Amber is for Caution

An exhibition called 'Amber is for Caution' by the photographer Valerie Phillips is currently at Leeds College of Art in the Blenheim Walk Exhibition Space, from 5th September- 3rd February 2012.

It shows a model, Amber in a series of photographs with captions. Not particularly a well known one, so the viewer is made to think about who she really is, what is the exhibition showing and are the text captions quotes from the model herself?

“I met Amber when she was 15. She came to my studio for a casting. She was quiet and feisty at the same time, and kind of bratty and fascinating. I loved her slow-paced, drawn out Kentucky sentences, so perfectly out of place in East London. And I really liked how she didn’t seem to give a shit. She was just Amber and that was good enough……” Phillips says in her book 'Amber is for Caution'   

 What does the Title of the exhibition refer to? How does it influence the way we understand/read the work? The word 'Caution' suggests that Amber is a bit unruly, feisty, cautious, undecided. Should we be cautious of Amber, is she not what she seems?

I chose the above image from the exhibition to think about. It shows Amber stood with her tongue sticking out, sticking her fingers up at the camera! Her hair is messy and un-styled, she has a hair bobble around her wrist suggesting she tends to pull her hair back avoiding effort to keep it looking 'model perfect'. Amber is wearing a casual T-shirt also, not high couture clothing. She is stood in what looks like a housing estate where all of the plant life is well trimmed and the houses clean and white with shutters. This makes Amber look rebellious!  The view point of the shot is  head on eye level with the subject looking straight to the lens, it's as if the image was unplanned, just a casual spur of the moment friendly shot.
The main colour of the image is red, the text is green, these two complimentary colours draw the viewer in to the work very well, was this Phillips' intention?

Fashion Editorial for Brand Campaign

We were given a group mini-brief to create a fashion editorial in the style of our choice. 

In the Team - Me, Hannah, Karl and Lauren 

Our initial ideas (in note form)

•Advertise clothing/accessories

•Topshop – more likely to have clothing available

•DKNY – more smart, combines both male and female models in one image

•50mm lens

•Student theme

•Summer/ Winter theme – probably Winter related

•Location shoot – bar? – drydock (popular with students), union? Library – student related – could use college libraries or city library – would need to ask permission

•Model thoughts…jess? Katheryn? Karl? Sam? Natalie?

We decided to go with Topshop as it is a brand that appeals to younger people, and students!

We sourced clothing from peers and in particular requested Sam and Katherine to model for us(they accepted) as we were going for an edgy alternative look, seemingly in fashion at present. 

Topshop Research (in note form)

•Mainstream

•Students TA

•Available – student discount

•Higher end of high street fashion

From looking at our research notes we realized Topshop fit perfectly with our Student life theme! As it is aimed towards students, with stores even giving student discounts. 

From looking at Topshop photoshoot images we saw that we needed to produce images with high fashion like poses although keeping it slightly urban for our theme.

We took a look at Topshop's Mission Statement, which gave us re-assurance with our theme.

The above Images are what Topshop have used, the models are posed in a very fashionable manner, high fashion, the images are all themed, the images aren't vivid they have had filters applied making them look more vintage and dimmed down, yet they still stand out to the viewer. The models are filing the frames making the viewer focus on the model and what she/he is wearing.

We also looked at TOPSHOP 214 Magazine

from looking at this we chose our fonts, basing it to relate to the image on the left(immediately above) as it is more casual relating to our student theme well.

Team Roles

We were of course all working together to produce this, however we split our team into having certain roles.

Hannah - Topshop/Magazine Research

Karl - sourcing the relating clothing and set

Lauren - Shoot location ideas and Set Arranging

Me - Photography 

Locations

We decided we would take our shoot straight to the heart of the students, the student halls of residence, featuring gritty urban stair wells and the typical student flats, perfect for our shoot!

Shooting

I was the main photographer in the Editorial Shoot, I used a Canon DSLR with the METZ Flash. 

In the Student flat living room I found the most effective way to photograph in the small dark area was to bounce the flash off of the ceiling, I had my assistants close the curtains to give our more professional atmospheric look. 

Also the Chairs needed re arranging several times and an annoying wall sized poster made of lots of A4 sheets, needed to be pulled down as it was badly affecting the images.

Lauren was very involved in the way Sam was posing on the chair - particularly where his arm fell.

We chose the stair well as the walls and steps look pretty grim, keeping in with urban images with high end clothing looking beautiful on the setting, the background made the clothing stand out much more. I had the idea of the models grouped together on the stairs which worked out very well.

Lauren took some Photographs on the Stairwell and in the end, the images we used as final in our editorial were the ones she took as they seemed to fit more than the one's I shot.

I was proud of my image of sam it reflected the idea well and Sam was a great model to work with.

We received good feedback for our editorial and I enjoyed producing images at a new setting as well as the extra practice with the METZ Flashgun.