Final Shots of Shoot 2

I believe this shoot was very successful, for the celebrity we were trying to achieve. The choice of model, along with the simple hair and make up, with the styling elements of the clothes with the fan blowing and the creative direction of each the shoot, giving the model dance like poses helped us to get across our celebrity concept. One thing I believe we could have improved on was the organisation of the looks, I think if there was more of this, it would have helped to create stronger looks thus an even more successful shoot.

This shoot would belong in RUSSH magazine, as the celebrity is up and coming, and still emerging. RUSSH is a more left of centre magazine, not always focusing on the commercial celebrities and as this celebrity is famous for ballet dancer turned international DJ/performance artist, this magazine would be perfect for the shoot. The styling in this shoot was a reflection of creativity and an exercises the imagination. As the clothes are not all wearable and accessible, I believe this RUSSH would be perfect as often readers who by RUSSH are looking to be inspired by beautiful images rather than trends etc which would exist in magazines like Vogue. Furthermore the RUSSH READERS has quite a diverse age group ranging from teenagers to late 20's, and with Matisse and I's celebrity she fits perfect into this gap being in her young 20's!!!

Class Task - Editing an old image

Original Image

Edited Image

Profile of your celebrity for your personality editorial shoot

Sahara Coal was born on the 8^th of April 1986, in Ghana, Africa. When she was at the young age of 6 years, her parents moved her to Sydney, Australia for a better education. Her parents were wealthy enough to send her to a private boarding school and it was in this environment that she found her love and passion for dance. As she was approaching her teenage years she had excelled in ballet and had  reached the limits of what the school could offer in terms of ballet dancing. As an African living and growing up in a western culture, she felt like an outsider and strove to express her individuality through dance where she could get lost in the freedom of movement.

With Sahara’s passion and love for ballet, she received a scholarship to an elite ballet school at the age of 14. She believed strongly in the idea of expressing one’s self through physical and rhythmical movement.  After years of training, this ballet academy took her to places beyond her dreams, performing in a variety of countries whilst touring the world. Through this experience her name and profile began to build and she became widely known as the ‘African ballet swan’. This passion allowed Sahara to develop a unique sense of confidence and to blossom into a vibrant, bright, exuberant and energetic young woman.

As the world tours continued Sahara’s reputation as a ballet dancer only grew bigger. However Sahara felt confined and trapped in the world of ballet and felt like there was a void in her life. Returning to Sydney after her 6-month tour around the northern hemisphere she delved into her passion for music and went from ballet dancing into DJ’ing. Sahara cleverly used the name and reputation she had built up in the ballet industry and mixed the number one hits with music from performances she had become famous for.

Sahara, now at the age of 25, has emerged as a celebrity in the world of performance art. Known amongst performance artists as the high-spirited and bright personality ballet dancer turned international DJ, she is now performing at a variety of events, ranging from the world’s most exclusive, wealthy parties in the Greek islands to fashion week in New York and most recently, as the opening act for Madonna, where she combined her DJ talents with her  ballet talent by performing to the music she had created.

For this personality editorial shoot, the character traits and career elements, discussed above, which influenced her now high celebrity status were shown through the implemented styling methods: the use of layered, bright-coloured, detailed, patterned clothing, which were formed on the body to create movement and show fluidity in the fabric, along with the poses used in this shoot that were inspired by dance. These qualities all helped to depict Sahara Coal as the celebrity she has become today.

Exploration of a socio-cultural trend informing your design concept for your Fashion Editorial Shoot

The socio-cultural trend informing my design concept for my fashion editorial was based around the notion of being ‘mentally sick’. In today’s society, it is becoming increasingly popular to be seeing a psychologist, or relating the incompetencies  and inefficiencies of an individual to a mental disorder. In fact these mental illnesses, which exist amongst our society, are so common that 1 in every 5 Australians will experience a mental illness within a 12-month period (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008).

