Working title – 1970 Something  (In reference to the Biggie Smalls song)

Theme – 70’s

Genre – Fashion Photography

Intentions: I want to use a photography studio with a rust coloured, orange backdrop. I will also use props like a record player and a lava lamp, objects that instantly make you think of the 70’s. I want some of my portraits to be tight with a shallow depth of field, so to do this I will put my camera on AV mode and use a low F number. Another idea that may possibly work is to explore with lights and blur motion, and overlapping those pictures with the portraits. To create the blur motion I would put my camera on TV mode and use a slow shutter speed. To overlap my photos I would use Photoshop and watch a tutorial to teach

Contextual Studies:

Chloe Sheppard

70s Culture

Vogue

Ramona Rosales

 

Ramona Rosales

Rosales is known for her off beat, quirky celebrity portraits. Her work is usually used for magazine covers and articles. She has won several awards for her work so far.

Rosales, R. (2018). Portrait of Maya Rudolph. [image] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjen40LHrvo/?hl=en&taken-by=ramona_rosales [Accessed 17 Oct. 2018].

Image analysis:

What do you see? She is sat on the floor, leaning on the sofa, looking into the distance. In the fame we can see Maya Rudolph in what im guessing to be a living room by the use of a sofa, carpet and ornaments in the frame. Maya Rudolph is possibly the most dominant visual element in the image, however the red, brown and green tones stand out as well as the patterns on her shirt and on the sofa.

How was this image made? This image has been constructed and posed. For the most part the image is a representation of reality with only editing that still makes the image look normal and natural. I feel that Maya Rudolph has been arranged to sit in a quite awkward position on the floor to make the image feel slightly animated and give that offbeat vibe Rosales is known for. Also your eyes go straight to her sat on the floor then our eyes start to wonder up and see the other elements in the room, its like she is leading our eyes with the way she has arranged the visual elements.

What is the image communicating? The image reminds me of a 60s house wife. She looks very positioned and gives me the feel of a standard 60s wife who cooks, does the tidying and looks after the children. Her plain facial expression, kind of like a poker face, makes it hard for me to feel much emotion towards this picture but it does make me confused and what to know more about what is going on. Others may feel that she looks sad in the image and is on the floor as a representation of her being put down and belittled.

 

 

70’s counter culture/ the rebellion 

Hippie culture was big in the 70’s. People were against nuclear weapons, the Vietnam war, environmental pollution, racial segregation, poverty, big corporate business and they were all about world peace and change. The counter culture started in the 60s and started to die out mid 70’s. It was mainly made up of young people who rejected the beliefs that most of society had at the time. A way they showed this rejection was through non violent protests and using freedom of speech (another right they were fighting for). Television was a great way to spread counter culture, it was done a lot through advertising, targeting a young audience. TV was also a main way most people got their news and information from, so they were able to see the terrible things that were going on in Vietnam. The counter culture movement even managed to get rid of restricted censorship in films and mass media. Counter culture activists had their own lifestyle, they had their own fashion and style, music and they even had their own magazine. These differences created a generation gap with the elders. There was a lot of conflict between counter culture activists and the law enforcement officials, as well as the older generation. Most of their beliefs differed and the law enforcers banned their new culture. The counter culture movement changed society for good. It helped with LGBTQ acceptance, race equality, freedom of speech and much more. The culture also influenced change in music, fashion and film, these things would not be what they are today without the movement.

70’s Fashion

70’s fashion was flamboyant. Polyester was a very popular material and lots of bright colours were worn. Men and Women both wore tight-fitting flared trousers and high boots. Turtles necks and V necks were in, also two pieces like tracksuits and pan suits. A lot of the fashion was inspired by the music scenes of the 70s.

70’s Music

Rock, Disco, Funk and Soul were all very popular music genres in the 70s and towards the end of the era, hip hop was birthed, changing music forever. Vinyls were very popular at the time as they were affordable and you could play more than 4 songs on them.

Disco was a stand out genre of the 70s. Radio would not play it so it got its exposure from nightclubs that were for minority dancers like people of colour and LGBTQ+ people. Deejays played a big part in the evolution of the genre. They would find hit records and sell them as singles. The main inspirations of disco were funk, soul, Motown and salsa. Disco reached people’s airwaves in the mid 70s and blew up from there however by the early 80s people realised the genre was quite cheesy and commercial it died out and went back to its club roots.

 

Inspiration photos:

 

 

 

 

 

Initial photos:

 

Research references

Retrowaste.com. (2018). The 1970s: American Pop Culture History. [Online] Available from: https://www.retrowaste.com/1970s/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2018].

Worldatlascom. (2018). What Was The Counterculture Of The 1960s and 1970s? . [Online]. Available from: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-the-counterculture-of-the-1960s-and-70s.html [Accessed 14 Oct. 2018]

Victoria and Albert Museum. (2018). You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970. [Online] Available from: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-records-and-rebels-1966-70#intro [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018). Disco music. [Online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/art/disco [Accessed 17 Oct. 2018].