Final Core Project-TASK 1; Proposal.

I'm still deciding which theme to do for my year 1 core project, the two themes I'm thinking of doing is Portraiture and Performing Arts(Band). I'm interested in the Portraiture theme because I love doing studio work and also on location work- I feel I could produce some really strong work if I did this theme. On the other hand I'm interested in doing the Band project because its something new and different for my portfolio, I have the access to a band so theres no problems there and they'd allow me to document them if I choose to do the project on them although I'm not sure how the final images would turn out or what the projects result would be also I'm unsure if they'd be able to book a gig in time that fits my project timings so this is why I'm unsure about choosing this theme for the project.

I have decided to do the performance art/band theme for my year 1 final core project. The band I'm photographing is called "Escape Is Not An option." They have band rehearsals every Monday and Thursday and an upcoming gig on the 22nd of June which I be attending and photographing- I have contacted the venue up and asked permission to do so and they granted me with the permission. I will add the gig images to my work at a later date as the gig doesn't fit with the deadline, instead to replace the gig images for the time being I will take the band out on either a location shoot or a studio shoot and photograph them in that way to make up for the timing issues.

I will be documenting the band's rehearsal room, the things in it which makes it significant and their personal touches. I will be photographing/documenting their rehearsals, possibly also documenting them when they're aren't playing too and I will be doing a location or studio shoot with them. I will also be photographing their gig on the 22nd and hopefully getting behind the scenes images of the gig too.

I'm referencing from Mick Rock and Linda McCartney. I have got their books "Exposed" and "Life In Photographs" from the library. Mic Rock has inspired me; looking through his book I have learnt that band photography isn't perfect- the images can be grainy, blurry and oddly framed and it wouldn't matter it'd still be respected and be an amazing image unlike in other types of photography such as landscape where detail and quality is everything. I've learned that band photography's main aspects is being loud, colourful, playful, border line scary, in-your-face, reckless and bold but it can also be dark, innocent, emotional and very composed. I'm still to decide how exactly I'm going to photograph the band, I'll have to think about what best suites them as artist and try to portray it. I have also learned that lighting is crucial and so is pose/expression as the whole point of band photography is portraying the artists personality and documenting their life. When photography live shoots lighting is not an option to pick and choose with, you get what you get and the quality of the images depends on the limitations that you have but this isn't always I bad thing.

Looking through Mick Rocks' book I can see the pure raw rock-and-roll feel to the live performance images he's taken and the composed, brilliantly portrayed personalities of the studio/location shoot work. His images have taught me that above and also that colours play a massive role in portraying personality; warmth and cold. (see Images of Debbie Harry below) Expression/emotion (see Iggy Pop below) and pose (Susan Sarandon and Meat Loaf) is key and hitting the shutter button at a certain time can be the very difference between an amazing image and a average image when behind the scenes.  .(see black and white image set below)  

When I was looking at Linda McCartney's book I found I loved the family-life band photographs and the photographs where she had to be living the life with the band rather then just observing it were more to my liking- I love the way she photographer her experience in this life which is shown to be so wild, the contrast between the rock and roll life style and the family aspect of her life is shown beautifully throughout the book and especially in the image of the alcohol and the baby milk, I really love the juxtapostion in this image.