Category: AD137 – Subcultures // Photography and Styling
EXHIBITION ON THE CLOTHING OF SUBCULTURES
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
I went to an exhibition on clothing throughout history of subcultures which was really interesting to see in person as visual research. I really enjoyed it.
stay groovy x x
Figures
Photography by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Exhibition at Brighton Museum
MUSEUM OF TRANSOLOGY
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
This exhibition was very interesting, particularly now when the topic of gender and sexuality is talked about so often. What I loved about this exhibition is that rather than just explaining what being transgender means, it did more than that because it really spoke about what it means to the person who is feeling as though they do not belong in their body.
The exhibition showed personal items of transgender people and the symbolism behind them. Things so simple as a can of Lynx deodorant made someone feel a step closer to being male when they were born female.
As someone who was lucky enough to be born into the right body, it is so hard to believe the anxiety and strain one must feel when they don’t feel comfortable in themselves. I felt as though this exhibition is so important and I want as many people to see it as possible. Especially people who find it hard to understand the concept of feeling like another gender, and also people at the beginning of their journey of self discovery as the exhibition shows the fact that you can end up being in a body that you feel is right and that there are so many other people that have done this.
stay groovy x x
Figures
Photographs by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Museum of Transology Exhibition at the Brighton Museum
GLUCK, ART & IDENTITY
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
This exhibition at the Brighton museum was very interesting, more so as I met a historian there who seemed to know a lot more about the exhibition than the information boards said.
She told me a lot about the more unknown information about Gluck, such as Gluck’s connection to the dresses that were on display and Gluck’s relationships.
Gluck did not want to be defined or known as any sort of label, just Gluck. This is very relevant to the research I have been doing in relation to subcultures. I suppose having alter egos that do not define as a certain gender is very similar to this, and it also relates very well to Sam’s turkish pop music photoshoot as he explores what it means to be masculine and whether being at all ‘feminine’ can change that.
I really enjoyed my trip and thought it was very eye-opening to the feeling in which an artist feels they need to express themselves whilst going through something, that at the time was not understood.
stay groovy x x
Figures
Photographs by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Exhibition – Gluck, Art and Identity, Brighton Museum
~ TURKISH POP MUSIC ~
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
Our next and final shoot’s concept was by Sam. He had researched into Turkish Pop Music and seen the huge difference between it’s pop culture, Turkey’s current climate and its traditions. He wanted to display this in a way that he tackled issues of masculinity and what that means within its pop culture and its contradiction to its traditions.
I felt this was such an interesting concept and styling this was lots of fun.
My styling and concept board:
Colin did the photography and played with the ideas behind camera angles and the intimacy you get from close ups.
We were all really happy with the shoots we did and Sam’s final layout edit is very good.
Art direction by Samuel Jarman
Styling by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Photography by Colin Kolmel
stay groovy x x
~ GLAM ROCK ~
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
Due to having researched similar subcultures it became obvious that we all had a strong connection and knowledge about Glam Rock as a subculture. Therefore we decided to assign roles and do the shoot. I styled, Colin did the Art Direction and Sam and I did the digital photography, although we decided to only use the film photography which I also did. This was another way of me improving my skills with film photography.
For the concept, something that stood out, was the way in which many of the Glam Rock icons in history had more than one ‘alter ego’ or character that they liked to become. However, much like many celebrities, there is more to them and their persona, than they like to evoke on stage.
This meant that the concept behind our photoshoot was to have our model dressed in a performance outfit, yet not really displaying attributes of being a performer. Ultimately the quality which the film photographs portray fulfils the rawness of the concept behind the images. We wanted our photographs and stature of the model to look light and airy, yet still powerful.
Unfortunately, our desired model, Liam, wasn’t available on the day that we had planned to carry out our shoot. But we wanted out shoot with him to go perfectly so we decided to do a test shoot with Colin as our model. We tried many poses and angles and by the end of it, we knew exactly what we wanted to do with Liam.
Some of these images look beautiful and exactly in line with our concept, however, it got dark early and we didn’t get everything we wanted perfect, and also Liam was a slightly better fit for our shoot.
Here are some of the photographs with Colin modelling that we really liked.
