Following our second session with Roy, we were assigned an environmental portrait task. I was inspired by photographers shown in the presentation such as Barry Lewis (Tony Labrianou with dog) and Philip-Lorca diCorcia (dim lighting, flat but vivid colours & cinematic/theatrical staging). diCorcia straddles truth and fiction in his photographic work, which is an approach I am quite drawn toI was also inspired by the central, symmetrical composition of Wes Anderson film stills and the bus stop scene from the iconic Studio Ghibli classic, My Neighbour Totoro.
There is a lovely traditional-looking dark wooden bus stop in Farnham town centre, linking back to historical rustic village roots, which I immediately saw as an ideal setting for this image - especially if it was captured slightly underexposed. Bus stops are liminal spaces, which have been a recent point of interest for me, so the transitory nature of them as environments is intriguing by nature. I asked Siobhan to model for the shoot, directing her to pretend she was holding a leash attached to a small-medium sized pet, and we got some more casual shots too. This is where fantasy comes in - I drew an anomalous creature, inspired by my recent study seen in this post, to give the image a surreal aspect, like an imaginary slice of life; a look into this fictitious person's day. To incorporate text like we were challenged, I could have added some fake subtitles at the bottom of the image, as if the character was speaking to the creature or vice versa, but didn't think to at the time. My goal wasn't to make it seem like the creature was 100% really there, but to add that element of whimsy to the portrait. For the creature's design, I was inspired by Kevin from Pixar's Up and the Chocobos from the Final Fantasy franchise.
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