dot dot dot... Magazine
Hello and welcome to the second issue of Dot Dot Dot Magazine! We’ve made a few changes this edition, with an amazing group of contributors coming on board, submitting work from a range of specialities, from fashion to fine art. Each contributor has interpreted our theme of ‘colour’ individually, giving you a diverse sneak peak at our talented selection of local (and national) artists! Enjoy! Love, the Dot Dot Dot team x
www.DotDotDot-Magazine.com
Executive Editor: Lucy Greenhill
Editor & Writter: Georgina Stokes
Lucygphotography@me.com
Georgina@georginastokes.com
On the Cover
Photography: Christine Pagliarini Model: Lauren Lindsey MUA: Karina Rochelle Burton
Dropped Photography by Olivia Spooner
Nature's Colours Photography by Saibh Egan
Model : Dragana Rakic MUA : Flora Psarianos
Where do you find inspiration? Everyday life, nature, fashion blogs, Tumblrs, interesting people and stories. I love underground art, graffiti, music, obscure fashion and art collectives. Professionals I regularly credit are David LaChapelle, Nabil Elderkin, Annie Leibovitz, Mark Seliger, Tim Walker, Tony McGee, and I also admire Irish Photographers such as Lucia O’Connor -McCarthy, Lee Malone & Lucy Nuzum. What’s the one piece of equipment you couldn’t live without? Probably Prime Lenses. Once I had
shot a portrait with a prime lens, I couldn’t turn back. Yes obviously zoom lenses have their importance, but I love my 50mm for portraits. How would you describe your style of photography? I don’t think I could define my style of photography. It’s ever changing, and I’m forever learning. I do a lot of location and outdoor photography, heavily influenced by nature, art and fashion, although I love the studio and I plan to do a lot more studio work in the future. As far as I see it, my photography is heartfelt and is
always a labour o How important is photography? Fashion is becom important in my fashion; it is ever way to express th creativity. Imagin to fashion as it is work now gravita portraits and fash to capture the be to try to tell a sto
of love. fashion in your
ming more and more photography. I love ryone’s personal hemselves and their nation is important s to photography. My ates towards shooting hion, because I love eauty in people and ory though imagery.
An Interview with Saibh Egan
H
ow did you get into photography? My interest in photography started with my mother’s old photographs. Photos of people and places, chronicling the beauty of Ireland’s past, mixed with captivating shots of my fathers student days in Bagdad. I became intoxicated. Their look, their feel, even the way they smelt, I was drawn even to the imperfections, the under and over-exposed qualities. Yes, that’s definitely how it started for me. I would spend evenings enamored by the stories behind those wonderful photographs. I had various film and “point and shoot” cameras throughout my teen years, then I finally made the switch over to Digital SLR and never turned back. That, coupled with my love for Photoshop, design, fashion and organizing things, I couldn’t stop. Then came Flickr, Facebook, blogging, and people taking an interest in my art. I was hooked.
Photography by Ryan Handy
Model: Philippa MacConnachie MUA:Grace coole-green Hair: Josh Matheson Hair
Secondary Reflections on Forest Green Photography by Gabrielle Brooks
Backdrops Photography by Olivia Spooner
Negative Photography by Stefan Ebelewicz
Ua series of composite images. Each
sing redundant negatives Stefan created
negative was either under or over exposed and as a result lacking in both colour and detail. Layering the negative resulted in giving these useless images a new lease of life.
Alienated Photography by Jess Rigley
Sleeping Leopard by Louise Wright
Autumn by Louise Wright
Photography by Christine Pagliarini
C
olour is a sensation that is shared by almost every living creature and yet is never experienced the same way. So what exactly is this thing, colour, and how does it affect our day-to-day lives? Our eyes work with light to see the colours of objects. When white light shines onto an object’s surface, the light splits and certain wavelengths reflect back. Our eyes perceive reflected wavelengths to determine colours. For instance, a yellow flower reflects back yellow wavelengths, but absorbs all others. We can see the yellow because it is the only wavelength reflected back. So we think we know our colours pretty well. A standard art class in primary school taught us about mixing colours to make others: red and blue to make purple, and so
on. But primary colours of dyes shouldn’t be confused with primary colours of light. Pigments and dyes can be mixed to create other perceivable colours, which are not actually colours themselves, but have colour; like any surface they reflect wavelengths that our eyes perceive. Colours found opposite each other on the standard colour wheel are known as complementary colours. These often work well together in images, and can be found in numerous advertisements due to the technique’s eye-catching properties, such as the combination of orange and blue. The natural world itself gives us colour codes that have aided our survival: we know to avoid meat which has greened or
Model: Lauren Lindsey & Hayley Ruth Elizabeth Green MUA: Karina Rochelle Burton
potatoes with strange blue-black marks. We use colour to understand when a tomato has ripened. Through the course of evolution, knowledge of colours has become innate, affecting us even when we are unaware. At times, it is hard to verbalise this intuition; the colour blue, for instance, can curb our appetite - no food we eat is naturally blue, so we do not associate the colour with food. So there’s a tip for you, want to lose a few pounds? Eat off a blue plate, or go the whole hog and get out your blue food colouring.
oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different In advertising and marketing, colours can designers. Then it filtered down through be used to influence consumers, and even the department stores and then trickled on generate physical responses. Red, for down into some tragic casual corner where instance, has connotations of power and you, no doubt, fished it out of some excitement. We cannot remove ourselves clearance bin. However, that blue from the knowledge that blood is red; red is represents millions of dollars and passion and anger. So that’s why that little countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical red lipstick is so effective. how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry Colour has held huge importance in the art when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater world for many hundreds of years, adding that was selected for you by the people in the texture, structure and ‘blush’ to images. this room. From a pile of stuff.” However, once it was made possible in the world of photography, it was actually looked So now you know. down upon for many years and considered to be the inferior medium. Black and white Written by Anna Hornby was the order of the day and is still considered by many as the ‘true’ photography. But when photographers such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore became known for their colour photographs, colour started to find its place in photography. However, advertisers and fashion pieces were way ahead of the game, with magazines such as Vogue using beautiful colour images from as early the 1940’s. It is interesting to think that even when we are unaware, colour affects us. I’ll leave you with a quote from the film ‘The Devil wears Prada,’ just in case you were thinking colour and your fashion choices don’t mean anything! “You go to your closet and you select out,
Kaleidoscope Photography by Hayley Jane
Model & MUA: Alivya V Free
The Rainbo
Photogaphy by H
ow Garden
Heather Louise
Models : Rebekah Hemsley & Rhiannon Jones Make Up Artist : Sarah Gosnell Hair Stylist : Adelle Barlow Designer : Katherine Kerrison
Between the Lines By Rebecca May Higgins
Autumn Tones Photography by Stefanie Miller
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face. ~John Donne
Model: Brook Perish MUA: Sabria Zhashibayeva.
Flor de Muerto Photography by Holly Booth
Model: Kate Brazier MUA: Sian Revill
Nova Chiu Designs Photography by Cassandra Mayers
H
ow did you first get into fashion and textile design? - When I was 16 I realised my passion for the fashion industry and since then I have always wanted to be a designer. Specialising in textile design, I love to make different types of fabric with lots of embellishing throughout. Where do you find inspiration? What’s the most unusual place you’ve found inspiration? - I can find inspiration in almost everything, from the most beautiful castles, to the stars and sky, to my home city of Kunming, China. I really am inspired by art galleries from China as well as the ones here in the west, I feel the artists inspiration through the pieces no matter where I am. How do you bring colour into your designs? - Where I am from in China, the Ethnic groups of the surrounding areas all wear very bright colours. Its hard not too be inspired by what you see. What colour would you like to see more people wear? - I would love to see more bright blue almost like an electric turquiose would be very cool.
What do certain colours say to you/what messages do they give? - Certain colours tell different moods, so depending on what the mood is, the colour will reflect on how Im feeling at that particular moment. What do you say to the classic “never wear red and pink together” or “red and green should never be seen” type of sayings? - I definitly believe that red and green should never go together except at Christmas. But as for pink never with red I think that can still be done quite tastefully. What are your predictions for fashion this winter? (Colour/fit/length/exposed areas/fabrics etc.) - My predictions for winter is going to be lots of burnt yellow wool fitted 3/4 length coats. How can the everyday girl or guy bring in a bit of the fun and vibrance that shines through so often in your designs? - I think they can just be themselves, by wearing my clothing, it will just enhance who they are. ... Interview by Georgina Stokes
Models: Jenny guttridge, Rina & Maria Pankova MUA: Claire Appelby & Natalia Ozlav-cybulska from Makeup to Dazzle ltd Designer: Nova Chiu
Carousel Dreams Photography by Maria Blanche Laffafian
“Carousel Dreams is a dream I had. Most of my concepts come to me that way, I wake up and have to write it down straight away and bring the dream to life through my photography� Maria Blanche Laffafian @ Blanche Photography
Models: Nia Lewis & Ceri Maynard MUA & Hair: Catherine Oats Stylist: Jessica Healy Scarf Designer: Amber Dickinson
From the Dark.. .
Model: Hannah Ditchfield & Becca Louise Green MUA: Sarah Vaites
Are Black and White Colours?
