The Weather Diaries

EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE. THE EXPERIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING OF EXISTENCE DEPENDS ON FROM WHAT PLACE AND ANGLE OR SIDE AN OBSERVATION IS MADE, ON WHEN THE OBSERVATION IS MADE AND WHO IS OBSERVING. Rúrí, Artist’s Statement; Relativity, 1992 Iceland.

The Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland, March 2014

Press release:

A poster exhibition of selected works by Cooper & Gorfer from the book The Weather Diaries. Published in connection to the upcoming Nordic Fashion Biennale, The Weather Diaries mix dark romanticism, photography and 18^th century painting to tell the story of Icelandic, Faroese and Greenlandic fashion.

I have put The Weather Diaries on my order list at Amazon- exciting times! 

Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein Talk - Design March, Reykjavik, Iceland, March 2014

During my time in Iceland, I went to a talk by Calvin Klein, which was part of Design March held at the Harpa in Reykjavik. 

Although I don’t plan on becoming a fashion designer, the talk was really interesting and Klein gave lots of good advice on working in the creative industry. Plus i was hoping that he would give out some freebies! haha

The following are a few notes that I took during the talk:

-Klein’s designs were inspired by the James Dean era and influenced by British design - he wanted to be the ‘tough guy’.

-He was always in control of his image and marketing. 

-He controlled and directed shoots and picked the team. 

-He worked with photographers such as Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel, Mario Sorrenti and Patrick Demarchelier. 

-He has worked at every level of the industry

In regards to imaging, Klein says it has to reflect what you create and you should always have a clear point of view.

"People don’t know where they want to go, you have to show them"

"You have to have the confidence in yourself that you want to do it, you can doubt yourself but never show it. Lead and make people buy into it. If you are not confident, act as if you are."

"Problem solving is life. If you don’t have to solve them anymore, you’re dead!"

"Push for what you believe in."

Galleri Fold Talk

Galleri Fold Talk with art dealer Elinbjort Jonsdottir, Iceland, March 2014

During my time in Iceland I went to a presentation about Icelandic art and photography at Galleri Fold.

Galleri Fold was established in 1992 and sells work for artists through both exhibitions and auctions. All galleries in Iceland work on commission.

Key features of Icelandic art:

-       Landscape and abstract work is very common

-       Nordic blue is a predominant feature

-       The raven is often featured in Icelandic art as it is involved in many folklore stories and traditions

-       Icelandic art is hardly ever sold as replicas, people like to own the authentic original and most house holds will have at least 3                   original paintings

-       SIGN EVERYTHING- you never know if you'll be famous and people often mimic others to authenticate your work

The first photographs in Iceland were taken around 1860 by French photographers. Soon afterwards Icelanders learnt how to use photographic equipment and made their own photographs. Due to the rise of camera ownership, Icelanders rarely buy photographs for their wall. However, they love photo books and according to the art dealer there are stacks in every house!

Meeting in the middle

ICELAND COLLABORATION PROJECT

This project was predominately based in Iceland. I was part of a team that included a Textiles student called Rebecca Maconally from my university and a student from Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA called Ana Prodovich. There were two parts to this project.

1 - A VoiceThread presentation on Icelandic Art

2- A short film based on a site we were given. We were given the Harpa Opera house.

This project has proved to be quite difficult due to time constraints and the fact that it was predominately an online project. However, I have enjoyed collaborating and working as a team with students of different disciplines. We still have to edit and finalise our film but hopefully during the editing process we will be able to create an outcome that is interesting, fun and arty. Instead of solely using moving image we will use single shot images taken of the Harpa, from our very different perspectives and using our creative backgrounds!

Guest Lecture: Tom Jackson

Tom Jackson is an editorial portrait photographer. After studying Editorial Photography in Brighton, Jackson moved to London and assisted photographers such as Rankin, David Sims and Jane Hilton. During his time assisting, he realised that what he was interested in photographing were people’s faces and characterful people.

