Ellen Von Unwerth

Ellen Von Unwerth is a photographer who specialises in erotic femininity. For ten years she worked as a fashion model and now works behind the camera. “The difference is that I don’t stand behind the camera drooling. Knowing that the model is more likely to be natural, to open up and relax”. The German-born photographer began by talking photographs o her models trends and soon her unique talent was recognised and she was soon image making for publications such as Vogue, The Face and I-D. Her work offers a distinctly playful and sexual style as well as being candid. However although Von Unworth models appear to be heavily made up and glamorous. She still manages to make a natural aspect to her images. Her sensual campaigns for Guess? In the early 1990’s launched her commercial career and she since worked for Victoria’s Secrets, Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel, Mui Mui and Diesel as well as advertisements for HBO’s Sex and The City. Starting out with reportage photography Unwerth has gone on to make her self known and respected in fashion photography. She has developed a strong unique style that combines elements of Helmut Newton and Terry Richardson. As a computably self taught, untrained photographer she choose to work in black and white mostly she shoots on location and her images have a strong sense of spontaneity. I really love the impulsive, upstaged playful nature of depth and texture to them as though they have been taken decides ago , and the intimate locations of bedrooms and a sense of realism to Ellen Von Unwerth images.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Ellen Von Unwerth by Ellen Von Unwerth

Couples By Ellen Von Unwerth

Revenge by Ellen Van Unwerth

http://www.myspace.com/ellenvonunwerth

http://trendland.net/?s=Ellen+Von+Unwerth&x=0&y=0

http://www.artlies.com/photographs/ellen-von-unwerth.html

Semiotics

Fashion visuals, whether it be photography or film, are often meticulously planned and composed in order to create a physically or metaphorically multi-layered image, and to convey a specific message to the consumer. Semiotics are always present as a way of providing a subject with more depth, and revealing things to the viewer in a subtle way, rather than spelling everything out for them. An image that is not only aesthetically beautiful, making extensive use of semiotics, but also intelligent advertising through a fashion visual, is the advertisement for the fragrance ‘Flowerbomb‘ by Viktor & Rolf. Traditionally the idea of a woman has been that she is ‘naturally nurturing, sensitive, emotional and deferring’ (Cranny-Francis, 2003, p143), however, the image challenges this stereotype, whilst still subtly maintaining the feminine and sensitive aspect that is often used to define women. It also represents a complete opposite of what Cranny-Francis describes as typical themes used around men, stating bluntly in Gender Studies; Terms and Debates, that they are represented as ‘all powerful, emotionless and authoritarian’ (Cranny-Francis, 2003, p145). These stereotypical ideas of gender are interestingly addressed through this advertising image. The photograph has a romantic stylistic form, and shows a nude female model with sheer fabric covering and obscuring her face slightly as it wafts upwards. She holds a bottle of the perfume against her face. Firstly, by blurring the models face slightly with the fabric, the image cleverly prevents itself emphasizing the model, keeping the consumers mind on the product and not the personality or celebrity of a famous face, something not often seen in perfume advertising. It also could be seen to convey to the viewer that through wearing this scent, they too could be this mysterious, enigmatic and beautiful woman, as her identity is not fixed. The fabric swathing her face could symbolise some very separate and contrasting ideas. Firstly, through its delicate colour change from purple to pink, the folds in the fabric and way it falls, it seems to simply represent a flower and its petals, however by having the model’s head encased in the base of the flower and the petals wafting upwards from this point, it represents to the consumer the perfumes ability to ‘fill’ your head. Furthermore, the positioning of the woman in the base of the flower again represents the strong and feminine lady, but also with undertones of fertility and reproduction – the idea of a womans ‘flower’, the position of her head in the part of a flower that houses its reproductive organs, and also, as flowers are asexual in their reproduction, symbolising the independent woman who does not need a man. The model appears to be wrapped in a black ribbon and wax seal giving the name of the perfume and its designers, instantly providing the advertisment with an identity and the consumer with the imperative information of the scents product details. The ribbon has been added using an image manipulation programme in order for it to give the appearance of floating and encasing the model around her shoulders and breasts, attempting to hold her arms down against her body, perhaps a comment on societies tendancy to feel protective towards females, or outdated views on how women should be and act. This is a very beautiful image on the surface, and an exquisite advertisement, fulfilling its purpose incredibly effectively, however, the levels of symbolism, and depths of messages and imagery contained within it make it much more than just a fashion image. Instead it is a defiant warcry for femininity and sexuality, a warning to men intimidated by the strong female, and a message to women that all through purchasing this scent, they can be whatever they want.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The House of Viktor & Rolf by Caroline Evans.