W
hether black and white are colours may seem like a simple question at first; I can pick up a black crayon and colour in some white paper, and vice versa. But this seemingly obvious answer juxtaposes our everyday expressions. There are black and white photographs, and there is ‘colour’. Dogs are believed to see only in black and white, and therefore they do not see in ‘colour’. I have a white-papered colouring book with pictures drawn in black ink, which has not yet been ‘coloured in.’ Televisions used to be in black and white, but now they are in ‘colour.’ I could go on, but you get the point: whether black and white are colours or not is a hotly debated topic.
And here’s where us humans come in: when we look at a white surface, for example a field of snow on a sunny day, our eyes can feel like they’re burning. This is because white reflects light, or other colours, back into our eyes. However, black absorbs light but does not reflect it, which is why we feel warmer wearing black clothing on a hot day, compared to if we were wearing white.
We also use the terms ‘black and white’ very loosely on a day-to-day basis, often in reference to other colours. I have never met anyone with actual black or white skin, yet we use these aphorisms for ease, and saying the true descriptions may sound a little funny: “I would class myself as peachy/ cream.” I have also been asked “Would you Physicists may conclude that black is not in like your tea black or white?” but neither fact a colour, being the absence of light, but option delivers a drink that is actually one of that white most certainly is. We can easily prove this by shutting out all sources of light, the choices, instead more likely appearing as a dark shade of brown. akin to a darkroom, in which everything appears dark and ‘colourless’. And if colour is light, then we can also prove that white is a Within black and white photography, tone colour by reminiscing back to GCSE science. becomes of paramount importance. Greyscale images need shadows and highlights Remember that glass prism your teacher for separate areas to become visually brought out for you to play with? That is distinguished, and once this is achieved testimony to how sunshine (white light) travels in a line, hits the prism, and is splayed successfully, the skills learnt can be transferred to improving the contrast within out into a rainbow, or spectrum, of all the your colour photography. Certain scenes other colours contained within it. So, if we add all of the colours together, we get white. seem to suit being shot in black and white more so than in colour, for example a stormy sky or a vintage boudoir session. It conjures Except here comes the chemists’ argument: associations of high class and antiquity. we can also mix the three primary colours (blue, red and yellow) in paint form together, Other times, you may wish to draw more attention to such aspects as the lines or and make what appears to be black. Black pigments can also naturally be found in such texture within an image, and by removing materials as charcoal, as white pigments can colour, you remove the distractions. be found within bones or chalk. But when we So, where do you stand on the colour try to make white with paint pigments, argument spectrum? we can’t; and if we were to study a black pigment closely, we would sometimes ... notice that what we have made is not actually ‘black,’ but instead a colour so dark that it cannot reflect any light back to us, and Written by Georgina Stokes so appears as close to black as possible.
into the Light Photography by Lucy Greenhill
Skin By Edfool Photography
Model: Alice Grist
Denude Photography Kevin Ryan
Divest of covering; make bare or naked; to strip. This series of images reveals and hides the body, the shirt has been removed yet is still in place. Undressing is something that everyone does on a daily basis. It is a repeated motion, one that becomes banal to us. Here, the repetition of taking off a shirt becomes more significant the more times the process is repeated. The long exposure stretches out the process of undressing, removing the colour and leaving the eye to linger where it is not allowed.
Photographers
Contri
Cassandra Mayers
Christine Pagliarini ...
... www.cassandramayers.com
www.christinepagliarini.com
Holly Booth
Jessica Rigley
... www.hollybooth.com
... www.jess-rigley.co.uk
Gabriell
. www.gabriel
Kevin
. kevin-ryanpho
ibutors
le Brooks
... llebrooks.com
n Ryan
... otography.com
Hayley Jayne
Heather Louise ...
... hayleyjayne.carbonmade.com
heatherlouisephotography.co.uk
Louise Wright
Maria Blanche Laffafian
... www.louillustrator.com
... blanchephotography.tumblr.com
... www.oliviaspooner.com
Stefanie Miller
... wix.com/stefaniemiller/photo
Rebecca Higgins
... wix.com/beckamay/rebecca-mayillustrations
Terry Seah @ Edfool ... edfoolphotography.com
Ryan Han
... ryanhandyphotograph
Writers
Olivia Spooner
Georgina S
... www.georginas
* All articles were edited This issue was laid out and de
ndy
stokes.com
... www.stefanebelewicz.com
Anna Hornby
... www.annahornbyphotography.com
by Georgina Stokes. esigned by Lucy Greenhill
Graphics (Logo)
... www.saibhegan.com
hy.4ormat.com
Stokes
Stefan Ebelewicz
Saibh Egan
Pradumn Pamidighantam ... flavors.me/pradumn