STORM (Fashion Magazine): Paolo Pellegrin

There is a new 'Fashion Magazine' from Magnum which has recently been published this year. As some of you may know, every year, Magnum (one of the most profound photographic agencies) commissions one of their photographers to interpret their vision of what fashion personally means; coming from a non fashion photographic specialism.





I find it really interesting to see what inspires a photographer with little background of fashion photography and it is clear that Paolo has been influenced less by fashion itself but more by architecture (which he previously studied) and War. He was involved in 'war' photography which has filtered through into his fashion work, creating a powerful and strong sense of realism with his use of singular directional lighting and dramatic poses (as well as armour like clothing).

There are also many images of beautiful landscapes , portraits and still life in this book which is intertwined to be relevant to Fashion such as the Portrait of Vivienne Westwood and still life of Christian Dior accessories. This book is in all honesty, rather odd and some parts made me question how certain pages are relevant to fashion- but interesting nethertheless! I was a bit freaked out half way through the book when I came to a collection of thin, black tissue paper pages with Japenese subjects looking as though they were straight from The Ring or some other horror film Anyway, with that aside, I rather like it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Paolo-Pellegrin-Fashion-Magazine/dp/883661700X

Contemporary Renaissance

Ive been doing a lot more research into Renaissance art and recently found some great contemporary inspiration which I will definitely refer to when creating my own images. I now feel I have done enough reading up on the Renaissance era to explain near enough every theme, topics and technique around... I do get a little sidetracked when researching my topics and have recently been looking at the AMAZING art of the Pre-Raphaelites which I will definitely have to experiment with at a later date! So here are the Pics below...enjoy!







So I am now a happy member of the Wokingham AND Bracknell Library (I know what a geek) but there is actually a lot of really interesting art/fashion/photography books in both (although Bracknell library does smell of piss a bit upstairs). Having regularly visited thefashionspot website I have found some really amazing contemporary pics which will certainly inspire me in one way or another -however I will still give my images a personal touch...

I have read and learnt all about the Golden Section, Perspective, Chiaroscuro, Contrapposto (the sculptural posture in art! I know right?), symbology and so on. From looking at this I would like to experiment with the notion of Angels vs Demons;- not in the Dan Brown sense but in a kind of fashionised sexy combined with Innocent way- Not 100% sure yet but will sleep on it. Gonna get back to reading my Audrey Hepburn Biography :) Good times.