Photography assignment behind the lens??? Behind the Lens??™Siobhan Dalton FIRST CHOSEN PHOTOGRAPHER The first photographer I have chosen to base my assignment on is Jeurgen Teller. Jeurgen was born in Erlangen, Germany, in 1964. After a short apprenticeship as a bow maker, he began his career as a photographer. He trained for two years between 1984 and 1986 at the photodesign academy of Munich where he developed an interest in portraiture.
He moved to London in 1986. His work in influential international publications such as W Magazine, I-D and Purple showed his own photographic sensibility which is marked by his refusal to separate the commercial fashion pictures and his most original un-commissioned work. Teller has exhibited at Le Consortium in Dijon, The Tate Modern in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Photographers Gallery in London, the Kunsthalle Wein, and the Fondation Cartier Pour lart Contemporain in Paris among others. In 2003 Teller was awarded the Citibank Prize and in 2007 was asked to represent the Ukraine as one of five artists in the 52nd Venice Biennale. His work has appeared in The Face, French, Us, English and Italian Vogue, Another, Index, Vanity Fair, W Magazine, Self Service, Details, Purple and i-D. Juergen Teller has been working with Marc Jacobs on his advertising campaigns for the past 11 years, the work has been assembled into Marc Jacobs Advertising 1998 ??“ 2009 published by Steidl. Juergen has also had long collaborations with other designers and fashion houses over the years including Helmut Lang, Celine, Yves Saint Laurent and Vivienne Westwood. SIGNATURE STYLEJerugen Teller??™s photographs are taken in a way that you feel like you are a fly on the wall almost.
They are very natural and it looks as though he uses natural light. There is very little, if any, post production done to his images. He leaves his images as if to have them not perfect on purpose. This makes his images stand out among the very polished, commercial images that take over the press and television. His images are quirky and a lot of them are directional. VISUAL EXAMPLES OF JEURGEN TELLER??™S WORK. This image of Lara Stone undoubtedly shows Jeurgen Teller??™s signature style. The model is not perfectly polished with huge amounts of hair and make-up.
She looks very natural and does not look posed in any way. There does not seem to be any post production done to the photo. This photo appeals to me because it is very unusual yet simple. It is so different to images we are used to seeing. It is a very ??? real??™ image and makes you want to look twice. This photo was a photo featured in W magazine. Again, the model is not overly posed and even though she is in high heels with a gun while doing the ironing, it looks natural and has Jeurgen Teller??™s quirky stamp on it.
This image appealed to me because it was quite an odd sight to see a woman in a cluttered house in the clothes she is wearing while holding a gun. When you look at this picture you can create many stories in your head on what the image is all about. It gets you thinking, and this is the effect a lot of Jeurgen Teller??™s photos have. This picture shows Jeurgen Teller??™s style as it is simple but eye-catching and almost creepy in a way.
The woman is very natural and is not posed or over styled and there is no post production done. This image appealed to me as even though it is a close enough image, the model is very distant. This photo is of people lying on the ground as if unconscious. It looks like it is a time around war and the people in the photograph are dead. This exhibits his quirky style and imagination. The photo is very natural as are the models and post production is not evident.
This photo appeals to me because it is not what the norm in terms of fashion advertisement is because of the lack of a huge amount of noticeable hair and make-up and because of the style of the photograph. This photograph is very raw, quirky and slightly disturbing. The background is plain and this is exactly what you see throughout Jeurgen Teller??™s photos. It appeals to me because it is striking and shocking, it does not look like it has been edited in post-production.
The black against the white background make the image stand out. This image is very plain but striking at the same time and Jeurgen Teller??™s images often have this effect. It is a quirky image but is very simple and it is clear that Teller got his inspiration for this photograph from photographer Guy Bourdin, who I will talk about as my second photographer. I like this image because it is different and creative, even down to the shoes. SECOND CHOSEN PHOTOGRAPHERThe second photographer I have chosen to analyse is Guy Bourdin. Guy Bourdin was born in Paris on the 2nd of December 1928. His father was Spanish and his mother was from Belgium. His parents split up when he was a newborn and he went with his father and only ever seen his mother once in his life.
He remembered his mother as a beautiful woman with pale skin and red hair and this is the reason for this type of woman in many of his photos. Cycling was one of his loves. At the age of eighteen he went on a cycle tour of Provence where he met Lucien Henry, an art dealer. He stayed at his house for six months where he applied himself to drawing and painting and decided to become an artist. When it was time for his military service he ended up in Dakar as an aerial photographer in the Air Force. After his military service he returned to Paris and found a job as salesman of camera lenses.
He still drew and painted and started taking pictures for himself. The crucial moment in his life came when he saw Edward Westons 1930 photograph, Pepper. He was influenced by Surrealism and out of all the Surrealists his greatest influence was Man Ray. He knocked on his door on six occasions and was turned away by Man Rays wife. On the seventh Man Ray himself answered the door and invited him in and they became friends. He even wrote the catalogue text to Bourdins first exhibition in 1952.
Two years later at the age of 27 he went to see Vogue who offered him a job. His debut was four pages of hats. One of the pictures featured a woman standing below three skinned calves heads. It was a statement that marked out the direction of his style as a photographer. Bourdins chief collaborator was Francine Crescent, who joined Vogue in 1957 as accessories editor and eventually ended up as director in 1977. She first worked with him in 1960.
