Developmental Artist Inspiration
Artist Analysis: John Rankin •
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John Rankin is a British portrait and fashion photographer who began his career by studying photography at the ‘London College of Printing’. During this period he met Jefferson Hack, who he found a strong working relationship with and together, had an idea of starting a magazine in which they called ‘Dazed & Confused’, once they had graduated. In December 2000 Rankin launched his own quarterly fashion magazine ‘RANK’. He also publishes ‘Another Magazine’, ‘Another Man’ and more recently ‘HUNGER’. In addition to his magazines, Rankin has donated his services to publicity campaigns for the charitable organization ‘Women’s Aid’, providing images in order to promote the cause. His celebrity subjects include; Brittany Spears, Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, David Bowie, Björk, Queen Elizabeth II, The Rolling Stones and many more. The aspects of this image which I find to be aesthetically satisfying is how this which could be seem as simple, neutral portrait has been effected by the choice of make-up style and the bold, eccentric colours which liven the image and is visually stimulating in terms of the bold black strokes contrasting against the pale, luminous pinks, yellows and blues which creates intensity and depth. The elements in these photographs which have inspired me for my further developmental set are the bold colour choices which make the image more passable to look at whilst not compressing the image. I want to continue with combining sections of different magazine advertisements to follow on with this collaging effect using bold, bright colours in order for the image to be visually pleasing using Photoshop based techniques.
Evaluation for Idea Two •
My initial intention in taking another approach to my theme appropriation was to explore the physical side by taking images from fashion magazines by hand and splicing them to create photographs in order to highlight a disjointed harmony where the different aspects of the images both compliment each other. I kept to the theme of using modern fashion magazines in order to contrast from my chosen artist John Stezaker and recreate modern inspirations of his work.
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I had a few ideas for this topic, but chose to recreate the work of photographer John Stezaker as it juxtaposes with my previous idea in terms of how the photos were produced, and allowed me a chance to research and discover different features of appropriation. In creating this set, I purchased different fashion magazines such as; Elle, GQ, Vogue and Vanity Fair as I was hoping to gain a variety of portrait photographs from different advertisements or fashion shoots all with different themes. In doing so, I have created different visual qualities within my images in terms of colour, garments and a variety of models such as famous actors; Leonardo DiCaprio, David Beckham to Rihanna and Cheryl Cole, as well as a number of brand models.
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Taking the technical qualities of my photographs into consideration, I found out that some of my outcomes are stronger compared to others as they carry more detail and may appear to have stronger effects visually. This is due to the fact that my money was limited when buying magazines which means I had to make the most out of the facilities I had. A criticism which may be noted is how in some images the natural lighting which I used when taking photographs of the magazine splices reflected on
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certain areas of the image. To overcome this I used the burn tool on Photoshop to decrease the lighting in certain areas to return them to ordinary block colours. When browsing through the magazines I wanted to pair up two images which would share create a common similarity or theme such as elegance evident in the David Beckham and Leonardo DiCaprio photo or purity verses impurity displayed in the image of Rihanna in the style of Medusa to the sassiness of Cheryl Cole. I believe the images I created work well with each other which improves the overall technical quality.
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The formal elements which made my photos successful is the simplicity of them, yet how contrasting they are to each other. In some images the tones and disparities in colour helped to create a bold outlook, whereas this method differs in some where the colours remain neutral which may reflect that they are not all up to the same visual quality as the colours vary. However, this could be seen as effective as I wanted to illustrate different approaches to comparing headshots within my work and I think I have achieved this. The photos achieve a different amount of symbolism I was aiming to portray. The photos were simply meant to juxtapose with the intentions of photographer John Stezaker as his images were archaic and I intended in taking a more modern approach. If I had more time on this project I would create more developmental images to give variety of the integration off magazine patterns in terms of shapes replacing that of the model’s garments or hair for example.
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