DSS #24 - Anna Gaskell?

marikris

Two of the most influential photographers to me are Anna Gaskell and David Lachapelle. For Gaskell's works, here is a link: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&um=1&q=anna+gaskell&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=21

I just love the crazy angles and her use of framing, how she's not afraid to let the camera chop off a limb or two, or a head... So what do you think? Have I successfully emulated her? I have more shots and I'll be shooting all week, but I just wanted to see if this is a good beginning.

Flyinggina

This is a fascinating and disturbing photograph. I might say even audacious.

I like the angle and the way the shadows seem to work with the composition instead of being an impediment. The two heads and the two apples make me wonder about what is going on and the leg and the yellow shoe jutting forth into the foreground further contribute to the unsettling, off balance feeling of the photo.

I like it quite a lot.

I looked at Gaskell's work but have not had time to study it enough to make a judgment about how well you have emulated her work.

Virginia

marikris

Virginia ~

Yes! I love Gaskell for having an evocative narrative that is at once disturbing and darkly beautiful. I try to put my own little spin on it, though Thanks so much for your response!

The Curious Camel

I too looked briefly and don't feel qualified to compare but I can say I like it very much. I like that it is very different and breaking some rules..
I think Virgina brought up a point I was thinking about those apples and what are they comparing? apples to apples perhaps. I like the fact that I stayed looking for a while to try and take in every inch.

Peace, gail

dnie

I looked at her work and I can see the emulation... very interesting and different stuff. I like it. It keeps me going back trying to see what I haven't seen. Just now the apples made me wonder if it was the forbidden fruit? hmmm... just a guess at their postioning and that choice of fruit. Good models you have.
I really like this photo!

sherstone

I think you did well in your emulation - very cool angle indeed!

divamum

Great emulation of the style in a thought-provoking picture. Brava!

Katmitchell

hmmm.. my thoughts
Hi Marikris...

You have chosen an interesting artist.. I looked at some of her stuff.. I could not find an actual website of just her stuff, so I think everything on the google link was hers.. She definitely is not afraid to break all of the rules.. especially on the crops and her shadow work. She makes a strong usage of shadows in odd places on her subjects. Her stuff is thought provoking and I feel you have almost achieved that here..

Here is my 2 cents...

You got the angle of shooting perfectly as far as emulating the way she poses people. She uses weird perspectives.. The shoe upfront helps with that a lot..

There is something about the color though.. not sure if it matters because you mentioned you are adding your own flair to it.. but I notice that Anna played with a lot of yellows and aqua and strangely “muted” colorations in her art that give it a sense surreal time.. Perhaps you might experiment with that some.. I do feel the pink skirt competes too much with the color of the apple…but you nailed it on the weird shadows on the faces.

I can tell you have studied her work because you really did pull it off here in emulating her style.. Great job..

Kat

marikris

Thank you all for the comments!

Kat, you are right, I did want to insert a little bit of me in there (i like really saturated colors a la David Lachapelle, but for this I toned it down a bit from usual). Although, I am reading the challenge now and I wonder if I have to emulate her work entirely - not to say a perfect copy, but more minutely.

The pictures you guys see on google are mostly from her book called Wonderland, in which she reimagines Alice in Wonderland, which is why they're mostly in the blue overall skirts. That's the premise anyway, since her version deals a lot with innocence/darkness/ambivalence, adolescence and budding sexuality. Here's a great youtube video of a collection of the pictures. The music is pretty cool too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIfsDhhWJDk

Cross my fingers the next couple of pics turn out a bit more visually like hers ^_^

Katmitchell

I Thought So
Yes, I thought you may be throwing your own twist on it with the color.. I remember your other post a while back and it had similar coloration. It is very unique and pretty. I think you have done a great job balancing her shooting style with your own artistic vision.

Best of luck...

Kat

Halite

It's each entrant's choice, of course, how closely they want their emulation to match the work of their chosen photographer. Most important, it seems to me, is whether by emulating another photographer you come up with a work that is visually compelling in its own right.

You have accomplished that marvelously with this image

The strangely compressed intimacy of the low angle and radical crop, the way the apple-faced girls are holding those ripe, shiny apples, the slashes of overbright colors repeated between shoes and earrings and dress, apples and lips, even the weird peeping of the sky and vines from below the girls' legs all combine to create a strangely medieval and cubist allegory.

I don't know whether this wins the contest, but I don't think that's the point. With this image you've achieved something unique and artistic. Well done.

marikris

Halite wrote:

I don't know whether this wins the contest, but I don't think that's the point.

Definitely! My only real goal is to be able to submit, as this will make it my *first* challenge. Last month I was late by 2 hours :cry Thank you for your response - you guys have given me a lot to think about in terms of what I was able to capture.

Here's a couple more that turned out. Let me know if either one is stronger than my first. Anna Gaskell was still my source of inspiration. The first one I emulated one of her pictures in which a girl was holding out false teeth, but my girl's holding out a fancy piece of snake bracelet. I really like the idea of costuming (like in Gaskell's Wonderland series) that I put her in this dress - too bad we couldn't get the vertical print too line up down the middle. The second one I tried to emulate Gaskell's use of shadow, and that creepy vibe her picture gives off, in a different way though. I was also practicing skin smoothing on the pics from this model, so hopefully I didn't overdo like I did in another one of hers.





Thank you again! I'm really excited about this month's theme!

Katmitchell

Original
My vote is for the original one you posted.. I think you really came close to emulating her in that one and the composition is just so much stronger the way you worked at filling the frame on that one, and entertaining us with the over the edge perspective.. I vote the original...rofl

Kat

The Curious Camel

Katmitchell wrote:

My vote is for the original one you posted.. I think you really came close to emulating her in that one and the composition is just so much stronger the way you worked at filling the frame on that one, and entertaining us with the over the edge perspective.. I vote the original...rofl

Kat

dnie

Me three!

divamum

Yup, the first one is definitely the keeper! Not only is it visually stronger in its composition, but it has more of a story to tell, and for sure more multiple layers of interpretation.

marikris

Thanks, guys!!!

travelways

I too find the first one really fantastic!!!
- Her yellow shoe is almost breaking my screen...

richtersl

Another vote for #1. It's a much more compelling image.

marikris

Thanks, Tatiana and Linda!

I'm glad it's unanimous hehe, makes it easy ^_^ Off to submissions I go!