Following the inspiration I had from Annie Leibovitz I decided to make use of the natural light and shoot something on location in her fantasy-Disney style for my acquaintance portrait. It was important I chose a bright and clear day to be able to make this happen. I ensured my model was wearing blue tones which would really stand out in my image and later enhanced the brightness slightly to make it appeal more fairy-tale like. I would love to recreate something like this again with more props and costumes.
Moving onto self portrait and laying on the idea of artists using this creatively to reveal their inner self, I experimented with makeup and lighting to almost appear other worldly. I feel by using a high contrast of colours and strong lighting I was able to capture some ideas held by individuals like myself who chose to express themselves through crazy hair, tattoos and piercings who may be seen as outcasts or standing out from the crowd. I loved how by using a strong one point light I could emphasise my favourite features such as my hair and eyes whilst adding some depth and mystery to the image.
Following the beautiful black and white portraiture photography of Annie Leibovitz as well as the street photography I had been looking into by Jon Sanwell, I decided to take my stranger’s portrait photo in black and white as I feel it gives a lot of depth to the image and is also reminiscent to classic photographers such as Richard Avedon who featured quite a lot of contrast in his imaged through shadow and highlights.
This street musician really appealed to me as a portraiture subject as he is someone who fills Lincoln high street with melodies I enjoy regularly however he is still a stranger to me which makes you really think about the people who you see on a daily basis but never really engage with.
I felt it was important to feature some of Lincoln’s historic buildings in this shot with the lines of which drawing your eyes towards the subject.
I am really happy with this image and in future would love to do more stranger photography, experimenting more with artistic techniques such as a very high depth of field. I enjoy working with natural lighting so despite being a fairly overcast day my subject is still lit very well in regards of creating highlight and shadow.
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