Having just had a montage job go up on a trade stand in Paris – that as it’s client work does not qualify for the blog I decided to put up this shot completed at the weekend.
The purpose of the original shoot was to show off Emma’s tattoos and generate some images that I can turn into a part woman, part robot, part mad max sort of thing – that has yet to be done, so this is a bit of a bonus. No two parts of the shot exist in the same place at the same time – not even the sky was shot with the building.
It is an exercise in editing, perspectives and seeing what I can get away with, every time I do these there is something new and of course at a technical level it pushes skills in every direction. From start to finish it took between 3 – 4 hours that included experimenting with various images and getting the concept right. It has been produced to a standard where it could be blown up to 10ft tall (the size I work to for hero shots trade stands) with minimal additional work.
Increasingly I’m being asked for montage images made up of unrelated elements, recently I delivered a very complex multi-layered lingerie job using created backgrounds, I enjoy this form of story telling.
My intention in developing this image was to produce a background for a shot and further develop some skills, and there are a few technical issues with the image.
The more I reflected on the image I’d created the more I found lots of questions in it, it’s a derelict on a cliff, the cliff is probably falling away, there are street lights from a road below the cliff edge, I wondered who worked in the building? Who lives beneath the cliff? What do the people look like? What’s the industrial story of the community, what’s the human story today? ……..
And initially I wanted to use this as a backdrop – how wrong was I?
Maja Stina came in a few weeks ago and we were messing about with her vast collection of latex (rubber), we shot a number of ideas, but knowing this outfit was available I wanted to shoot it and see what we could make of it.
The full set is 5 images, I can certainly find more images suitable for editing – but these 5 are full of mood and character and go from being alluring to somewhere far darker.
I was concerned about shooting red on red with a model with bright red hair and red eyebrows but Maja’s pale skin was the perfect foil all this intensity.
As I was setting up for the head shot Maja told me she could not do beauty – so the headshot here is a non beauty, beauty shot!
This is a ‘little white dress’ with a twist, the twist being…..its made entirely of milk.
I’ve recently been on a workshop looking at complex high speed photography and photoshop techniques, the one task that brought together all these skills was to shoot a garment made of milk. To produce the garment in the second part of the workshop we needed raw material to work with and there was definitely homework. The raw material in this case came in the form of a model, 9 litres of milk and some high speed lighting. Sure we had an instructor, we also used our instructors originals to learn the editing techniques, but for our own work we needed images with our own concept that we had to shoot on the day.
It was only last Sunday that I got time to my homework – and trust me excuses like: ‘the dog ate my compact flash card’ do not cut it!!
To give you an idea of the nature and the complexity of the editing, although this shot looks simple it took almost 8 hours in post production. I don’t like asking others to edit my work until I have done the first one – and here is the first one.
Although presented as a bit of fun, this is part of a serious commitment to technical development and bringing new skills in to the business to make more complex and dramatic work available to customers.
This workshop was to make a dress out of milk, but the further challenge is to make garments out of water. I’ve all already attempted this too, water is far harder to do well because it’s a clear liquid, difficult as it may be I have an editorial concept for a shoot later this year using a ‘Water Dress’.
With a busy 3 months through to the end of July I was pleased to be able to get away on holiday in early August. I make an annual trip to Scotland, usually I’m on a boat somewhere off the Western Isles, this year I was in the heart of the Cairngorms via Bass Rock and Isle of May.
I try to avoid using a camera on holiday if I can, but some habits die hard – at least the phone signal was very questionable!
The holiday was all about seeing the wildlife and relaxing, this shot (not of me) was shot in a hide looking for badgers and pine martins. The guide was busy looking on the cctv to see what was approaching the hide. It summed up the night – all of us waiting in the darkness with anticipation, for what may arrive. For the record wild pine martins can’t resist crunchy peanut butter!
What’s been happening since January – well I’ve neglected my blog!! But I’ve been incredibly busy particularly on my personal body of work.
A few months ago I was very lucky to be chosen to attend Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School in London, that was a remarkable experience – 4 days with Werner well the man’s a legend, what else can I say!!
My personal work has evolved a long way since January, there is a major piece of work to be released in last quarter of 2011, this is a piece about simplicity mostly black and white nudes, at the moment I expect it to be an initial release of 10-12 pieces, with a further set of 10 for release in 2012. So far 9 models have been shot for this and I’m expecting to shoot another in June. The initial release may only feature 5 models.
Over the multiple bank holidays in April/May I got my personal site www.gavinkemp.com up and running, this is purely an art site, it covers finished works, new ideas, work in progress and topography. It brings together my 2 previous art sites that will cease as the hosting runs out.
