The fine line of artistic intent.
When I started my photographic journey 6 years ago the first thing I was drawn to was people and portraits in particular.
I started as most would, some nice pretty portraits outside with a shallow depth of field to make the subject pop and mainly of my close friends and family. I then went to visit a friend I hadn’t seen for a while at her place to get some more artistic frames and test myself. At the time unfortunately she wasn’t in the best place mentally but being the star she is wanted to help me create something cool.
An image that reflected the times.
Once I took that picture I was hooked on trying to create something a little different, something that you don’t always see on social platforms. Obviously from then on there has been plenty of trial and error, because thing about being a creative is having an idea and then either having the ability to exercute or it not quite being the masterpiece you drew up in your own head.
Around a year had passed and I was looking in books and online for inspiration but also at what separates the great fashion photographers of the world to the rest. How do they capture a feeling in a photo to help with brands? or provoke a response from the observer, does it carry a message of some sort and how do they achieve that? This is something I understood will take me a long time to master.
I then get a message from a friend asking if I wanted to come along to a shoot she had organised that was Helmut Newton inspired. I obviously jumped at the chance and thought what better opportunity then to take my 35mm film camera and hopefully grab a photo that provokes that feeling I am after. I was happy with the results and in particular the one below. Its playful with the mask and gloves, she’s obviously a very pretty young lady, but she also has emotion in the eyes that to me suggest struggle, the cigarette adds to a suggestion of struggle too….
Taken on a 35mm film camera
With my intention of my portraits out the way, this leads me onto the title of this blog and that’s ‘the fine line of artistic intent’. There are greats like Helmut Newton, Mert Alas and Tyler Shields to name just a fraction that can produce a photo that contains nudity but is something you could see in a gallery or on a wall in someones home. But on the flip side of this i’ve seen photos that claim artistic intent but fall well short and are more in the category of glamour and borderline porn images. I myself have fallen into this category, again you can have the idea in your head but the application and result can be way off.
I need to still try getting some of my ideas out and keep practising until I reach a point where the line of artistic intent is always met. I will leave you with my latest shot with that in mind and tell me what you think? Artistic? Glamour or worse still (in artistic terms) porn like.
My body framed for you.
