Video Installation

Evaluation on my final photographs

My final piece was meant to portray both fashion and culture within the images and was also meant to be for either Vogue or Essence. My idea for the images was to incorporate both culture and fashion and that is because I After presenting my final piece to the class, I was able to gain constructive feedback from them. My wanted to show the beauty of culture that others do not see. I took these photos by using a back drop, lights (No natural lights), a reflector and Photoshop when it was needed.

After explaining this to my class mates, some of them believed that it would work more for Essence than Vogue because it mainly involves culture which Essence prides themselves upon. They also thought that although it is clear that culture is one of the main focuses in the images, they thought that using fashion and culture together would be too complicated and only focus on one culture because I used an African them as well as an Egyptian theme. 

This image got the best feedback. Most of the class preferred this image because they believed the lighting wasn't too overpowering and it made the model the main focus as it was the intention. Although they seemed to like this images most, they thought it could have been better if I hadn't have cropped the image as much as I had. 

When it came to the lighting, both the class and I believed that most of the images had been overpowered by the background. Even though there wasn't anything in the background, the fact that it was too bright blew the model out and almost made you focus on just how bright it was instead of the model. The class mentioned the fact that the lighting on the model was good and shouldn't be altered with because it exposes her golden skin tone just the right amount without the exposure and brightness being touched in Photoshop. They also thought that the eyes made the photos much stronger and added to the cultural theme that I was going for. Although there was a confusion between what was African and Egyptian, my class mates agreed that the images were strong and the colours that were used, enhanced the models skin tones and helped to add to the cultural theme. Whilst they thought my piece was strong, they believed that instead of using a studio, I could have used a background in places such as a forest, an urban area, etc. and that would have built to the cultural theme or made it a bit more Vogue related and even more professional than it currently is.

So from the feedback I had been given, I now know how I can improve my final piece. I do believe that I should have concentrated on one theme instead of trying to incorporate two complete different themes that is very hard to portray on their own in the first place. On that note, I could have just focused on culture because my images showed more of the cultural side than the fashion focused theme. Whilst I should have focused on culture, I used more than one (African and Egyptian) which ended up confusing my audience, so next time I should centre my images to just one culture to prevent confusion.

Considering I chose to pitch my images to Vogue and Essence, I have decided that it would be best to pitch my images to a more urban magazine which is more about the culture I was trying to go for which would be Essence. I do not think my photos would be appropriate for Vogue simply because how formal and professional they are and they are normally looking for something different and diverse, something that isn’t particularly shown in other magazines, whereas my images were much more appropriate for Essence magazine because they focus on black beauty and like to show people (such as young black girls) that there is beauty in every colour, culture, shape and size and I believe my photos fit that description as much as it can without coming too far from the fashion side of things. Now although I’d only pitch my images to Essence magazine at this point, I’m not certain the picture editor would use my images for the simple reason that it doesn’t completely fit the description that is needed for the magazine itself and the edits I have made to the photos themselves (Such as cropping too much off the pictures) because it takes away from the photos and professionalism of the whole piece itself.

If I had another chance to do this, I would continue to go for culture and also stay in a studio but this time I would use a few props to enhance the culture I am going for instead of just using the clothing to portray the cultures I was trying to represent. When editing I won’t use as much exposure for the contrast and brightness as it did not work well with the model, although I wouldn’t change the lighting on the model herself because I felt that it worked well with her skin tone and the colours she was wearing at the time.

Although I would definitely use the same colours, I would try to find a different body wrap that matches the same colour as the previous body wrap, but this time it will enhance the African theme instead of portraying an Egyptian theme. Apart from that, I will be keeping everything else that was worn in the images because I felt that it all worked well with each other.