Oliviero Toscani

                                                                    Oliviero  Toscani

Oliviero is my one of my all time favourite photography/advertiser, hes work is great, his style is rude,bright,bold, and eye catching. That is what I hope to perceive in my own work. He works for the united colours of Benetton and he has caused his fair share to controversy. I love the fact the his work causes a stir and makes people stop and stare. This is what I hope to achieve in my work.

He takes the most simple things and advertises it in a way that send and message, regardless if its seen as negative or not.  He’s Italian and has been in the bossiness for almost 40years and even now his work is well recognized by a wide range of audience.  I have noticed that he picks his models from the streets, gets every day people into the studio and shoots, he’s models range from children, elderly, to people at their last dying moment to a new born baby freshly out of the mother’s womb.

He is really about making awareness, for example one of his larger topic was documenting an anorexic model who was told she was to fat, and asked to loose more weight.

His a very talented man and one of my inspirations.

 

City Inspiration

                                                            City Inspiration

The move from Manchester to London for me was, scary, important and exciting. Moving to London was  needed to give me a bigger canvas and for me to learn and experience new things.

I grow up in Manchester, grown up with the culture and the drama. The city inspired me, so when i started photography and graphic design, I had a lot to work with. I agree Manchester isn’t as full and exciting as London but that was my starting point. I have access to roof tops, high street dark corners and broken areas as well as the clean cut.

Were my family lives is medium class, but I often travelled to the main city with friends to explore. I come from and British/African family, back at home in Manchester they have an area called moss side, which is perceived as the dangerous black people area, but through going there and photographing I have found that even though people believe that if you’re from there your dangerous I have found that that’s were you find the most, upset and sad people of all, but even so they still smile.

As a fashion and editorial photographer I had the perfect backdrop. Since photography i have found that places that may seem beautiful and nice are often the ugliest.

 

 

Rankin Photographer

One of my favorite photographer is John Ranking, well known as RANKIN.Rankin made it in publishing, he founded the magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in 1992. this magazine  provided a platform for up and coming stylists, designers, photographers and writers. The magazine become one of the largest and made its mark in the arts and publishing. Been top and  successful, Rankin took his photography to the wider audience, creating editorial and advertising campaigns. His work features some of the most 

celebrated publications, biggest brands and pioneering charities, (including Nike, Swatch, Dove, Pantene, Diageo, Women’s Aid, and Breakthrough Breast Cancer. He has shot covers for Elle, German Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Esquire and GQ, and worked with Rolling Stone and Wonderland. His work has always endeavoured to question social norms and ideas of beauty, and in late 2000, Rankin published the heteroclite quarterly Rank, an experimental anti-fashion magazine celebrating the unconventional.)

From the 90s and 00s with his intimate and playful sense of humour, Rankin became well known for his portraiture of bands, Rankin has photographed everyone from the Queen of England to the Queen of Pop, Rankin is often seen as a celebrity photographer, but he doesn’t always just focus on celebrities, he does capture beauty of real and normal women. 

In a lot of Rankin Adverts and Campaigns he doesn't tend to use models too much but try s to get woman out from the streets and i like that style of working. 

Rankin Photo-

                                         Beaute (528x328) Rankin's photography

Alan Fletcher

                                         The Art of Looking Sideways 

This book is one of my favorites because its all about graphic design but it has help me and inspired me in my work not just in graphics but in photography also.

I find it refreshing and useful, different from search the internet, I find it enjoyable and relaxing, I personally think its a great book. The style the book was made is scrap book book format. This was Alan’s sketches and ideas all beautifully laid out.

 Alan Fletcher’s 2001 book, is an great source of elegance and inspiration. with over thousand pages, it is a amazing treatise on visual thinking, i have found that the book  illustrates the designer’s sense of play and his broad frame of reference. The book is a great source and some might say it is also a mind teaser, it shows Alan”s ambition against the back fold of design,literature and takes you from pre-history times to present time. Its fair to say that Alan Fletcher is among the few most influential figures in english graphics. He was influenced by the Bauhaus, his work never copied that style. He made a break by working with things from postwar England.

