Project: Yorkshire Fashion Industry

jmphoto — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:48:34 +0000

Project: Yorkshire Fashion Industry

For one of my University assignments this semester, I have been tasked with creating a body of work that encapsulates a genre of photography. In my case, I was more or less directed to stay away from fashion and contemporary portraiture for obvious reasons. With those limitations in mind, I also thought it would behoove me to steer away from still-life and music photography as well.

It took a few weeks of very hard thinking to conceptualise a project that would maintain my interest as well as help to further my individual pursuits. Inspiration finally came after I remembered a little snippet I read on Joe McNally’s blog quite a while ago regarding how National Geographic spreads are shot. Now, I know most people associate National Geographic with wildlife and pretty landscapes, but I associate it with brilliant reportage and documentary on all manner of subjects; the article I always think of first when I think of National Geographic is one on Caffeine. In Joe’s post, he reflected that it used to be 1500 rolls of film used to be shot for a single article. That single sentence provided incredible insight to the quality of photography that National Geographic is famed for. Also stuck in my brain, were that these articles were not comprised of any one genre of photography, but rather encompassed all genres.

With these two notions in my head, I proposed to my tutor that I actually prepare a documentary article on the subject of the Yorkshire based fashion industry (focusing on South and West Yorkshire) and present the final product in the form of a magazine.

Once I had her approval, I began evolving the idea further. More inspiration for the project came from the unlikely source of Magnum photographer Martin Parr during a lecture he gave in Huddersfield. Mr. Parr is currently working on a project based on his fashion work in which his output is no other than a magazine. The inspiration comes from the fact that he is actually including advertising (produced himself) in his magazine as well as the content.

Along with my own ideas for the project, the bits of inspiration from these two legendary documentary photographers helped me to provide a solid plan for my project as outlined below:

Goal: To create a photographic and journalistic article that documents the current state and history of the fashion industry in the region of South and West Yorkshire and produce the final output in a magazine format with intent to exhibit the body of work at a later date.

In order to achieve this enormous task, I intend to research and document the following:

Independent Designers and their workspaces
Fashion Retail
Independent Boutiques
Street Fashion
Textile Industries
Independent Craft Fairs
Fashion Recycling/ Charity Shops
Shopping Culture
Beauty Industries
Fashion Shows and Trade shows
Fashion Related Advertising (Billboards, shop windows, etc)

I need to have the majority of the work done for the beginning of May in order to prepare the final output for the hand-in date, but it should be entirely possible to finish the project in that time frame.

I am open to virtually anyone getting involved in the project as long as it is fashion and beauty based (even if it’s not covered in the list above). Please feel free to get in touch via the comments section, the contact forms on my website or by Facebook.

I’m very excited about undertaking a project with huge potential and I very much appreciate the time you took to read this! If you can help in anyway, please don’t hesitate!

Portraits Are For Life

jmphoto — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:19:32 +0000

Portraits Are For Life

A photographic portrait is a great many things to many different people but most importantly a portrait is an everlasting representation of you the moment it was taken. A sort of time capsule, if you will. Portraits evoke memories and emotions. A portrait can bring back the times of joyous youth or they can remind you of your personality and how you looked and the way you dressed in times past, though I’m sure not all people enjoy that aspect. A portrait is a memento that should be carried with you through the rest of your life to ignite and carry on the legacy that you’re building now. Amongst all this: a portrait is for life!

Our daily lives have been full of photographic portraits since their inception. Just think of how proud parents adorn the walls with their cherished children, grandparents build photographic shrines to their families, loved ones carry portraits of they’re loved ones everywhere they go, hard working breadwinners display they’re family on their desks as they pay the bills and social media ensures the first thing anyone new sees of you is a portrait. Portraits are the now!

Picture this: It’s thirty years from now on a rainy day. An impulse leads you to start dredging through all the old boxes you’ve set aside for such an occasion. You come across a pile of prints. All of which are portraits from different times in your life. Imagine remembering your life now. What do you see? What do you remember? How does it feel? Everyone, is of course, different; however, the catalyst for all of those emotions is a portrait. An imprint of times past that can revitalise dormant memories at any time.

Now, the only caveat is that not all portraits last forever. There are the images you never want to see again. These portraits are often full of bad haircuts and fashion faux pas’. Think back to your school portraits. Does anyone keep those? Does anyone dare actually ever look at them? Society has tricked us into believing that the reason we hate the school portraits is because of ourselves. In actuality, it’s because they’re bad portraits and bad photography. Just think back to them for a moment and you’ll remember the long queues of hundreds or thousands of students standing in the photographic “assembly line” waiting to sit down for 30 seconds each under the same lighting set up with the same horrible mottled background. It was neither a fun experience nor was any effort put in to make a good portrait of you the subject.

Sadly, the trend of late in portrait studios across the world has been exactly this. Portraiture nowadays seems relegated to a single lighting set up for all subjects despite the common knowledge that there is no single lighting method that is flattering to everyone. It’s undermined by trends and fads spurred by technology. For example, can you honestly tell me that in 20 years time, you won’t cringe at the black and white photo with your eyes or a bunch of roses in colour that epitomises the late nineties and early noughties? Digital technology has allowed for the “machine gunning” of images and thus, far too many “photographers” make their selling point quantity where there is no quality. Portraiture in a lot of “portrait studios” is no longer about photography. It’s no longer about memories. It’s only manufacturing. these “portrait factories” will churn out thousands of low quality, heartless images a day with no care for the significance a portrait can hold in someone’s life. The defining factor that many people use these “portrait factories” is usually cost. All I can say to that is that old adages are old adages for a reason: you get what you pay for.

When I provide my portrait services, every session is unique. The lighting is styled and tailored to each individual in order to catch you, the subject, at your very best. Each image is carefully and painstakingly retouched to bring out the very best. Each single image is a relic, a memory, an emotion that means as much to me as the creator as it does you the subject. To me, every image is personal and lacklustre portraits do nothing but reflect on me the creator. I believe in quality and I believe in the everlasting.

John McIntire Photography: The Blog » General

Project: Yorkshire Fashion Industry

Portraits Are For Life