This large number of people experiencing mental disorders within our society has forced people to deal with these issues by seeing disparate groups of therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists. It’s become so common, that many people now worry about their own lives and if their day-to-day functioning fits in with what is considered normal behavior. These individuals have jumped on the bandwagon and see it as a necessity to visit a therapist or psychologist of some sort. Not only do these people do this for themselves but make it a priority for their children to be seeing one as well, enabling parents to disregard their child’s issues and letting a therapist deal with it. This trend is more frequently seen in women, whose husbands are part of the higher end income bracket. This idea may be a stereotype, which currently sees housewives filling their days with lunches and appointments for themselves and children.

The people who have jumped on the bandwagon are what I focused on as the design concept for my fashion editorial. These days, it’s become part of a lifestyle to see a psychologist, part of one’s weekly routine. Has it then become cool to have a psychologist ?  This exact question is what my fashion editorial answers, as I believe it’s become a trend in our society and the number of individuals who ‘need’ to see their therapist is only increasing. What has society morphed into where so many people feel the need to see a psychologist?

In my fashion editorial, I communicated this cultural trend of being ‘mentally sick’ and the need to see a psychologist  through using extreme measures and dramatizing the circumstances. This was achieved through the shoot being based in a stereotypical, corrupted, mental institution. Based around 2 girls who ‘apparently’ are suffering from mental disorders, needing to see their therapists regularly. The shoot was structured to create a storyline of what’s going on inside their heads and their day-to-day functioning. These two girls were forced into this mental clinic after being diagnosed with severe depression, bi-polar schizophrenia due to the uncontrollable nature of teenagers and rebellious behavior. The make up and hair in this fashion editorial has been made to look as if the girls have been having a rough time in treatment. With minimal make-up used, the aim was to make the girls look pale, tired, drugged-up on medication, as if they have been crying and having an emotional time. The fashion editorial was styled to make the girls look innocent, using pastel colours throughout all the shots to convey this idea.

Through using these elements, the socio-cultural trend I explored was able to unfold and allow the images to be open to interpretation. This idea of being ‘mentally sick’ is normally, in essence,  a serious issue. However as we move towards the future people have now become so insecure and untrustworthy of their own thoughts and actions, that seeing a therapist is an absolute requirement. What captivated me to explore this concept as the socio-cultural trend, which informed my design concept for my fashion editorial shoot, were the questions this issue raises. Why do people feel that they cannot cope with their own issues and stresses themselves ? What has the future become that society ‘needs’ that extra help, for people supposedly being ‘mentally sick’? Do people use this notion of being ‘mentally sick’ to scapegoat their life and make things easier for themselves?

In conclusion, it is therefore made apparent that this idea of being ‘mentally sick’ has become dramatized in society today. Both adults and teenagers are victims of this dramatization and feel the need to see someone about this due to not being able to cope by themselves. Hence it is therefore a trend as the number of people doing this has increased immensely.

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2008). National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing of Australians: Summary of Results. Canberra: ABS

Class Task Masking and Editing

Original Image

Edited Masked image

Ideas for make up and hair

As I never worked with an African model before, the make up would be slightly harder to achieve a successful look. So I looked through previous images of the model to see what looks good against her skin. In the bottom image both Matisse and I love the soft white around the eyes, it looks great against her skin tone. Other than basic make up, we do not think there is anything necessary, as it is a celebrity we are trying to keep more natural !! The hair in the top image is amazing, the teased ends look very effective. Suiting the big personality of our outgoing celebrity, so definately would like to give this a go. Since this model has such a strong face, a beauty shot would be a great idea - keeping the hair off the face and putting the braids into a bun on the head to give it a clean look.

Movement Dance and Light Inspiration

From these images, Matisse and I were inspired by the movment of the garments and shapes of the body. We can really take some great ideas from this and apply it to our concept. These can be a reference point for the model as inspiration for poses. In these shots the lighting is something we both are drawn to. The top images with stark nature, clean lines showing sleek quick movement or even the bottom images showing a more fluid movement in the fabric. The lighting in the bottom few images gave Matisse and I the idea of maybe creating brighter light from one side and shadow from the other - but we can experiment with idea on the day !!