"Elements" Photo Zine Inspiration

We were given 5 categories of photography to choose 3 from and were asked to take a minimum of 5 pictures for each category and turn it into a Photo Zine.

•          Fashion Photography

•          Landscape Photography

•          Photo Manipulation

•          Portrait Photography

•          Product Photography

After a little research on Photo Zines, I learnt that a general theme or something that ties the booklet together is ideal for viewers, so I came up with an idea for the zine to revolve around the elements, Earth, Wind, Air and Fire.

I decided to pick Fashion Photography, Photo Manipulation and Portrait Photography because I feel that they would allow me express the elements in a better way.

Fashion Photography:

I alotted Earth to this category. I will be doing a mix of Editorial and Catolouge Fashion and my inspiration is, as usual, my favourite photographer, Cho Giseok. 

His work with mirrors (shown below) made me think that it could be utilized to hyperfocus on a certain article of clothing that the model is wearing, thus making it a pretty good option for Catolougue Fashion Shoots, in the second image we see an Editorial shoot with the model standing on a platform that is surrounded by bunched up paper. This inspired what I would want my set-up to look like.

To make the fashion photographys concept more authentic, I pulled out a paper and mixed paints to make certain colours that would go together, and then I asked my models to bring any articles of clothing or jewelry that matched those shades. Then I mixed paints to find one colour that would suit all the clothes that would be presented, sort of as if a photographer was hired to do a shoot for a clothing line that was completed on the day of the shoot, with only colours or sketches to work with. I decided on a shade of teal and painted a wall on my terrace.

Since the theme is earth, I found a bit of red soil and filled it up into bags to empty out on the floor infront of the teal wall, allowing me to work with a bit of an orange-teal theme. 

Portrait Photography:

Water and Fire, the two extreme emotions/elements that represent humans best. So what better way to capture them, than in a portrait?

For Water, my inspiration came from Annie Leibovitz' Milk Bath photoshoot that she did with Whoopi Goldberg and Cho Giseoks series of pictures where a model rests their head on a table with a surreal looking coloured pool of tears and flowers around them.

I wanted to recreate that with my own spin, adding flowers, mermaid scales and black ink into the equation to try and give each of the models their own personality, with focus on makeup details to tie the pictures together. 

For Fire, my inspiration is the poster for the film "Portrait of a Lady on Fire", directed by Céline Sciamma as well as the works of fire photographers that take pictures of shows on the beach.

I made a frame out of wire and will be wrapping it with cotton that was soaked in oil, thus giving me time to work longer with the fire as it will not go out. I decide that I will use a longer shutter speed to capture the flames so the model should be sitting down. To futher encapsulate a personality, be it a fake one, I will be working with props such as lighters, dolls, ceramic skulls and maybe even a stuffed bird for an Edgar Allen Poe vibe.

Photo Manipulation:

This category took me the most time as I struggled to pick one that would help me express "Air" in the best way possible.

After a while, I realized that when we think of the sky, most younger people tend to associate it with heaven and automatically, I thought of Mount Olympus. Home of the Greek gods, I decided to search up a couple of paintings that I remembered admiring at some point of my life or the other and came across Antonio Verrio's "The Gods on Mount Olympus".

Since the other two categories also feature models, I felt that this one should be no exception as it would feel out of place to do anything else.

I wanted to use photo manipulation on staged pictures that I will be taking of my models, to make it seem like scenes from mount olympus.

With a couple of bible-inspired touches, like the spiked halos painted onto saints such as the one in Michelangelos "Torment of Saint Anthony" and literal hearts painted onto Mary in many depictions of her, I wanted to mix the greek aspect and christian ones to kind of take a couple of group portraits and single ones to edit into the clouds.

I wanted to include Greek cherubs and take a group portrait of three of my models to edit in a similar manner and make it feel other worldly and to depict air in the sense that the models are literally in the air, surrounded by clouds and other Gods.

I planned out an idea board with quick sketches down below