To inspire me and give me an insight into my character lifestyle, I decided to take a walk to St Mary's Church near Ocean Village in Southampton to take some photographs. I thought the lighting on the church looked beautiful at night.
When thinking of my photo shoots, I wanted to do a combination of location and studio shots. I thought when choosing and recreating important changes and developments in my characters life, I am definitely going to do a location shoot at a church or in a church yard...
I have been looking at Fine Art Photography for inspiration for my designs for my shoots, and here are some of the images I have found.
Carlos Tarrats
I found Carlos Tarrats online whilst searching through different styles of fine art photograph. He combines fine art paints with his photography to create beautiful work as shown above. I loved the bright bursts of colour against the greys and blacks. The center piece looks disfigured and quite harsh whereas the flowers and splashes of colour make the image look textures and give it a more layered appearance. I am wanting to create images for my final outcome which have many layers and combine the dark aspects of my characters life give it bursts of colour to symbolise light at the end of the tunnel and how she blossoms and develops into her own person.
Sonja Quintero is another fine art photographer I found online and this particular photograph captured my attention. The lighting is beautiful as is the center piece of the angel statue. The statue is stunning but the lighting and the moss which has grown onto the statue. Maybe I could incorporate a statue like this one to symbolise the strong Christian upbringing which she had. The moss or a something similar could be covering and growing on the statue to represent how her sexuality changes are taking over her religion...
James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer who captures shocking scenes such as the attack on the world trade center. He captures shocking images of harsh reality of the suffering, war and pain. The particular image above captures war and religion. An extreme version of my characters life.
All of these fine art photographers have aspects of their work which I find interesting and inspiring.
Recreated a version of Alice in Wonderland for Viktor and Rolf.
These images are more real compared to the slightly dark and imaginary aura about them compared to Tim Walker and Eugenio Recuenco. The hair and makeup create an extreme but almost real life situation. These images are beautiful and are very fashion orientated and the aspects such as lighting and style of photography can help me to create my own images.
Disney Recreations with Celebrities
These images are more fantasy and are very disney due to the stereotypical beauty of the princess' and using icons such as famous actresses and actors. I do have a love for disney films and these photographs are stunning.
I took a trip to London to the Somerset House to see Tim Walkers Exhibition.
I had seen some of his images online and loved him work, however you get a completely different feeling when you are there with the actual props. In a way I felt the images came to life, I could imagine how the photographs were made.
Here I am stood next to the actual prop used to create his images. It was amazing to stand next to it! It was huge! Although I am only 5 foot 3 but it puts it into perspective how big the actual doll is...
This is one of his actual images using the doll.
Around the exhibition there were his props such as the big snails all over the walls...
Then there was the massive skeleton! I walked underneath the arch way to go into the other room and I saw bones in the shape of a foot. I looked at the ceiling and this is what I saw!
I found the way in which Tim Walker tells stories through his work was a lot brighter and colourful than Eugenio's work. The whole exhibition reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. Although there are quite strange and dark aspects to his work, the styling and props used in to create the images are bursting with life and colour.
"It’s a world where magic exists and, though darkness threatens, it is never ugly. Beauty rules here, because it is fashion, after all." The Independent
In my work I'm wanting to spread light and colour into my characters dark and dreary lifestyle...
Eugenio Recuenco is a well known Fashion photographer from Madrid, Spain. His work is very cinematic and beautiful and has been published in fashion magazines such as Vogue. The aspects of his work which stood out to me the most of the darkness and the lighting used. His style is very particular and one which I have taken inspiration from when creating ideas for my three final images of Oranges.
Beauty and the Beast
Alice in Wonderland
Cinderella
Little Red Riding Hood
The Pied Piper
The Princess and the Pea
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
Here is a link to an amazing video I found of his work...
All of these images are of stories which I have been brought up being told e.g. Disney stories. When you look at these images you can see there is so much to the whole setup. The hair, makeup and styling is stunning.
Feminism
During the time Jeanette Winterson grew up, feminism was in it's second wave. After winning the right to vote and changed the working and educational laws in the first wave, in the 60's and 70's moved on to the role in which women play in society. The fight for women to earn just as much as men and to be respected in the work place.
Jeanette's Mother was a housewife, and whilst her Father working all day she would stay at home praying, cleaning and preparing meals. At the age of seven, Jeanette was forced to go to school although her mother disagreed with the idea, she has to go. This shows how her Mother was very stuck in the ways of the 40's and 50's where women would be housewives and not workers.
Jeanette broke this convention too and ended up studying at Oxford University. One of the top universities in Britain.
Lesbian and Gays Rights during the 60's and 70's
Arena Three Magazine, the first British social and political magazine.
Homosexual Law Reform Committee faught to change homosexuality from being classed as a mental illness. The first meeting was held in Manchester - where Jeanette Winterson grew up.
The government changed the laws in the UK to making homosexual relationships legal.
The first ever Gay Pride celebration in London in 1972.
An amazing film, set in Salford Machester in 1971, created by Film Four.
A film about one family living in England who are mixed-ethnicity with an English Mother and a Pakistani Father.
It's about the struggles the family takes with religion, culture how they should conform to society due to their race, and not necessarily live their lives how they want to.
Father wants to set his son's up with other Pakistani brides instead they start seeing other British girls. They hide their true emotions and sexual feelings because of their religion.
Racism was high during the 1970's, therefore the British girls also had to lie about their boyfriends being Pakistani.
