To initiate some idea’s and to inject some creativity into my work I started the research project by creating collages. Creating collages made me come to terms which the type of visual imagery I am currently drawn too. I noticed how each collage had a unintentional meaning behind them, for example the first collage had some political elements to it. After creating collages I felt motivated and wanted to visit galleries and exhibitions next for further inspiration.

 

Rachel Tucker was a photographer I found that photographs fruit in a similar way to Stephanie Sarley however her work has a more appetising feel. Although her work does symbolise some form of sexual references I was more interested in her photographic style and use of composition.

 

As me and my group have now decided on the theme for our magazine to be Vulgarity I have started to look at different elements and topics I could based my photography around. I have been studying closely the themes of Vulgar taste, touch, sound and also explored sex, religion and fashion. I came across a instagrammer called Stephanie Sarley who uses fruit in a sexual way to create artistic and uncomfortable imagery. I was intrigued with this concept as it was something that made me feel quite awkward myself but I found it visually unique and also it linked to vulgarity.

 

One stylist I became more familiar with throughout the project was Robbie Spencer. The way he styled the Ambush ss17 lookbook caught my eye as I really liked his sense of creativity when it came to piecing items of clothing together. Although his stying in these images is quite tame, the colours and patterns and the way they go together is something I include in my own personal style. His other works such as the Hollow editorial from Dazed show how bold he can be, layering different clothing snd using clashing prints transformed the clothes to almost into an art form which gave me the motivation to be more experimental when styling models.

 

 

 I looked at the photographer Chad Pitman, I liked his style of portrait photography and how he would focus solely on capturing close up shots of interesting peoples features. He would display his photographs in a grid like structure which I hadn’t seen in a photographers work before. Placing the photographs like this added a sort of disfigurement to the persons face which made it very visually striking.

I created two mood boards focusing on two themes I feel the first issue of my magazine could be based on. The first being Individuality and the second being Beauty. The individuality would focus on unique people which hold strong and bold characteristics through their physically features, personality or fashion. Whereas the beauty issue could focus on individuality within hair and make up and how people use them to express their own identity.

The magazine shop was the first place i went to get inspiration after receiving the project brief. I analysed the front covers closely to see what I was aesthetically drawn to the most so I could infuse the same ideas in my own magazine. I noticed how I preferred magazines that had short, bold fonts. Close up portrait shots and minimal layout and text. The four magazines I decided to focus on were Garage, WRPD, Heroine and Zine, I bought a copy of each to look at photography, styling, layout, and written content. I also used imagery from the magazines to create collages in my sketchbook. My favourite magazine was Heroine, I was attracted to the unique design and bold collages that consisted throughout the mag.