Ewen Spencer

Spencer is a photographer, film maker and publisher who graduated from Brighton university. When he left university there was no Internet so what is popular now like Facebook didn't exist. The popular medium was magazines. Magazines had such a large influence on sub-cultures that it could often effect music, style and fashion. He decided to photograph the world around him; focusing on youth culture. This mostly involved images from parties and raves that he went to. Spencer then went to a magazine publication called Sleaze Nation where they employed him to attend raves and take images of youth culture for their back pages to emphasise style. This magazine would have targeted the youth culture since a it was about them.

An American publisher saw his work in Sleaze Nation and asked him to come to America to do the same task. However when he came back with 20 rolls of film to develop the publishers said it wasn't enough and really pushed him to use 100 rolls in one night, all in black and white. This really pushed him to achieve greater images and a lot more of them.

He later achieved some acknowledgement from another magazine called The Face who asked him to start taking pictures of the garage scene, teens and sex. At the time he would attend high school proms and house parties. If Spencer was to attempt this now he would probably be arrested.

This is very bold because this is the sort of scene that we would usually look at. Public displays like this often makes people feel uncomfortable so we might not have ever seen this before because they are trying to accept the reality but don't want to see it. I love this image because all these people probably don't know they are being photographed, making their expressions and body position completely natural. However most of these people are probably drunk since as it was taken at a party which might make the models more confident portraying them as someone different to themselves.

He wanted to be part of the garage and soul scene so that he could focus on youth culture. That's when he found a lot of people recording music and making films. He would have to take scrap books to convince people who didn't want him around to let him take photos.

To fund his own interests he found people who wanted to sponsor him and completed some commercial work for clients including an advertising campaign for skin, Nike posters with the French football team, lastminute.com, JD Sports and EA Sports with FIFA 15.

This is quite different to the normal party scene that he photographs because this was all set up and isn't natural, however Spencer has organised this perfectly to look quite natural. I think that because the tv show is called skins, Spencer has focused on skin touching and exposing as much as possible. this might appeal to teens and young adults as parties can end up looking like this.

This image is very clever because there are different colours on each side of the model showing the two groups of supporters that would be at a football game. They show the influence that the crowds chants would have on the player. the blue light it very bright and is the main source of light on the model showing how they support him however there is still red on the right showing that the bad chants still get to him. I really like the different colours being used to add more context to the image.

When he visited Italy he became fascinated in the culture so he wanted to photograph the workers however he was then drawn back to the youth culture again.

I think that Spencer may have been influenced by Martin Parr in some of his colour images because some people might consider some of the colours quite vulgar. This is because they are so saturated and bright, like the greens, blues and oranges in this image.

Overall I think that Spencer is a very skilled photographer. Even though he photographs in a different genre I think that compositionally he is on par with great photographers like Eggleston. Spencer seems to be able to very quickly determine the exposures and positioning of everything in the frame by moving himself. I don't think that many people have this sort of skill which in my opinion makes him a very talented photographer and is a relatable photographer for event, documentary and portrait photography.

Luke Waller

Weller is a freelance illustrator who has worked in editorial illustration for 5 years. Usually it takes him around 2 hours to create a draft/rough sketch of his work. Then after some emails to the art director to confirm his ideas, Weller will start working on his final piece. If Weller has a very small time scale like 24 hours he will often use Photoshop. However if he is given a longer period of time he will often use pencil drawings and monoprinting to add colour to his images. Weller only learn't how to monoprint after his education at Bournemouth university. His grade suffered because he was so obsessed with defining his style, he never tried anything new apparently.

He stated that this image was drawn from a very small thumbnail on google. Using pencil drawings and Photoshop Waller was able to create a full sized portrait. The style of this image reminds me of illustrations that would accompany a statement or article in a magazine.