The Art of Looking Sideways, 2001

Design: Alan Fletcher
Publisher: Phaidon

Visit to National portrait gallery

This is a lithography of Elizabeth Taylor done by Andy Warhol in 1964. I went to the national portrait gallery and I saw this piece done by Andy Warhol and I just love it, I love the use of colours and how so little was done to it but yet catch a lot of attention.Warhol painted Taylor from his own photos. One masterpiece, Elizabeth Taylor was thought to be dying, because of this story behind it, it gave the photography a certain sadness. however when Warhol retouched it and added the bright colours, this brought the photography to life, almost as a sign of hope to all of Elizabeth Taylor fans, the image changes the mood and thoughts of her well being . (Andy Warhol made icons of icons. With his silk screen and more, he’s work went from everyday and the celebrity life, such as Campbell’s Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, Coke bottles and Jackie Kennedy, a Brillo pad box and Elvis.- http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/09/20/andy-warhol) The method used to create this image was silkscreen ink, acrylic, and spray paint on linen. the original size is 40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm.). His colour choices goes very well, the blue/green above her eyes and red on her lips against this pale faded pink, all this with the harshness of her deep black hair, works together nicely, it is a very good and successful image not only is it popular and well known around the world but is is also one of the most expensive pieces of art out there, with prices such as $27 million been paid.

Mac advert/photography

My creation of Mac ad (20th may 2012)

NIke Advertising

Nike Adverting in Magazine (10th may 2012)

My first magazine cover.

Manchester Mouth issue 1 (2th June 2012)

Photography/Advertisement

Smoking campaign- Kills you from the inside. (2th December 2011)

Drinking campaign photography/Advertisement

Drinking campaign - Death becomes her (20th january 2012)

ARTIST STATEMENT

Fashion and editorial in magazine is an ambition of mine. I hope to have my own magazine company up and running one day. My passion for photographic started to grow 3 years ago, There  wasn’t an instant attraction to photography, I started off more into graphic design, as I developed my ideas I started to get into photography and I have loved it since. I use photography as a form of self-expression, photographs to be me is a way of finding an identify and finding characters. I work with colour a lot my main influence diverse from Oliviero toscani and Rankin. Oliviero is more of an advertising photography but he works a lot with colour and does a lot of experimental photo. Rankin is more fashion and magazines based photos which I also like. In my work I try to explore different things, from the beautiful to the different to the things that make a change to people.Ever since college, I have been fascinated by Campaign photography, although I want to get into magazine editorial, I would also like to bring awareness and really send messages through my photographs. My other passion is graphic design, the fact of being able to create any thing and the first think you think of I think is great. graphic design to be is one great mess and in this mess you find yourself and your work skill and ultimately you also find yourself. You might ask, "What is Graphic Design?"  Graphic Design to me is finding the solution, it's the doorway to sharing and communicating your ideas to an audience.  I try to incorporate this idea and definition into all of my graphic work and photography. Adobe software such as Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop are amazing, they provide my digital canvas.  The majority of my work is created in Illustrator and InDesign. Right now I am working to define who I am as an artist while trying not to limit myself, the fact that There is a sense of freedom in creating something, no real rules, except for the ones that work for you is great. Graphic Design is a challenging, fun, creative, and rewarding field where anything and everything is possible when audience, content, color, and communication are organized in a visually pleasing and understandable way.  I love the gratification of solving the problem and finishing a design that is well received by my peers, superiors, and clients.  I hope to work in the Graphic Design along side photography for the rest of my career life, it is my passion,I have found that photography helps out graphic design and the other way round too. these to subjects sum me up pretty good. My goal is to prove myself as an artist to others but most importantly, to myself. I hope to inspire people of all ages and skill, I look forward to learning more about myself and discovering new ways to be the artist that i hope to become.