SOURCES FOR MY WEBSITE PHOTOGRAPHY
* The photographs of the x4 young boys are meant to represent 'Suburban Typo' as youthful preadolescents, wild, playful and eager to grow up into the world of music. I used my younger brother and three of his friends (Joe Fraser, Oliver Hammond, Joshua Masterson & Alfie) as the young band & received parental permission before photographing them in order to make sure their mums & dads felt comfortable with my work. I really aimed to capture a rebellious portrayal of their childhood, having the boys pretend to drink beer, smoke, pee on cars, and generally mess about. I photographed them on my nikon slr & a disposable camera & use my polaroid printer to develop some of the shots. With the variety of cameras I attempted to create a homemade, authentic feel. As most festival goers use disposables for convenience & effect. I aimed to parody
their style & make 'Suburban Typo' seem rooted in history & a
magnetism towards the alternative lifestyle. I edited all the photos
using filter effects on iphoto / instagram, in order to make them seem
more arty / aged.
*The Photographs of Bing & his friends - or fellow band mates. We photographed Bing on Grace's SLR camera when we were filming the 1st & 2nd performance pieces. The river backdrop provided an urban, nature, holistic feel and aided our portrayal of the artist. The photographs of the fellow band mates were taken on other occasions when we met up socially. The photographs I then edited to make them feel more 'indie', sourcing - through the use of social networking sites (facebook,tumblr,flickr,instagram) & noting the effects used in the photography by people who I felt were quite 'indie' / 'alternative' & mimicking these. 'The Vaccines' use only monochromatic imagery on their site, which does make their site look extremely edgy and sophisticated - in a uniquely rocky way, their images seem lifeless, curious and extreme - appealing to their demographic and exciting a viewer who quickly clicks through their site.
* INDIE ETHOS
My site (using the photos of the boys) tried to mimic the discrete star image of an indie rock band. 'The Vaccines' most recent album What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? used images of x4 surrogate band members - all female. These females were almost Metamorphasized versions of the group, echoing their video for 'Teenage Icon' and blurring the gender stereotypes of rock music. Therefore i chose to make the band out of there younger selves rather than women & copied the classic band formation in one of my digi-pak stills.
I also used photos my friend & I had taken last year at Reading Festival on a disposable camera - trying to capture a hedonistic, musical vibe within their present life as well as youth.
* My DIGI-PAK
For the front cover of my DIGI-PAK (as aforementioned) i have manipulated a selection of images in order to create a bricolage of ideas which can mean as little or as much as the viewer wants them to. I used power point to 'Remove the background' of the images in order to layer the parts of the photographs i wanted without any white backgrounds or distant objects. Though some of the images were ones i had taken for example the boy blowing up a condom (Joe) or the Olympics post box. Indie albums often revert focus from the artist and onto the music. Star image has seemed to drown music in its glossy facade, and groups like 'The vaccines' "XX' 'Two door cinema club' 'Bombay bicycle club' reduce this forced merchandising and voyeristic reception, by using graphology / art based album covers, photographs which connote their songs, albums, music or group, or photographs of people other than themselves. Therefore i aimed to use this style for my own artwork, including references to 'The Beatles', drug culture, disco, British heritage, Disney, and The Queen, Andy Warhol to create a mad collage of inter-textual imagery. I used a similar style for my back cover as well cropping out different images / cartoons / sketches / paintings of arms in order to create a chain of collaboration.
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