Weller likes to think that he is good at talking to art directors because he treats them like gods, he states that they in essence feed him, cloth him and keep a roof over his head. Because of this he gets a lot repeat clients. Up until late last year he worked without an agent. Now he is part of JSR. Quarterly Weller uses social networking like twitter and instagram to display his work and talk to other like minded people. Weller is always careful though not to post anything bad about anyone or anything. To self promote he sends out some of his latest images with a letter and customised envelope. Clients and agencies would feel more inclined to look and read a letter than an email because you can select and delete them straight away.

I find this very inspiring because of the bright and selective colours. I have chosen to make a project where I would be using practical techniques like the monoprinting. Using monoprinting techniques are quite difficult and Waller has very effectively created a layered black and white image with shaded areas and then used a board with red ink to create shaded areas and new subjects in the image.

Brian Duffy

During the 60's he was one of the most influential photographers in Britain. However one day he just gave it all up and burnt most of his work. Recently his son has discovered what was left of his work and this inspired him to take it up again.

He was a lad of the war and caused a lot of trouble. He didn't want to do anything until he discovered art. And whilst at art school he discovered the textiles class and wanted to be a designer. When he got a job for design company he got his girlfriend at the time pregnant and needed money fast so he took an illustrator job where most of the time he just made tea. Then he was asked to photograph a composer he started photographing everything for them.

This image was taken during the 1960's. The model is Joanna Lumley who at the time was a struggling model and single mum.  Prior to this image being taken Lumley had become one of Duffy's favourite models and as soon as he found out she was a mother he told her to bring her son with her. I find this image very strange to look at because Duffy has used contrasting clothes for the two models and the hair colour is different. Lumley is also wearing quite dark eyeshadow. This amount of dark areas in the image is surrounding the face of the young boy; which is emphasising his importance in this image. The fact that Lumley is holding the boy close to her and to her face is also showing the emotional attachment that a mother would have for their son and the importance that they have in their lives.

After 3 years at vogue he was restless so he went into advertisement and set up his own studio. He then moved to France and they loved the 'dodgy' images because they considered it to be a different way of visual expression, whilst the British would just say that the camera is broken. 

I think that this image was used as an album cover which I think is trying to show David Bowie as both the creative artist through the face paints and show that underneath when its all washed off he is still a human being. Just like us he has feelings which is shown in his facial expression and skinny structure of his shoulders. I think that this is very similar to some work produced by Annie Leibovitz of John Lennon.

His home based studio would consist of the living area being in the basement and the studio was upstairs. Whilst working in his home the elite would visit like John Lennon.

Taken in 1965; this image shows John Lennon looking very relaxed and happy for the image. The black jumper is the classic look for all the members of the Beatles. Whilst they were on stage they would also wear dark suits. The background looks like it would have been a dark colour as well; using the right lighting even a dark backdrop can be used to create tonal variance that looks really smooth for black and white photography. The simplicity of this image and casual feel to it would suggest to me that it might have been used in a magazine as the image for an interview with the singer/song writer.

Annie Leibovitz

She photograph's everything from royalty to pop and rock. she has no fear of the controversial like the John Lennon image. Leibovitz's life is her subject, her kids are very important and they are also a main subject. Coming from a large family taking photos and videos was natural and most of her childhood was in the car. Which already puts the world in a frame. She has been set up from childhood to put things in frames.

Her first images were taken in the Philippines, in a war zone/riot like community. Her ambition was to be a teacher but realised that she had to be an artist before she would be qualified to teach the subject.

Cartier-Bresson was her first influence, which is clear by the documentary style of her early images.

Rolling Stones magazine was her first photography job and she discovered that a magazine gives her a canvas to fill and a chance to travel. She begged her boss to let her photograph john Lennon's first in depth interview. Rolling Stone bosses decided to give her space and she flew with it and did all work for the photography. She would travel with specific people for up to a week taking photograph's of there life making all there images intimate. to help with this she would adapt so that she could talk to anyone and be part of the 'gang'. Leibovitz joined the Rolling Stones on tour and became part of the team. she became intrusive and everyone trusted her especially behind the stage and the bands personal life's and habits.

