Mood Board:

Mind map of ideas for photoshoots:

Who is Roberta Tocco, and what did she do?

Roberta Tocco is a 28 year old Fashion & Beauty, Fine Arts Photographer currently based in Catania, Metropolitan city of Catania, Italy. At age 20, Tocco began taking photos “just for fun” and she explains it was the most natural thing in her life. She tried different kinds of photography, with a range of sets and moods, but at the end she always found herself in minimal things, natural light and a very simple concept. In my opinion, Tocco was born with a true gift of storytelling, specifically through her work. This is because her work is all about capturing emotions and chasing the perfect, soft lighting. As she grew up on an island, it gave her the freedom to catch the sound of many waves and colours of endless sunsets. She described her land as “full of contrasts” and the balance is something that has grown in her eyes and aesthetic sense. I can relate to this on a personal level through growing up in Jersey where I am surrounded by nature, where I will be able to recreate a similar aesthetic in my own images through similar scenes and locations. This way, I am able to link my work to the artist effectively, but also with slightly different elements coming from my own area. In an interview, Roberta talks about her unique photographic style and reveals what can only be learned through practice. She successfully links to my project, through the theme of femininity as she focuses on the delicacy of women, yet also incorporating the relationships with the places she had growing up.

Image analysis:

This image in particular stood out to me the most within Tocco’s work. I believe it associates with my project as she is interpreting the theme of femininity as well as girlhood. The main subject in this image is clearly the socks and legs, as they take up the majority of the frame. Immediately, I am able to recognise a graceful and woman-like mood that has been illustrated to the viewer, through multiple elements such as the use of bare legs, floral patterns on the bed and the pastel coloured socks. The artist states: “What I want is to express my feelings and bring out the hidden beauty from what I see.” This quote tells me that Tocco clearly finds stereotypical womanly elements aesthetically pleasing and takes a liking towards photographing them. This may be because these elements specifically are what separates women from men, as they are more delicate than those that would be associated with men. Moreover, the female hand on the leg of the model in the middle also caught my eye, which could perhaps suggest intimacy between the females in the photo. Again, this implies that there may be a close emotional connection between them, which helps add to the distinctive and pure approach to her work. From this, I can gather that Tocco may be a feminist, as she clearly sees the beauty behind women and the small feminine details that stand out to her. There isn’t a particularly striking background in this image which hints that the artist doesn’t want the viewer’s eye to be wondering and wants us to stay focused on the main subject. Within this image, there is also a factor of objectification highlighted as there is lots of bare skin showing, and the overall construction of the image hints at typical stereotypes of women.

Image analysis 2:

For my second image analysis, I chose this image as I feel it has connections to the image I analysed above. This is because I immediately noticed the same background, and the fact there are 3 female models lying down on the same bed. Similarly, there is another element of intimacy in this image, through the use of the hand on the shoulder, with the other hand overlapping, which also contributed to the ideology of potential intimacy or emotional connections between them. Furthermore, the fact there are three models in the image tells me