I cant help but think this post is really fucking obnoxious with how long it is..but its either this or updating my website and that shits not happening cause it takes forever so sorry if Im taking up too much room.if you show me how to make the picture a link so I can make it smaller I will do that.
Anyway I shot this because Im about to leave NYC in around 3 weeks and I cant help but feel like im racing to the end. I will win the race if I make a body of work that I can feel proud of. I contacted Red models and Basic models and said this could be something they would be interested in. Contacted a hair stylist and said, I have no money do this for free. Basically When you test there is a lot of trading of skills going around. I will shoot his hair styles if he does hair for my shoot. Everyone is getting something.
I chose to shoot them without clothes because I like seeing the body and the form/skin. If I had them fully styled I think I would lose the innocent boyish quality that I wanted. it was easy because some of the guys are like 16 and I felt really old. Honestly these images might look better in B/W but Im just trying to do something different and that Im not used to. I can shoot natural series when I go back to rochester.
I want your honest input if you know me, then you know I can take it. So say whats up.
Hey Eddie I think the images that are working most in my opinion are the top and bottom left. I think it’s because they are engaged with the camera more. so there is a way for me to connect with. But in the same respect the others evoke a feeling of admiration. I like the way you’ve embraced the hard shadow and created some color within the shadow which allows for it to be active and have interest. This is most likely personal preference but I’m least interested in the top right and right middle because that pensive/contemplative look seems a bit unnatural possibly forced. Overall I think it is certainly a great group of work and i sincerely admire your ability to make these kinds of images.
Hey David thanks for the input.
Im shooting another set of guys for this series which will be more natural.
my intention for this set of images wasnt very cerebral you know. I wanted to basically produce something that looked good and agencies and people might be interested in. I guess you would call it an exercise. For instance the top left image has been created many times but I wanted to try to make it myself. its fashion photo school!
Hey Eddie, these look great. I’m really loving how stylized these all are. I feel as though I’ve seen these images before… which like you said, you were pretty aware of. This isn’t a bad thing at all though. This is a very marketable way to photograph fashion. Definitely love the color in the shadows. Good decision. It’s interesting how you managed to contact a hair stylist and model agency in order to bring this together. I feel as though thats one thing that this school doesn’t teach it’s students… how to collaborate to create something new. good work!
Hey Eddie,
You deserve an actual critique from me so I’ll see what I can do before my laptop dies, haha. So I’ve generally gotten from you that these images are a series of boys, with the goal of a sense of innocence (or at least the original intention of emoting innocence). In regards to capturing this idea, I feel that the top left, top right, and bottom right are your most successful.
The top right, in being my favorite image of them all isn’t just composed the best in my eyes, but the lighting effect is really brought out in the small shadow on the wall, the deep shadows of his eyes and below his chin, his nose. The highlight on the hair takes this to a different level than the others that are lacking that extra… whatever.
His expression and his pose lend to the intention of these images most successfully and I feel as though it is more genuine than the others. The middle two and the bottom left I dislike more simply because they feel more forced. Either the model is too posed (bottom left) or the expression is too hard. Middle left, he’s epic-ly dying and trying to look as hot as he can while hes doing it. It’s a glamorous photograph, but in the context of this series it makes them all seem more.. well faked. Middle right is the derrick photograph you already have, just lacking that genuine feeling.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Top left I originally didn’t like.. didn’t think fit the series but the stiffness in his pose and the strongness of his body paired with that look… I think it could be a really great starting or ending (probably ending?) image in this series. Or atleast a good transitional one.
I’m starting to think bottom right is too typical. Innocence is always in sleep, but then again.. this might be a good image to put near the start of the series to make sure those dummys who arn’t following your clearly get the idea hit home.
Ok, so I realized that the photographs I’m attracted to visually and in terms of lighting are the ones where the double shadow on the body and the wall are really perfected. Top right again being my favorite, the shadow over his shadow is soft and unexpected; it contrasts great with the harshness of the downward shadows on his face. The deepness the shadows give the bottom left of the image and in the gap between his neck and leg. Its layered in tones and that’s is very attractive. Its making graphical fields of color, shades of color, which makes viewing the image even more appealing.
Top left does this also for me. Perhaps it’s the shadowing in the face I am most attracted to. The flatness in the faces of the middle left and bottom images make me less interested in their expressions.
Have you tried adding the girl to this set and processing her in the same way? And yes, I like the toning. The deepness of the shadows is necessary and giving the processing the more flat effect you gave to the girl image would loose half the effect. I’d like to see these together. And if your even more interested, I’d like to see more takes (if you have them) of the different models. I feel that if you print out mini’s of a dozen or so images from each shoot, you can really move them around a create photographs that can sequence really well together. And hell, since I’m going all portfolio development on you, perhaps you consider how many of these you’d really want to include and think about the sequence of the series as a whole, but as two page spreads aswell.
Enough talk. I’m sure I contradicted myself a million times. Let me know if you’d like me to blab about anything else in more detail, this was fun :)