This is the last image ever taken of John Lennon and was very controversial because this image shows that he was still vulnerable even with his fame and his unconditional love that he had for his wife. He could give up everything he has as long as he had her. I love this image because it is so passionate and honest with his feelings. The Rolling Stone magazine is targeted at music lovers for indie, pop and rock genres which Lennon fits into. His death and fame of this magazine is a recipe for controversy and huge sales of the magazine that they may have never experienced before.

She would always call her ideas stupid and simple even though everyone else would call them fantastic and clever. Up until this point she was massively on drugs, this massively influenced her work conduct. Vanity Fair magazine put her in rehab and took her in. This is the start of her set up scenes and extreme use of natural and flash light. Vogue also employ her which gave her the budget she needed to create the masterpieces of fairytale stories. However she also takes images of famous people to humanise them. She shows the insecurities and their personalities.

This image is very bright and uses lots of models including famous faces like Keira Knightley. It is very effective because a lot of the references to the movie are accurate, the yellow bricks, Cairn Terrier, people in the background to make them look small and the good witch in a large, very bright gown. I think this image is especially great because of the number of models to control and complexity of the layout including the floor, dresses and thorough lighting through out the whole image. This image is obviously part of a magazine article shown by the text in the upper left corner. This might be to promote movies that the actors are in or maybe a celebration of the Wizard of Oz.

A large amount of her work uses natural light to create shadow and tone therefore I am going to attempt to create one with natural light intruding into confined spaces.

Tom Hackett

His work is interactive, they are large scale sculptures. Uses random items individually and in bulk. Goes to great lengths to get 'resources'. Hackett has rowed up and down rivers and stood on a small island collecting water as evidence of the rivers existence and the time that it was collected. Sometimes he would make a silicon mould cast of items and subjects and use lots of them to create shapes and sculptures. He loves to talk to people. The shaggy dog series was a project to excercise the bridge that owning a dog creates. He would not talk to people unless spoken to.

I think that Hackett's work is very original since as all of his work is silicon based and very bright and colourful. This contrast himself and the way he seems to dress a lot of the time which is very dark. He seems to want to spark a reaction from people when they see him with it which I think is quite brave because it opens himself up for criticism and abuse. I'm not sure if I could do something similar.

Revolver Revolver Agency

Chris Redshaw is the leader of a small design company of 6. His first employer in a design studio told him that you don't have to be a businessman to start your own business or studio. When that small design company was sold to a big company; Redshaw stated that it felt like everyone was just a number on a chair, everyone was given a brief and they work on it themselves. With help from Derby University where he studied; he was given money and bought some computers and desks and opened his own studio. However it wasn't going that well so he went to NYC with no money, contacts or anything to come back to. This was so that he could gather his thoughts and come back with a brand new perspective. Sometimes Redshaw stops working when he's stuck and goes for a walk, this gives him a break to gather his thoughts.

Revolver revolver is 6 years old. He worked for a few companies and knew what he wanted his own business to be like. At the start a lot of his work was under priced but this gave him a portfolio and some contacts to pass on his name. With over 4 people now employed in revolver, it's placed in the top 20% of design companies. His team collaborates together and with many other types of people who specialise in many things. Redshaw believes that not one person has the answer, the team collectively comes up with the answer. Small teams allow tight knitted friendships to form and they banter, spend days out eg go carting.

Redshaw has found that what you do in the outside world really has an effect on how you work and the type of work you produce. One of their rules is that anyone can speak out if something isn't right, this allows them to collaborate and develop their work. Time is massively recorded in the studio because they charge £520 per day, time could be the factor of whether a company can afford their services or not.

The process that they take during a project is the following order.

Understanding

Visit the client

Inspiration

Break

Initial concept - hand sketch

Digital production

Refine - printed and refined

Selection of the work

Revolver Revolver has designed the F1 winners presentation stage that is shown after every F1 race, a cafe in Matlock employed them to do complete interior design including the chairs, tables, floor, paint colours and accessories that they bought from several sources online.

Chris Redshaw stated that the best advise he could give us is to network as much as we could and get our names out there.