There is a scene where the father goes out and the two sons and the daughter make sausages and bacon. In their religion, Muslims see pinks as dirty animals therefore do not eat their meat. The father comes home early so the children spray the house with deodorant and air freshener to mask the smell of pig.
Similarly to Oranges are not the only fruit, east is east shows how your religion can contradict with your feelings e.g. sexual relationships with the wrong people and how you may want to live your life e.g. eating specific things. But it shows how a family gets through these times together whereas Jeanette has to suffer with these feelings practically on her own.
Her religion is covering her from acting upon how she feels about women...
The 1970's was a time where conforming to society becoming broken.
In 1990, the BBC created their own interpretation of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are not the only fruit. Winterson wrote the screenplay, however chose to miss out the stories and myths which she includes within her book, the underage love making with the older woman Miss Jewsbury and changed her name to Jess to create a character. Although the series was very controversial with it's lesbian sexual scene, it won a BAFTA award for Best Drama. It was also released on a cassette tape where the book was read out by Charlotte Coleman.
Older 'Jess' is played by Actress Charlotte Coleman. The costume design for her character is very plain, wearing colours such as grey, brown, black and white. This could represent her upbringing being very plain and possibly dull? I noticed more when she meets Katy (Tania Rodrigues) how dull her clothing was. Katy's clothes shows the 70's era clearly with the colours and styles of the fabrics.
After her a Katy share a kiss
After she meets Melanie
After Jess and Melanie get found out by the Church - beige/browns and cream
After taking just a few screen shots of the second episode, you can see that whenever there seems to be a character involved such as Katy or Melanie, Jess' clothes become a lot more patterned and/or colourful. Before these two characters, her clothing was very bland. This could be symbolic of how these two characters create change in Jess' life and make her more hopeful. After meeting both Katy and Melanie, she wears more flower patterned clothing which could represent their friendship and love affair growing and blossoming naturally.
On the other hand, the brightest outfit which Jess wears in the bright pink raincoat her Mother buys her. The rain coat could symbolise how her Mother is trying to keep her hidden and covered up by this rain coat out of danger and to protect her from other peoples behaviour.
In 2005, this particular adaptation of Oranges came out on DVD.
There have been many different book covers of Oranges.
The first is the cover I own now and the one I owned throughout my English Literature GCSE. This book cover looks more up to date and gives off the impression that it is semi-autobiographical due to the positioning of the camera/paintings angle behind the girl.
This is the second image I found of a book cover for Oranges. This cover looks older than the previous one and the image on the front gives away a lot of symbolism of femininity, natural instincts, growth, darkness and religion - all of which Jeanette struggles with throughtout.
This cover looks far more intense, and I think this is trying to show the contrast between 'Good' and 'Evil', herself and the church. The red and orange could symbolise love, the devil, danger and Oranges being the fruit which her Mother always gives her when she feels ill/down.
When I saw this book cover I questioned whether this an actual printed copy of the book. It is very different from the others with a lot less colour, however there are hints of orange in the background. I think this cover is showing the more intimate side of the story, her sexuality, her femininity. The snake could be representing temptation, or how society/religion/her mother was holding her back from her natural emotions and feelings.
Inspiring films/videos for styling and fashion
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Makeup Artist: Pat McGrath
Hair Stylist: Danilo
This combination of hair and makeup to create Lisabeth Salander is stunning to watch and look at. Her punky and gothic style is androgynous but has an underline sexual tone seeping out.
Film Trailer
Fashion Photography by Lara Jade
I found these stunning pictures online through Instagram and they've captured the innocence and beauty which I am looking to portray. The styling, makeup and hair works perfectly to create their beauty in rugged simplistic way...
The art movement of Pop Art influenced everything from fashion, music and interior design. Everything was colourful and vibrant yet simplistic.
Pop Art became present in the mid to late 1950's in Britain with groups such as the Independent Group (image below) making new and brighter art. This type of art became more and more popular in America in the 60's. Artists such as Andy Warhol created iconic pieces out of everyday simplistic items such as the Campbell soup can. Below is an example of the Independent Group's work.
Fashion was really changing and become more and more creative in colours, styles and fabrics such as silk, wool and linen.
Mary Quant was a well known designer at that time who created the mini skirt and hot pants during the London-based youth fashion movement. "She encouraged young people to dress to please themselves and to treat fashion as a game".
The video below shows original footage of the First London Fashion Awards where Mary Quant shows off her unique designs.
The crazy world of Pop Music has also begun in this time period. Bands such as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones were taking over. Then began the growing sub-genres of music that would develop and grow throughout the rest of the twentieth century with clear differences between Pop and Rock music.
Bands such as the Sex Pistols inspired designer Vivienne Westwood in creating her punk and mod styled clothing using fabrics such as PVC, leather and metal. Music influenced fashion incredibly therefore sub-cultures such as Punks and Hippies were formed towards the end of the 1960s and carried on through out the seventies.
More types of music was progressing into the 1970's such as ABBA, and an even bigger change in fashion began. Outfits such as the flared trousers became a huge fashion statement for both men and women.
Punk music became even more popular with bands such as Slade and Black Sabbath. The hair became longer, the clothes darkers and the facial hair for men bigger.
The changes which were present through out of Jeanette's childhood and teenage years were huge and life changing to others... however did any of these aspects make any impact on her life? Was she too sheltered to know what was really happening during this time globally through British culture?
