RESEARCH THAT INFORMED IDEAS – PETRA COLLINS

Petra Collins is another artist that fits within the dream like fairy atmospherical and surreal type of art similar to Tim Walker and Melanie Martinez however so different in her own unique way. I’ve studied homework for previous projects therefore I guess her style is such a big influence on me however it was suggested as a group that we look into her work because she does that the themes that we are looking into as was a slightly surreal and so is her work but still with very strong  aesthetics.

When looking at her work it’s immediately clear that she thinks about her settings and clearly scouts them out carefully for other photo shoot she is creating, For example that hot mirror or cutout must’ve been carefully constructed, that bathroom must’ve been scouted out so that the the floors and walls have a similar colour palette that she could work with, as well as scouting out the place in the third photo which must’ve had a perfect soft lighting for her.

Petra Collins, similarly to Melanie Martinez, also uses a lot of emotion within her work and in this case it is shown through the facial expressions and body language that the models are showing off such as in one of the photos she is looking off into the distance her body is not turned towards the camera and she was like she is maybe pondering about something or wondering how she got there. in the second image she has on that beautiful white dress and her feet however she is placed in a fairly standard looking bathroom therefore raising questions of who is this girl why is she wearing that dress where has she been where is she about to go and what places are in the bathroom at this specific time.

All of these create a very subtle story which isn’t as dynamic as Tim Walker’s work as it’s not as heavily constructed; the lighting is slightly more soft and the models look a little bit less made up, the outfits are more elaborate in a subtle way paying attention to more detail of the clothing rather than the shape or the silhouette and all these tone downed elements create a subtle emotion that you really have to look at the whole image to understand and interpret to yourself.