I found this very interesting to find out about because of the possibility that one day I could be working with or in a creative team. This really inspires me to meet people in my industry so that one day I might have a customer base and people that I can talk to in order to get work.

William Eggleston

He photographs the banal - the plain and the boring. The things that you wouldn't expect to be interesting. Born Memphis, 1939, lives and works there today. Eggleston has 50 years of working as a artistic photographer, photographing everything in his hometown. People often ask what he photographs, he answers them with 'life today'. Never titles his work, barely dates or locates where his images are taken. Only one picture is taken for one subject, never two, he gets confused and frustrated trying to decide which frame is the best.

Eggleston started at 18 when he got given his first camera and used black and white film; developing it himself. He didn't know anything and taught himself everything. The first images he took were  of the everyday without journalistic objective. Friends brought him photography books but only found one interesting - a lot of the images in this book featured Henri Cartier-Bresson. Bresson focused on capturing the moment which inspires Eggleston to capture 'today'. "never take any object for granted" is what he teaches to people because these are the things that he photographs. in a lot of his images have weird things happening around the edge of the frame and in the image. Sometimes things that are meant  to be there just aren't and some objects look out of place in the frame but this is what makes it interesting.

He never graduated from any of the universities that he attended and had a lot to do with his grandsons upbringing. Meaning that they were a massive subject of his work. As the world around him changed due to development; he thought everything became ugly, a friend told him to photograph the ugly stuff; so he did. In the 60's he shot his first colour roll of film, this changed Eggleston's career and the roll of professional art photographers because professional art was always black and white. Eggleston barely takes portraits but when he decides too he takes them very quickly and smoothly. Most of the time  people don't even know or realise that he was even there. He appears to be a collector of cameras and guns, never shoots them. However he has a lot of Leica's which he will take apart and experiment with constantly.

This image is very unique because the model in this image is dressed quite smart and the hair is well groomed; compared to the surroundings which isn't very posh which is the surrounding that you would expect the model to be in. The chain as well to the right is very intricate but looks like if you were to even touch it, it would lose its form and just fall down. I think the contrast of the subjects makes this image interesting because it questions all the social boundaries of class.

Other photographers find Memphis boring and dull. They seem to think he has this magic that other photographers cant reproduce.

Eggleston's most famous image of the red room was taken whilst lying in bed talking with his best friend and his wife. He had his Leica camera and a flash on the bed; he takes the image and they carry on talking. A week later his friend was murdered. Head caved in with a hand ax and the building was set on fire. Eggleston think that it might have happened because his friend was a drug user and he may have got into trouble with it.

This image is so vibrant and bright and the subject in the lower corner contrasts with the red making it stand out. However because of its position it seems to hide and doesn't get noticed by many people. The lines created by the wires and corners of the room create structured blocks which forms the image.

He worked with Warhol in New York where he was introduced to movies. He took a camera with him back to Memphis and took it to bars and clubs. Guns, drugs, drinking and smoking were all subjects because this was his lifestyle; as well as the plain and everyday which was specifically his art. They were 'boring' just like his images and he conducted his videos just like his images.

None of his work was exhibited until the 70's. William Egglestons guide - was his first book which was based on his exhibition. It showed his home, his family, his friends; all private subjects that are very personal to him. In May 1976 his first exhibition took place. Eggleston almost slept through the opening ceremony. Critics called the event boring and banal but that was the point, it was contemporary art, he wanted to change the view on colour photography however professional photographers were angered by it because they spent their lives perfecting their techniques with black and white photography. The critics didn't understand it even though they are paid to understand. After learning this they wrote to him apologising and since then others like Martin Parr have been influenced by him.

I have recently purchased this book and I always enjoy looking through it because it stimulates different emotions like awe, humour and sadness. I think that Eggleston may be the most talented and inspiring still life photographer since the 70's because he has the amazing talent of creating strange compositions with colours and structures within the images. Using variating shapes from different angles he can make very normal and everyday items very surreal and out of this world.