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.
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