A major new project that I’m very excited about has emerged in the last couple of months. The basis of the project is to re-interpret existing iconic images, the existing image being part of a metaphor with the reconstruction being the interpretation to today’s world. So far I have made 2 new images, with 2 more being in the works. I’ve made 2 more that I’m considering for inclusion, whilst they are not supported by Iconic images their mesage is very clear and they fit the broader concept about interpreting the modern world. None of the images are in fact real, they are entirely constructions from individual elements, this also represents a substantial technical challenge – but it does give complete creative freedom to discuss the arguments involved. One image is out there on my new ‘Art’ site, as yet there is no formal release date for them as a set – the odd one will go in line as they are produced, I hope this will be an ongoing project.
This is the first build of my final image for What is England, this is under the category of ‘Rural’.
The final image continues the chosen Football theme, a number of ideas came through my research. The obvious answer to ‘Rural’ would be to get under the skin of football in the county rather than the city where most of the work has been shot. However I came across something more disturbing during research.
Nottingham was one of the cities named in Englands bid for the 2018 World Cup. Part of the bid included a new stadium to be built on the edge of the City. I found a proposal for the new stadium on-line and this showed a plan that included, in addition to the stadium, new schools, a new health centre and 4500 houses. The amount of green belt land that would be consumed in this proposal was substantial, in the end the extension of West Bridgford would allow the growth of the city to take place. It was obvious that both football and the World Cup Bid was purely a Trojan Horse for the expansion of the city and the destruction of rural land.
As you already know I was hugely influenced by a visit to the Gustave Moreau Museum in November. Amongst his works is one called Angel Traveller. This evoked the notion of the Fifa Council as angels with a gift of a tournament visiting and passing from country to country until a decision is taken in court. In Nottingham for the moment (at least) the Trojan Horse is in splinters and football is not the vehicle for the destruction of the green belt.
This was not the take I was expecting for Rural, but equally it has given a different meaning to Football.
I am dyslexic. A couple of years ago I was in London waiting to go into a meeting about Archival Photography and a way of presenting my dyslexia came into my mind. Within minutes I’d arranged to borrow a garment to shoot and had the notions of ‘Dyslexia Blue – the problem’ and ‘Dyslexia Red – the answer’ in my mind, and the following day the work was being produced. I knew it was incomplete, Dyslexia Red is understandable but it is over complicated, but makes sense to me and other dyslexics.
I was in Paris recently and I found using the Metro wonderfully easy, unlike the UK the routes on the metro are numbered, no messing about with words or having to remember a series of abstract names. Just remember 2 or 3 numbers and you can make almost any journey across Paris. This use of numbers and how easy it is to travel round Paris to me reflected a clarity of thought, and that clarity and that using simple tools and techniques is for me far more relevant to a dyslexic solution and thought process.
In doing this I have faced a fear of mine, rather than use an existing map and montage it into the corset, using a tablet and stylus I hand drew the routes and added the hand written route numbers in the corner. This immediately makes it scruffy and untidy, however it also makes it highly personal.
Last Weekend I was in Paris, I’ve not been for over 20 years and what a thrill it was!
Paris is a beautiful city. I saw it in bright sunshine on the Saturday and heavy rain on the Sunday, even in the wet it has a romance and a mystery all of its own. Of course I took lots of pictures and they will be appearing around the place over the coming months.
Like London all the big exhibitions have queues but the jewels do not, at the far end of the Louvre is the Orangery, a small and completely separate space, it’s packed with work by the very best including Monet‘s Water Lilies. It’s small enough to see and absorb in a morning, although the quality of work is so high you can easily make a day of it if you want to.
If you want a hidden treasure visit the Gustave Moreau Museum, within walking distance of Montmartre it is special, very very special. Located in his former home (he made plans for the museum during his lifetime) it’s exquisite – I don’t want to tell you too much because if you are like me it will spoil the sense of wonder and excitement as you walk wide eyed through the building – there is simply not enough time to get the most from it. I would suggest you go first thing in the morning or immediately after lunch, they close for lunch and if you plan a quick visit you will regret having insufficient time. It is as much about his work as his family relationships – look carefully for all the doors on the 1st floor they alone tell a story.
Many people have praised the superb Art Deco Ritz Bingo and Social Club in Ilkeston, the former cinema that still has much of it’s original interior intact.
Art Deco is brash, it’s about flair, strong design and colour lacking the manners of for example the Arts and Crafts Movement, so this is how I’ve chosen to edit it. Strong lines and super saturated colour to bring out that brashness, this editing approach has aged the building that was designed 20 years after the end of World War One.
These images came through the need to try out a new camera, for the first time in ages I used a pocket sized compact, whilst they don’t have the ‘grunt’ of the big stuff, they do have the lightness and fleet of foot that the big stuff lacks, the letterbox format and very short lens give huge scope and fitting in the palm of your hand they are almost totally discrete.
