Research

David Lachapelle 

My FMP (final major project) is retro inspired fashion photo shoots, especially the colour. this will be heavily inspired by two specific photographers and fashion from the 80s/90s, one of these photographers are David Lachapelle.

David, born in Hartford Connecticut, is well known for tying art history into his work this also adds to the religion aspect of the work, he also worked for interview magazine after they saw his work exhibited. He was in fact hired by Andy Warhol who often gave him advice on how to work there.
he often ties darker humour into his pieces and is well known for it. he has also photographed many celebrities.
most of his photos have a high key lighting theme with very bright colours often added by all of the objects in the shoot or the contrast added whilst editing, however he has calmed his vibrant style over the more recent shoots.
some examples of his work;

 This photo reflects more on the fine art and history side of Davids style, it also shows a new way to show religion with the contrasting colours and the surreal effect on the portrait.

I decided to research into Davids work because of his bright retro style which is what i hope to reflect in my work, however mine will be less crowded and more about the clothes! i also want to focus more on high key lighting aspects.

Corrine Day

Day was a british born photographer (february 19 1962- August 28 2010) Day tragically died of a brain tumour when she was only 48.

Day was famous for creating quite abstract and surreal portraits in the 1990s, her portraits where much darker and her models poses where often seen as odd or as if the model is intoxicated in some way, 'Heroin Chic'.
the photo on the left here is one of Days most popular and controversial compositions, many critics described the image as almost child pornography and "hideous exploitive" because of how young looking the model was and how little she is wearing.
Day found fame through her crazy ideas and these where brought to attention when she did a high fashion shoot with Kate moss, Below.

I chose to research into Day and Lachapelle because of how much both their styles contrast regardless of the fact they worked in the same era, Lachapelle is strung more on the colour elements to his compositions and how they can really make them stand out whilst Days compositions lie more on the darker side of surrealistic portraits.
i researched both because i wanted to use the poses and darker clothing from Days shoots and the bright colours from Lachapelle to contrast with the darkness to show how fashion can change and evolve over time as it dies and then reoccurs as something completely new but also the same.

London Trip

This past weekend I visited some of Londons very impressive vintage stores to find some shirts for the shoot, the first store we visited was beyond retro in soho.
This store was not the biggest but it had the largest selection compared to the others we visited, the store was also very organised in sections of clothes so this made it much easier to find a shirt instead of looking through countless piles and isles of clothes for one particular item. the store was also very much decorated as if the clothes where still in fashion.

From this store I got a printed silk shirt and a cropped shirt to go with blue jeans and a belt, the shirt will go with overalls and it will help me recreate a photo very like this;

The next store we visited was the London vintage store in camden market, this store also had a wide range of clothes however all of the stores in the area had the same things inside so I didn't pick anything up unfortunately.

Another obstacle I have found is that my male model has backed out of the shoot last minute, this is a particularly difficult obstacle because I wanted to portray both mens and women styles from the era and it is proving much more difficult to get a substitute this late on in the project.
However the other model is available whenever to do the shoot which is very helpful to me and it gives me time to prepare and a flexible schedule to work with unlike the other.

The next step is to arrange a date to take the shots and book the studio in the hope that it isn't fully booked up, and then to take the shots, in the hope of having two models.