By the time Bourdin was 36, he insisted on full control of his shoots, often chose the pictures to be published himself and overlooked the layout of his pictures. When she was asked by a shoe company, Charles Jourdan, to suggest a photographer for their forthcoming advertising campaign, it was Guy Bourdin she suggested. He insisted on total creative control and that is what he received even though the company was a little frightened. The first photos were a shock and Roland Jourdan received letters saying that the campaign was awful but he stuck with him and never refused a Bourdin picture. From 1967 he produced brilliant campaigns that were eagerly awaited by the media. Guy Bourdin peaked in the seventies and was the master at Vogue. He was given twenty pages per month and loved to travel to take his photos.
He also tried working at American and Italian Vogue but they refused some of hi images so he stopped working for them. His pictures were claustrophobic and alluded to violence, lesbianism, sadomasochism and death. Every month there was a competition between him and Helmut Newton who also had pages in Vogue, pushing the sexuality in their work to the limits of what could be published by a fashion magazine.
They respected and were interested in each others work but were not friends. Guy was not really friends with people, according to Francine Crescent. He was very reserved and people had to be reserved with him also. By the mid-eighties Bourdin was in decline. Francine Crescent had left French Vogue in 1987 so he had no one championing his work and they began to refuse some of his pictures.
He became more demanding and difficult to work with. Fashion photography was also moving towards a “ naturalistic” style and away from the style of the seventies and Bourdins golden decade was behind him. He was also pursued by the French state for the non-payment of taxes and tormented by personal crises. He spent much of his time painting canvases that he never finished and eventually died of cancer 29th March 1991 age 62. Guy Bourdin??™s work has appeared in French, Italian and American Vogue, Harper??™s Bazaar and FACE. SIGNATURE STYLEGuy Bourdin shot his images with a great use of colour. Many of his images are very sexual and always tell a story and instead of just emphasising the products, he focuses on the image as a whole. A lot of his images just show one part of the body for example legs.
His images are timeless and look as though you could feature them in a magazine today. His photos are very intimate and are perfect. Everything is perfect down to the very last detail. In most of his pictures there is a good amount of post-production but it does not look over edited. This image shows Bourdin??™s signature style through his great use of colour and imagination.
It is simple but very effective. It appealed to me because the use of colour is very eye catching and it is a clever idea. Each finger on the hand is perfectly arranged so that it is symmetrical to the other side of the face. This image is very creative and has saturated bold colours. The model is only showing the bottom half of her body and this is seen a lot in Bourdin??™s photos. It is a strong image and it appeals to me because it looks like she is disappearing into the ground. The clashing colours work well for the photo and I love the way the back wall is not perfect. This image displays Bourdin??™s signature style as it is a timeless image that we could see in a magazine today.
Again, Bourdin focuses on the bottom half of the model. I like this image because if you look at it for long enough you lose concentration because of the way he has the models positioned, it makes you want to look twice but can play with your mind and, to me, this shows he has a good understanding of the body and how to make great extraordinary shapes from something that is ordinary. In this photograph you notice that every detail has been thought of, even down to the nail varnish on the hand holding the torn photo and it even looks like the woman posing is in the torn photo also. The hair and make-up is very over the top and all of these factors contribute to his signature style. This image appeals to me because it is clever and plays around with proportions.
This photo was featured in Vogue in 1955 but would still be up to the standard of Vogue today. Again, we see just legs but unlike most of his other photos, the legs are not attached to any other area of the body and are just floating. I love the way he does this because it brings attention to the shoes and this is a good idea if shoes are what you are aiming to sell through your image. This image also stands out for me because even though it does not have a high saturation of colour like most of his other images, the colouring is still perfect. This is the image I feel was inspiration for Jeurgen Teller??™s Victoria Beckham shoot which I mentioned previously. This image does not just focus on the product that the photo is being taken for, but on the mood and the story of the photograph. The colouring is great and the image is creative. You can tell by looking at this photo that Guy Bourdin shot it because it is so original and timeless.
It appealed to me because it was quirky and different and this is one of the reasons I chose this photographer. HOW EACH PHOTOGRAPHER IS RELEVANT TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY TODAY. I believe the two photographers have a huge influence on fashion photography because each of them has great ideas and knows how to make their images stand out and even though they are two completely different photographers you can see influences of Guy Bourdin??™s work in Jeurgen Teller??™s photographs. The both photographers have taken very stark images and know how to catch the attention of people and today that is the main aim of photographs, especially in advertising. Jeurgen Teller??™s work stands out from the commercial photos that surround us and therefore his images are more effective, they make you think. This is relevant to the fashion industry today because fashion is about being different and finding a new way of doing things. The fact that Marc Jacobs hires Jeurgen Teller for his campaigns shows that there is a gap for quirky photographers who have different concepts and ideas.
Guy Bourdin??™s work is relevant to the fashion industry today because it is timeless and still as effective as it was fifty years ago. Many photographers are influenced by him and you could see where his images would fit in to the fashion industry today. His photographs could be seen in Elle or Vogue and nobody would think they were taken decades ago.
Also, most of his photos were very sexual and photographers these days still portray women in this way. Both of these photographers have a huge influence on fashion photography because they are not afraid to try different things and play around with images in order to tell a story and I think this is one of the most important aspects of fashion photography. Bibliography: Mybowlofcherries. wordpress. netWikipedia. comGuybourdin. orgJeurgenteller. tumblr. com
