The Language of Advertising
Alice Wilson
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle is known widely for his exceptional talent in combining a hyper-realistic aesthetic with intellectual social messages. LaChapelle’ photography career began in the1980’s. He began showing his work in galleries in New York which is where his work caught the eye of Andy Warhol, who offered him his first job as a photographer at ‘Interview’ magazine. His unique images of celebrities accumulated plenty of positive attention and before he knew it he was shooting for a variety of top editorial publications and creating some of the most memorable advertising campaigns.
LaChapelle shot covers and pages of a wide range of famous magazines including Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone and i-D. He has also shot some of the most familiar and well known faces on the planet including Tupac Shakur, Madonna, Eminem, Andy Warhol, Philip Johnson, Lance Armstrong, Pamela Anderson, Lil’ Kim, Uma Thurman, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Jeff Koons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hilary Clinton, Muhammad Ali, Britney Spears, Amanda Lepore, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga- these are only a few.
LaChapelle decided to branch out in to the world of directing music videos, live theatrical events and documentary films. His stage work includes Elton John’s work ‘The Red Piano’ and the ‘Caesar’s Palace’ He designed and directed. His interest in film led him to make the short documentary ‘Krumped’ which became an award-winner at Sundance, after which he developed ‘RIZE’ the feature film acquired for worldwide distribution by Lion’s Gate Films. It was released in 17 different countries and became a huge critical acclaim.
David LaChapelle
These are a few of David LaChapelle’s images that I have gained inspiration from. I think that the compositions are out there and dramatic which draws the eye in to the images straight away.The striking use of make-up helps to create a powerful and tense atmosphere to the images which is something I hope to carry out in my own shoots and final images. The images are busy which is bizarre and impressive however I have decided not to make my images as busy as his and focus on just body and face shots. My main source of inspiration is the bold make up and unusual atmosphere. Something I will involve in my own images.
Tom Oldham
Tom Oldham is a London based portrait photographer who shoots all sorts of talented people including musicians and sports stars in locations across the nation and worldwide. Oldham is an experiened photographer, shooting for 20 years in a variety of different locations and environments. His work features a lot in MOJO magazine, via press and PR work and online as well as newspapers. Oldham is the official photgrapher for Riders For Health which enables him to frequently travel to various countries in Africa to shoot their work. Oldham is the official brand photographer for V Festival also MTV's EMA's. As well as this he is a member of the House of St Bernabas and has shot their portraits and creative events.
Oldham is currently working on a few projects including one for War Child which is soon to be released upon the world to inevitable critical acclaim.
Oldhams work has been a huge inspiration to me and has helped me with ideas and concepts for this project, here I have included some of my favourite images which have given me heaps of inspiration. I hope to shoot in a similar style as Oldham has for these particular images however with my own kind of spin on them. I will work in a studio for these shoots as this is what I plan to do in all shoots. My three favourite images here are of Grimes at the top, I think that attitude that is portrayed here is striking and I plan to achieve this myself. I think that shooting on location for the photos of Grimes really helped to bring atmosphere in to them. Although I have decided not to shoot on location I am going to try and create just as much mood and atmosphere has Oldham has, with the use of lighting, make-up, styling and maybe props. The two images bellow have also given me creative inspiration. I have decided to use these images to experiment with different facial expressions and poses.
Terry Richardson
Terry Richardson is an American fashion and portrait photographer who has shot various different advertising campaigns including Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Sisley, Yves Saint Laurent and Tom ford, among others. Richardson has done work for magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ, Vice, Harper's Barzaar and i-D.
Richardson has also produced several different campaigns for Diesal, as well as the 'Global Warming Ready' that won a Silver Lion for Print at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2007. Over the years Richardson has produced private portraits for the company's founder, Renzo Rosso. Together they hosted a mutual book launch with fashion editor Carine Roitfeld, in Paris at Colette in 2011.
Richardson commenced on his first solo exhebition at Los Angeles's OHWOW gallery in 2012, exhebition titled "TERRYWOOD". In 2012 a video of Kate Upton performing the Cat Daddy dance for Richardson in his studio went viral and in December 2012 it was announced that Richardson was filming a documentory about Lady Gaga's life.
Although Richardson's work is simple, it is however effective and I have taken inspiration from how he has his models stand and pose and the connection he has the models show with the camera. I want this to be a big aspect of my work. In the images I have shown here each image shows a connection and gaze to the camera, in a way it is slightly sexual but after research I have realised this is something that i-D magazine has a lot of. The image at the top on the right of Rihanna is my favourite because it has given me ideas with the use of hair hiding the left eye. In every cover of i-D the model on the front cover is either winking or has something covering the left eye. I plan to experiment with using models hair for my own work and probs covering the left eye as well as this.