To Leigh or to Lee

So I get an artist thrown my way & it happens I have been an admirer of his stuff for a long time without even realising it. Leigh Bowery as shown in the video above. My reference in particular comes from the film party monster, anyone who as watched this film will fully understand the concept of what I am talking about & for those who haven't, I highly recommend, even if its to see Macaulay Culkin fucked up on coke.

The clothing is outrageous & you likely wouldn't be caught dead wearing such clothing yet it turns every ones eyes for attention who gaze upon it. Its bright, colourful yet just plainly strange, but none the less, something you wouldn't think about twice looking at again & again.

This is all good & well done, but then on the other scale we have the more sinister type artists such as Joel Witikam who was recently brought to my attention

Now this artist is the other way, you are probably looking at that image until I tell you those are actually real heads. If your still reading then that's cool. His images intrigue & often just look damn right strange much like Bowery's clothing sense. The only difference is that while Bowery looks for attention I don't believe Joel does. There are images of skeletons fused together to make strange creatures/objects such as one image of a mans head being used as a fruit bowl which I think he is making a point about making somthing new out of the disgarded things we can relate to.

So, if I think about these together, maybe I should kidnap some high fashion statement victim, get a nail gun with some super glue, a box of paint/spray cans & see what 20 cans of relentless bring. Interesting.

Told you so..

No one believes me when I say I have a riot shield..
This is actually pretty odd, because after watching that film, "breathless" during seminar today, I can see my image related to the main women charactor, boyish, shorthair, stripy french style clothing. Its odd that perhaps I already had this idea subconciously put in my head from other influences which maybe can be relatted to that film.

Male models

I do not work with many male models so I have found two which I shall be shooting. Both are close to or over 6ft, early 20s & the first example is Rick, left. Hes brummy, but ill let that off due to the fact he seems a pretty sound person while ive been communicating with him. Hes the shorter of the two ive picked but is also the only inked one, plus I find his arm sleave very attractive to shoot along with his fitness lifestyle figure. His facial features work both masculine as well as feminine making him suitable for a wide range of ideas.

My darkskin model, right, is by far the larger of the two being well over the 6ft mark & around 90kg. He is also more of a local lad living here in Preston so will be easier to obtain. Both these models are going to bring something new to my portfolio as well as anyone elses who works with me on the side projects.

I think its important to recognise male models as well as women as both have good & strong points which the other cannot do. I also have the abillity to come up with other constructive ideas & thoughts other than the term "hes fit", yes girls state the obvious while you put the kettle on.

wise words

Props

lets look at some simple prop usage such as the lolly pop. I find props no matter what they are, make a model more interesting in the sense that he/she has the ability to feel more comfortable with their arm & hand placements. A model without a prop usually takes far more guiding & less creativity comes naturally. I have a prop wardrobe where I have random clothing, bits and bobs just to make what would be otherwise boring shoots more interesting.

Keeping on the theme of props, a peace of silk like material can give weird light reflecting oddness which I don't particularly find appealing in the left image, but I do like that belt. This belt or something similar I must have & on the look for it as I have ideas about modifying it. Maybe have 2, one natural & one fucked about with.

Its a perfect tool for making implied nude shoots more fun but indeed doesn't go with the PVC arm gloves she is wearing which makes a perfect example of what to avoid using with it. if them gloves where perhaps a satin or leather or the belt PVC, then the image would look better in my opinion but mixing the two materials looks clashy/lazy.
It also doesn't help that he has auto focused on her leaning back forehead area along with likely aperture around F8ish with a low ISO causing blur due to a low shutter speed.

I was nearly right, the camera data states F7 on a 24-70mm Lens at 51mm focal and 0.5 shutter. So maybe theculprit is also camera shake as that lens doesn't have IS but for a lens at that focal length camera shake is fairly minimal. Surly would have made more sense to have used F6 & upped the ISO/light to allow shutters of 1/30 or 40 instead of ISO100 0.5 as the file data says. I agree the light looks nice but once you make it bigger all off this slaps you in the face soon as your attention is dragged to the forehead..

Constructed location

Lets take into consideration, location work rather than studio, lets then construct the location scene & to make it a bit more interesting. lets add a snap shot aesthetic using bright harsh lights, vivid colour along with a slight crop at the to bottom to make the framing a more interesting wide angle effect. Sticking all this together & you get the above image. If that didn't warp your mind enough, is the model male or female.....I just think its a pretty picture :p

New poster

My older posters of my main website address has been deemed (inappropriate), due to the word alcohol on the poster, therefore I've used my blog page as a front page to my main portfolio of www.razorsandalcoholphotography.co.uk

Tattoes are awesome

...Enough said

Glamour

Thought id post a newish glamour style photo by me, see not all my stuff is dark and fetish related.

new toys

How awesome is this gag, its got a bayonet on the end for multiple attachments such as the serving plate which is on this current picture. This is one of my recent purchases & no doubt will end up in some photo shoots. I was going to get a dental gag but seems to be very popular due to it being fairly cheap so allot of cheap fetish pictures have been dotting about.

