Photography and Fashion

Gema Cartlidge

I used this brief to broaden my knowledge on editorial and fashion photography, all things being equal if i could shoot editorially for Vogue or other high fashion, high society publications i would be very, very happy.

I used my cousin Gema Cartlidge as my model because not only is she aesthetically appropriate but she also dreams of a career in fashion. The photographs are shot to be used in a women's fashion, hair and beauty magazine.

For the most part i have used a more commonly used style of pose and form that would usually be seen in middle market magazines and supplements. I have tried to keep the style within these magazine's usual form, but i have also tried to implement a little of my own style which naturally leads to a darker edge, using more sassy clothes, darker tones and prop's to gain an extra edge.

We looked at magazine's 'Look' and 'Closer' in order to ascertain a style of modelling and photography that we would use.

After many, many, many shots under exposed, i found that setting the flash to ISO 250 with a 2.8 aperture at 35mm gave me a workable exposure using a macro lens.

After we had shot the more casual and more commonly used fashion and make up shots, I decided that we would attempt alternative looking editorial and started by over exposing by 1 and 2 f-stops.

I aimed these shots at magazines such as 'Vogue' and 'Cosmopolitan' using props and different style of angle and poses. As it happened some of the shots really worked (4th pic below) and some of the shots started to look like photographs used in advertisements (6th pic below) especially men's aftershave.

I personally could see any of the bottom 4 pictures on this blog appearing in any of the more up-market lad's magazines 'GQ' for example.

All of these shots were taken in my auntie's dining room and considering what we had to use and what i had predicted i would get, i am very, very, very pleased with the results. I think they do communicate what i'm trying to achieve which is mixing a classical style of fashion photography with alternative undertones where possible. I hope to one day produce by own magazine or online publication that would uses these style of photographs.

This type of shot could be used in any type of hip hairstyle magazine

This is my favourite of the fashion shots, i used a curtain to achieve a dark background

I copied this style directly from 'Closer' magazine, naturally Gema did her own make up

The richness of colour and silhouette make this a 'Vogue' looking photograph

Greyscale converted this shot from a make up shot to a soft beautiful looking portrait

Personally i think this shot could be used in anything from a fashion magazine to a lads mag publication to billboard advertisements

This pose was originally taken from 'Look' magazine, but with the black lace tights it gives it a darker angle

This shot would go into 'fabulous' magazine or anything new age fashion, the blue on red is very abstract and striking

I'm not entirely sure what type of publication the shots above and below belong to, i think that they both work as art photography portraits but could equally be used as a poster or part of a particular calendar or niche publication. I think this kind of style could also be easily used in magazines such as 'Vogue', 'Cosmopolitan' (pic above) or even lad's mag's 'GQ' and 'Esquire'