perfect women. Most covers feature one full bleed photo of a model or famous personality such as an actress or internet star. They are generally smothered in cover lines about the contents of the magazine, tips, stories, and statements such as “Miracle product! Don’t take another selfie without it” This particular issue features a famous model who has been styled and posed in a fashion shoot specifically for the cover, this suggests that the image is a constructed reality, a lot of work has gone into making her look effortlessly ‘beautiful’. The colour scheme along with the casual language (#NOFILTER) has been chosen to specifically appeal to a young female audience.

I want to base by magazine on a more modern contemporary style of publication similar to i-D or Dazed which push the boundaries of magazine and beauty conventions whilst still appealing to a youthful audience. I want to incorporate some elements from the clastic magazine style in an ironic way for example advertisements and sponsors. I want to keep a minimal colour pallet and and house style with pastels and neutral colours. I have collected images of magazine covers which have inspired me, I think their minimal styles are modern and clean which I will work well for my magazine which will predominantly include photographs with small amounts of copy. By not having any cover lines it will allow the photos to stand out more. Similarly to these examples I want to play around with different fonts which could be used for the masthead, it should be a style which looks good in any colour so it could be adapted depending on the cover image. Boarders is another feature that some of these magazine covers have, rather than having a full bleed image it is framed with a chosen colour which could be complimentary to the photo.

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Because my magazine will predominantly include photos I want to experiment with different layouts to make the pages more interesting rather than traditional portrait placing. I am looking to incorporate text in a more creative way rather than having articles in columns . These examples I have found show a variety of ways I could frame images and use text within them. I like the way multiple images have been placed on the page in these examples by layering and different arrangements on a white background. Various texts have been used for example the hand written style which give a more personal feel and the more abstract warped texts used to frame the images.

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Title Ideas

Looking at existing magazine titles such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Bazar and Elle they have statement titles which say something about their style. For my magazine I want the title to make a clear statement about the images it will display and the idea of beauty ideals and perfection within the mass media. I have considered having the title as ‘beautiful’ or ‘perfect’ in an ironic way to contrast and question with the stereotypical beliefs. I also thought of naming it ‘Ugly’ as a comment on the labels people are given if they don’t conform or appear to be perfect.

Below are some of John Baldessari’s photographs

I was inspired by John Baldessari to create conceptual art by playing. I experimented with playful objects with my peers.

Taking photos on a fast shutter speed (1/250-500) allowed me to take photographs of the ball coming down after being thrown in the air, without any blurs and maintaining it in focus. I then turned these quick snap into a GIF as an experimentation method.

Layout 1

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Of these first three layouts my favourite is the 2nd I think the black frame creates a deep contrast and it makes the images Stand out.

Layout 1

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My Favourite of these three layouts is the 2nd as I feel like the black supports the image

Layout 1

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My final decision for the layout of my third print set is Layout 1

To conclude i am pleased with all three of my preferred layouts for my final presentation.

Hiroshi Sugimoto born 23 February 1948) is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory.

Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He reportedly took his earliest photographs in high school, photographing film footage of Audrey Hepburn as it played in a movie theater. In 1970, Sugimoto studied politics and sociology at Rikkyō University in Tokyo. In 1974, he retrained as an artist and received his BFA in Fine Arts at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. Afterwards, Sugimoto settled in New York City. He soon started working as a dealer of Japanese antiquities in Soho.

This photo has been taken using natural lighting while being carefully positioned in order so that the horizon in the middle of the photograph. This taken rule of thirds seems to have been considered in terms of the shading differences in the background and foreground. There is a large tonal range of grey, where there is a gradual shade change, from the darkest point along the bottom of the image and the lightest being at the top. There is a very short depth of field considering that the photo is mostly blurred from the fog. However the foreground of the image is the only part to be in focus and where textures can be seen from the small ripples in the sea, although it is very still. The dark, grey/blue tones bring a cold temperature to the photograph along with the low light sensitivity where we can just about see the horizon in the middle of the image. Although the image is blurred and obscure there are no rounded or curved shapes. Everything is very straight but there are no outlines.
Sugimoto’s image brings a sense of romanticism in their evocation of landscape, related to Ansel Adam’s approaches to photography. This image shows how he sees nature. Sugimoto has said: ‘When I look at nature I see the artificiality behind it. Even though the seascape is the least changed part of nature, population and the resulting pollution have made nature into something artificial’.

David Prentice was born in Solihull, England in 1936 and died 2014. Prentice lived and worked in Malvern, Worcestershire, married to the quilt artist, Dinah Prentice. He was an English artist and former art teacher. In 1964, he was one of the four founders of Birmingham Ikon Gallery. Prentice taught at the Faculty of Birmingham Polytechnic between 1971 and 1986, initially in charge the experimental workshop, and has been a visiting artist at Trent Polytechnic, the University of Nottingham, the Ruskin School and the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Prentice held solo exhibitions at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artistsin 1961 and 1963, and in the same year as the second featured in the Four Letter Art exhibition organised by Trevor Denning. Prentice has since held over 40 solo exhibitions.