This gag is far from the cheap side of life but is indeed an item which turns heads.

Location moment

Thought id make a quick update in regards to location shooting. The image I shot to the right, was done on the fly in 15 minutes with my less impressive lens, with no flash & a really basic scene. Location shoots are fun, making the background look more interesting & can be as complicated or as simple as you like when it comes to lighting.

Lets talk different

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fetish fashion

This is fetish fashion, none of that boring crappy catwalk zombie rubbish, maybe this will help explain my line of thought a bit better.  These shows are awesome & I intend to do my best to vist one abroad, they are available in this country but england is waaaay to PC unlike the states or germany for example.

Bit of influence

Arwendur, (steve) creates some amazing work when he has the time & looks really unique, thought id share a few of his images above with you.

New style for me

I recently agreed to do some photography for the student union at UCLAN. The images will be for the give it ago promotion & will involve me visiting the many activities which will be taking place to do PR images for the union to use.

This is a great opportunity to get more involved with more socialising aspects & different people in a wide range of activitiesincluding sports, dancing, competitions & so forth. Ill post on here each activity ill be attending & let you all know how it goes.

Glamour Gone Bad

Every so often, I will post up "Glamour gone BAD" as its always good to point out what happens when you get a GWC "Guy with a camera" armature who's skills amount to a camera popup flash & photo shop overs smoothing making your skin look like a cartoon.

I haven't put the censor there, the image came like this, click on it to enlarge and have a look at the models facial features along with the super bright white eyes! super sexy indeed, id sat a 6/10 on the crash & burn scale

Pin up

I'm going to attempt a constructed scene in a pin up style. Left you ll see my casted model crystal. Shes a burlesque dancer In Lancaster & have much faith in her abilities and hope shes prat icing that hair style I'm after :p

I have a Betty page confidential files book which has been making fun of me ever since I got it, saying do a shoot Lee, you know you want to.

The shoot I'm going to do with crystal will involve a real reindeer skin rug, yes REAL for all you animal loving hippies out there, a 60s style radio, a lamp from the 70s & I'm working on the background currently.

Fashion for the 3rd years

As some of you maybe aware, some of you are not, Fashion and standard mainstream beauty isn't really my thing, but Ive expanded some of my work into these areas with the help of 3rd year Fashion & styling students. There's a few from the set on my site & a past shoot with another model using fashion design students clothing. I don't mind shooting this type of work as it makes me think about my lighting more, especially with lighting the larger head peaces.

These shoots for me are a little be boring in the sense I did use studio lighting for a clean presentable image which was required for their brief, though was hectic while shooting. I think im going to move back out of he studio & go back to more location work with the use of mobile lighting.

This is the type of work I originally came from but got myself comfortable with studio work which is difficult to leave behind when you know perfect results are possible without worrying to much about the location. Constructed scenes are also a big plus for me as for my next shoot is a Pin up style scene.

scars + fashion

It seems that the high fashion industry is now moving into the alt scene as well, as this image shows. Its taken with my crappy mobile so that'll explain the quality, but as can be seen are lines cross her face. These are being portrayed as scarification lines rather cleverly.


This makes you look at the beauty of the model then then realise she is in fact scared but they are being used in an artist way to improve her looks. Wonder how long before the 14 year olds are taking razor blades to the face in a bit to replicate such ideas.


It was done by a group called


http://www.nakedartists.com/

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Ive always said theres two popular things in this world, food and sex, as the image to the right can show you, Asda seems to promote both of them in very subtle ways. I personally thing Asda should sell smart price sex toys in the alcohol section. "No Frills dildos, does the job" they would be even richer and teen pregnancy will probably drop as they will be able to have fun at home rather than drinking on the streets trying to get laid.

And so it starts

This blog is for the creation of a online sketchbook for my photography ideas.

Its currently being started as part of an assignment brief from university but will likley end up keeping it if turns out usefull to me.
Im not greatly fond of blogging though the addiction im sure will appear but then again im glad im not one of them annoying people who update their facebook status every 15 minutes every hour of their lives.
Id also like to make it clear that I do not lick vogues ass, I consider fashion to be a brainwashing technique much like music but at least music can be confined with headphones, visually fashion fucks you up and feeds of your money and what little soul you have left the govnement hasnt taken yey With each new trend it aspires to create drones which only care about their phoysical apearance rather than the individual. Its people that inspire me not trends.

I am a photographer, my talent is my abillity to use light to recreate what I see and process it further if required to enchance its visual quallity to the masses. Wether its product photography, fashion, fetish or just out right porn, the content is merly what im exposed to through the process of thoughts from either an individual or combined effort. Its not my job to know what the 'in' thing, but to turn the ordinary into something which will gain a second look.

In this blog ill be adding video, photos and info from inspiring places, things, people and so forth as well as the stuff which makes want to avoid it. Wether or not you like my ideas and thoughts I dont particularly care, your can easily click that little 'X' to close this window and jobs a good'n.