Then, the next day, we did our shoot with Liam, knowing exactly what we wanted him to do and we finished in an hour. We learnt a really valuable lesson here as it is important to know what you’re doing, especially in industry so that can use your time efficiently and save money when hiring models and studios and the like.
Happy with our digital photos, we awaited the arrival of our film. When it was developed, we started printing in the dark room and we were so happy with our prints.
To save resources, we then just scanned the rest of our strips in and digitally edited and refined them.
We then chose our final images and I edited the layout and wrote the piece of writing to explain our concept. We were all really happy with the outcome and the way the story of the feature turned out.
Styling by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Art Direction by Colin Kolmel
Digital Photography by Samuel Jarman and Kynza Kendall-Jones
Photography in final feature by Kynza Kendall-Jones
stay groovy x x
DARK ROOM SESSIONS PT.2
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
Photography by Kynza Kendall-Jones
stay groovy x x
HASSAN HAJJAJ – LA CARAVANE EXHIBITION
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
In London, I went to an exhibition of the work of Hassan Hajjaj, a photographer who draws a lot of inspiration from his heritage and culture and combines it with the current culture aspects. I found it really very interesting and I loved the vibrancy of his photographs. The exhibitions juxtapositions of the old and the new was very strongly related to my photoshoot with Sam’s Turkish Pop Culture which was perfect!
stay groovy x x
Figures
Photography of Hassan Hajjaj’s work by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Hassan Hajjaj – La Caravane Exhibition at Somerset House, London.
~ DENIM DISCO DIVA ~
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
Today we did my Denim Disco Diva shoot. I styled the shoot, Sam Art Directed and Colin did the Photography.
I was really happy with the way the photographs came out and we really enjoyed the photoshoot.
I decided I really wanted to make a behind the scenes video to show what it was like and remember our set up. Sam kindly shot a couple of short clips and I edited them together alongside some music to evoke the tone of my photoshoot.
Figure 1
Initially, I wanted to use two looks in my final outcome so we shot them in a way that portrayed my concept of the juxtaposition between power and vulnerability. However in the end, I decided that when I edited the images together, the images didn’t flow as well when there were changes of outfit within my editorial.
Denim Disco Diva Selected Images Contact Sheet
Therefore, I cut out the images in my ‘day’ look outfit and stayed with the more modern approach to ‘Denim Disco Diva’. I then, to display my concept of wanting there to be a clear difference between the images that are more vulnerable looking and the more carefree images, chose to use black and white and colour to differentiate them. I felt as though the black and white images really portrayed the vulnerability in the model and the photographs as opposed to the colour images that evoked confidence. I still wanted the look of the black and white to look in keeping with the film photography that was taken in Studio 54, which was one of my main influences. I did the same with my colour photographs so that they resembled the colour photography of the time, with softer yet still vivacious colours. This colour palette, I believe, helped with the transition of colour to black and white within my ‘feature’ as it still felt as though it could have come out of a camera reel in the seventies.
Within these final images, I really liked the way they differed between colour and black and white. I also really liked the sense of movement within the colour images as they portray the feeling of confidence of dancing at Studio 54. Although it is usually unpopular and not advised, I did like the slight action blur of these images.
I then went on to put my images into a layout so that they would read as a story that portrayed the constant battle of the celebrities living in the moment and then feeling vulnerable for being in the lime light.
I am really happy with the final outcome of my feature and it has really inspired me to think about concepts and stories within editorials or any work for that matter in the future.
stay groovy x x
Figures
Figure 1 – Short Behind the Scenes Video, Filming by Samuel Jarman.
All photography by Colin Kolmel
Styling by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Art Direction by Samuel Jarman
Layout Editing by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Concept by Kynza Kendall-Jones
Research by Kynza Kendall-Jones
DARK ROOM SESSIONS PT.1
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
Photographer – Unknown
stay groovy x x
EDITING IMAGES
(AD137: PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING – SUBCULTURES)
My editing process:
CROP
CLONE TOOL – To edit imperfections within the background and skin
HUE/SATURATION
LEVELS
This is then what I did to my Denim disco diva images:
Before:
Editing process:
After:
Before:
Editing process:
After:
stay groovy x x
Photography by Colin Kolmel
Editing and styling by Kynza Kendall-Jones