The image of David Prentice “Above Llanberis Lake” uses a variety of blue and green shades. His work shows strong tone to create the shape of the lake and the valley that surrounds the area, this is supported by his use of shadows and light in his work. His uses the valley to tunnel the viewer’s eye to the horizon of the painting, this is where the main change in colour (from green to the blue, foreground to background) and the change in lighting is the strongest and most noticeable. The viewer’s eye is most drawn towards where the light emerges from the clouds as this is the lightest area of the painting which is followed through the sun rays.

My photographs in comparison to the artists that inspired my photo shoots and editing process.

1. My photographs inspired by John Baldessari are directly inspired and I have used his concept on the dot on the face and used it on my own photographs, creating photographs extremely similar to Baldessaris.
2. I took inspiration from Luigi Ghirri in the from of the type of landscapes and spaces but also small details, for example in the first example I have photographed a path in a similar style, creating the same effect as his. Also in the second example I have used a similar composition and landscape.
3. I used Etienne-Jules Mareys style of sequencing and repetition and incorporated that into my photography and layout within my final piece, photographing the same shell, zooming in closer each shot and presenting it in order.

John Baldessari:

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Luigi Ghirri:

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Etienne-Jules Marey:

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When developing my final book I wanted to have something unique, something I have never done before, and originality that meant my final presentations will be unlike any others. To do so I started off with developing the book. I Knew for my book I wanted to create a black and white tonal book. This soon transpired to having silver and black ink inverted to create glowing images. I also knew that for my narrative of life from birth to death, told through the story of creation, That I would need a long narrative. To do so I first off assigned myself 100 pages, then narrowing down only the best images to around 87 pages in total. Furthermore, to go in hand with his over exaggeration of visual overload due to the volume, I decided to have an image on every single page, so to go hand in hand with this large effect. In the end I was left with an array of different displays, differing from two full bleeds, to some with black boards to full double page spreads. The distorted array not being continually mimicked was very effective and something which Made the narrative of my book, perhaps, more enjoyable, as you are able to take your time when looking through each of the images. As spoken about previously the finality of my book was found within previous books such as Astres Noirs.

My final book layout:

The paper used will be matte, I have chosen this as I have very deep blacks, it would be definitely better for the exposure and use of my colour tones. I then Decided on the front cover that I wanted an image wrap of one of my final prints, of white branches intertwining, This to my mind both perfectly combines that of tranquility and creation of heavenly light, with the fragility of life itself. The title of my book is called: Ascension. I chose this as it is a word which not only has clear indexical connotes to that of the story of creation, Adam and eve being created and ascending into earth, but too links in with the each part at the end of my narrative, and so forming a relation of going into heaven, or being carried up. The wrap around on the cover will not be fabric, as it is a more post-modern book focusing on themes such as religious sentimentality in the 21st century, I want this slick new feel to be evident within my cover, as this is what is to be found inside my book. A pivotal of My book is the primary source of my presentation, it has the majority of my images, and too combines a clear narrative experience throughout: My final layout:

Repetition is the action of repeating something which has already been done or the recurrence of an action or event. In photography terms, repetition is closely linked with typologies. I was inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher who looked at different but similar buildings in order to produce a repeated style of images and present them in the same way.

My inspiration for these photographs sprung when looking at Bernd and Hilla Bercher. My idea was to take photos of something simple and used on a daily basis that most people carry around. This experiment became more interesting than what I anticipated as I noticed that each key almost showed each owners personality.

I captured these simple images of keys on a white background of every student in my class to show the similarities (uniqueness) and variations of colours and styles.

After experimenting with different ways of presenting, I decided to produce a GIF of all the images to show the sequence of images and how similar each one is, however, different in terms of style and personality.

Bernd Becher and Hilla

Below are the images that I used to construct a GIF. These images are laid out in a typology form as a response to the artist above.

THE GIF

I used Adobe Photoshop to convert these series of images into the GIF shown above. Below is a quick step to step tutorial on how I created this GIF.

As I made evident and described in my previous post I have decided that I will compose 6 A3 prints of my Photo-montages. This post will be a plan of how I intend to display these prints. So firstly I needed to lay out some simple compositions of the images which I intend to have printed to scale. Here are the 5 options which I have come up with…

After laying out these compositions on Photoshop, I decided that simply based on what I believed to be most aesthetically pleasing that I would pursue option 4. However I have various options as to how I could display these prints such as many ways of: Framing, mounting and foam board. However after ruling out framing as an option due to the fact that it would over-complicate the display, from mounting or foam board I have decided that I will create a layered foam board display.

I intend to have each print on its own piece of foam board to the right dimensions, and then proceed to use double sided tape in order to attach the 6 prints to 2 full sized boards of foam. These two boards will be held together using support pieces of foam taped across the back of the two boards.

I have experimented in a variety of different ways, creating different shapes and types of lines. I have experimented on all of my photographs because I want to have a variety of options and a large range to choose from, this will make sure there is nothing I’m missing when making my final selection.