Criticising Photographs: An introduction to Understanding Images.

Hand Grenades: A Handbook of Rifle and Hand,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_bomb,

http://www.viktor-rolf.com/_en/_ww/fragrances.htm,

Nan Golin

Nan Goldin work formed a ‘new kind of realism’ a characteristic which went on to inspire thousands of followers and imitators. She is an artist who has become obsessed with taking control of her own personal history. She saves her own memories through her photography, ‘The diary I let people read’.

Goldin and her photos, her work and personal life locked together to form one single who with an original feel to it. Goldin’s work can be described as concept driven snap shots. Her locations are usually interior spaces such as cluttered rooms and bathrooms or bars and beds.

Born in 1953 Goldin was born in Washington DC where her parents shortly moved to Boston where she spent several years unhappy. She moved away from her family in 1963, where she was 14 years old. She discovered her sister whom she had been every close to had committed suicide, Gioldin was deeply distraught and her family kept the suicide hidden from her for some time. Telling her the death was a terrible accident – this is perhaps why truth is something very important to Goldin and something she alwaus wants to reveal.

As the memory of her sister started to fade, Goldin began to take photographs to hold and preserve for fear of losing memories of her friends whom had become her ‘Alternative’ family.

One of the reasons I was attracted to Goldin's work was the emotional document in her images. I love the way she used colour to highlight the intimacy . The raw style of Goldins work and snapshot aesthetic works together to form the documentary of her life and shared memories she has a strong desire to keep. I also love the purity and innocence of her work and informal style that follows no rules. Her work doesn't act as anything else but what it is - a document moment in time.

Venetia Scott

“There are other stylists who have a very strong fashion point of view that they want to put across – I’m driving a mood more than a look.”

Venetia Scott has an elastic take on fashion that has led to collaborations with Helment Newton, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Klein and her former husband Juergen Teller. As I London based stylist she has worked for a number of magazine such as British and Italian Vogue, W, I-D and The Face as well as being creative director of Marc Jacobs and his diffusion line Marc By Marc Jacobs.
Scott has desire to capture an expression of youthful innocence. Her work is always highly heartfelt and autobiographical. She says “Delves in to her subjects syncline and extracts the desired emotions” which takes determinations, time as well as intimacy and thrust. This is something that Scott feels people no longer include in today.

“Everything is done in such a short amount of time and that there is now no connection or relationship between photographer and model. This is no emotion. Everything is quick and thrown away.”

It is Scoots way of thinking that I find so inspiring. I agree with the above quotation about everything being quick and thrown away today. Looking at Scott’s work has made me think about what emotions a photographer can hold and the memories it can store. I think as Scott explains it is about connection between the photographer and the model.

Venetia Scott technique is to make fashion statements that involve a look specifically tailed to a character and narrative. She has an anti-fashion approach to styling and photography and in the late 1980’s her work was considered unconventional with her use of imperfectly beautiful models which were shot in random locations, styled effortless ‘Thrown together clothes’.

‘It wasn’t about consciously not doing what people has done before, but I did want styles and stands I want to create something that you aspire to with out it involving a lot of money. None of the stories I did were about having a nice big or expensive outfit”.

With her democratic methodology’s Scott would use second hand clothing and vintage finds. She intends for her style and images to express something about the subject – models personality. Scott prefers to use models that you wouldn’t normally use models that you look at but don’t instantly recognize, meaning that her expressive vision and narrative are not over shadowed. This method has led to Scott challenging the current perceptions of beauty. She is known to cast models that often go on to become big fashion names such as Nadia Auermann, Angela Lindou and Lily Cole.