project Millennium

Millennium was the best by far. it was the first project for me that has a great opportunity at the end.
Millennium images is a library of high quality contemporary photography. they sell reproduction rights to the images and arrange commission. Staffordshire uni had the chance to work with Millennium images and had set us an assignment for us to produce in any format, fifteen to twenty images of our choice with an accompanying artists' statement.

When we first received the millennium project everyone was worried about the amount of images we had to provide. For me this wasn’t a problem. I knew exactly what my idea was and i was grateful for the perfect opportunity to do it for this project.

I feel a little bit lucky that my idea was so diverse and undemanding to produce a wide range of images. The hard part for me was choosing the 20 finals as i had over 300 negatives to choose from. I chose not to show all 300 negatives in a contact sheet as not all of them were not suitable to show.

I chose to experiment with sensitive female photography, by doing this i thought using the studio was more suitable and warm for my brave model. I have done sensitive photography a few times before but i haven’t come out with as many images before.

I used soft lighting that always focused on the model, as no other objects was important and i needed the black background as dark as possible. When i booked the studio my first aim was to use both the black backdrop and the white backdrop, but i found myself leaning towards the favouritism of the black background. I think this is because the subject looked so soft and attractive especially looking at the images on screen. The black background gave the atmosphere of the subject such a dramatic effect and the subjects stood out perfectly especially with the bold colours of the material used.

There were not many changes from my action plan, schedule, aim and chosen idea, this was the perfectness of my idea because if there were any changes it wouldn’t affect my final outcome.

If i were to do this project again differently i would photoshoot more and more, but i will defiantly do this in the future for many other projects and personal projects. Before this project i have always wanted to practice sensitive photography but i never really had the confidence too, there is so much i had to think about and a lot to research; i had to think about what makes the ideas in my head sensitive? And not just bordering on typical female glamour or even porn. As i have answered these questions to myself now i have the confidence to create similar designs in this genre of photography. I think finally i have found my pathway.

i really enjoyed this project, i didn’t dislike any of it or my final images. I enjoyed planning, buying props and experimenting different positions with the model and angles for an achievable sensitive photoshoot. I mostly enjoyed using the extra strong fan machine in the studio; i love the outcome and the effect on the images.

Over all i produced 25 sensitive images but the brief what to produce 15- 20, this wasn’t a problem to choose. I have presented 20 images which are millennium standard, some of these are similar but this gives more choice to the client. Printing them on a rough contact sheet we have voted as a group that 8 out of the 20 images are strong, i think 8 strong images are acceptable for this millennium project. I am pleased with the outcome for this project.

Writing my own artist statement was difficult for me because i have never know why i enjoy using female models only in my work. i found it difficult to understand my self so how could i explain to others? To find the answers to my questions i researched and asked my tutors, I researched on the internet. Herb Ritts and Nick Knight have always been my main influential photographers but i also found a local sculpture artist Julian Cox who sketches the outline of female curves, his work is beautiful. I looked at Julian’s website to see if he explains why he only uses the female body in his work but unfortunately he doesn’t explain, i was hoping he would so my understanding on why i only use females would click.

I also research “female nude photography” on Google images, in the desperation to answering my question. I found so many beautiful, tasteful art work of the female body, looking at these images from students, professionals and famous fashion photographers help me to realize i use females in my work only like so many others because the curves to a female silhouette is beautiful and so attractive especially when used in art. Portraying and showing of the curves, shapes and textures of a female is nothing to be uncomfortable over when coming to explaining it to others and it is how you do it is the most important thing not why.