His first solo commission was the WWF wrestlers for Times Magazine. This led to him being a regular photographer for the magazine. He says that the supplements are a great way to get into the industry. You get your work published, gain access to high-profile people and it gives you links to advertising agencies.

Jackson does a lot of personal projects that are then used in newspapers and magazines and leads to further work. Jackson says that agencies love to see personal work. They want to see your published work but what they will book you on is usually based on your personal work.

Key pieces of advice:

• Assist -> supplements -> more published work
• You don't need a studio
• Published work leads to more work
• They like to see your PERSONAL work
• two studio lights, the background can be a reflector!
• Plan ahead- do reccy's
• Join a photography agency!

Guest Lecture: Carol Sachs

Carol Sachs is a Brazilian photographer best known for her editorial photography.

Whilst studying Graphic Design in Brazil she started photographing, mainly documentary. One of her first major series’ was on the Circus. She found these images reflected her emotional state at that point in time.

Sachs left education wanting to pursue a career in documentary photography. She moved to London and it was here that she read the book The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton, which opened her mind to the different styles of photography.

During this time she photographed portraits of her friends, which she continued when she moved to New York for six months. It was here that she started shooting in colour and didn’t look back.

She did an internship at a photographer’s agency.

• Emotional State reflects the work you produce
• "Dont think about 'career-ism' for a while"
• Develop your own style first then sell it
• "If something is really 'in' and you follow it, then you're easily 'out'"
• It take time- dont copy others- be unique
• DON'T compare yourself to others
• Lived as an immigrant; lots of hello's & goodbye's
• She pinpoints what is that works in her images; the SILENCE.
• The image and the concept need to work together
• Try to show something more than just the person
• You have to ALWAYS be doing personal work
• Bring the 'experience' to travel magazines
• She uses Canon 5D mark III and a 1.8 70mm-205mm lens
• No flashguns
• She doesn't keep in mind room for text

On Visual portfolios she had some great advice;

• Simple, clean website is essential
• All images to be the same size
• Don't show everything
• First page has to be a clear definition of what you do
• Only include stuff you're really proud of

Collaboration with Rebecca Marks MUA

Exploring ethnicity and make up styles with Sinead modelling. 

Headshots with Sophie & Kane

Guest Lecture: Simon Buckley

Simon Buckley is a photographer working in many fields including studio portraiture, reportage and travel. He is currently running the website Road, Rail & Sea - a website aimed at selling holidays and experiences to people that do not want to fly. 

He gave lots of good tips during his lecture such as:

• Be self confident with your ideas and what you are asking for
• Observe EVERYTHING

• We all have a little bit of arrogance

• For editorial portraits you get limited time so keep lighting and ideas simple
• ASSIST
• "They don't know what they want until you don't give it to them"

• In regards to interviews, never interrupt the interview, always listen to the questions and answers, ask to take the portrait after the interview and photograph in a way that will be relevant to the interview
• Silence is usually a good sign
• Give yourself 5 minutes after the shoot to calm down
• Keep lighting simple (but experiment with different techniques)

• Always try and get your foot in the door through networking

• Build up personal project portfolios as this could get you jobs in other fields of photography that you are not currently working in

• Think about the type of job - if it is editorial, where are the words going to go? Where will the headline sit on the image?

Advice on portfolios:

• Good to have digital and print
• Keep it simple, fresh and updated
• Between 15 to 20 images

Headshots with Zoe Patrick

After the success of the quick headshots shoot with Rachel I decided the easiest (and most fun) way for me to raise money would be to do a special offer so I put out an advert with the following written on it: 

"For a small fee of £5 you can have up to a maximum of 10 high quality photos taken professionally in a studio environment with a FULL lighting kit. Contact me via e-mail at: sarah.ashworth11@bathspa.ac.uk or via facebook.

All funds raised will go towards the Photography and Digital media Graduation show in London this summer."

Zoe was the first person to get in touch, she needed professional photos for her acting portfolio. A simple grey backdrop and 2 soft box layout was best for this type of shoot! Her eyes were beautiful.. would be great to do a macro of in the future?