Taylor Wessing fail

I just found that dreaded email in my inbox telling me my portrait hadn't made it into the Taylor Wessing portrait prize this year. Arse.

Well this is the 3rd year I've tried and if I'm here and well I will try again next year I am sure.

May as well just show you the image now.

If anyone has any crit it would be welcomed but only if you're familiar with the Taylor Wessing portrait prize.

Caroline and Sarah

Concept:

Perspective points of view. 

The series aims to simultaneously investigate the relationship between twins, identical and non identical, and the way the world we live in views and engages with them. It attempts to look at the fascination our culture has with twins, particularly our obsession with 'difference' and 'similarity', which seems to be our favoured way of understanding and engaging with twins as subject.

The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2012

Test images for the TWPP.

Well, I have entered the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize yet again this year. In earnest winning is a million miles from my primary objective for entering, which happens to be the desire of just getting my work in the gallery as a commended photo.

This is also highly unlikely to happen, but this year I am happy with the final image I submitted and I will post it later on.

This year I considered several subjects but it was a while until I realised I had the perfect one, one that has interested me for a long time, sitting right under my nose. My good friend Caroline is one half of a pair of identical twins.

What particularly interested me here is that Caroline and her sister Sarah, although considered identical twins, look quite different.....and this is where the context was born for this new project:

Perspective points of view. 

This series aims to simultaneously investigate the relationship between twins, identical and non identical, and the way the world we live in views and engages with them. It attempts to look at the fascination our culture has with twins, particularly our obsession with 'difference' and 'similarity', which seems to be our favoured way of understanding and engaging with twins as subject. For the purposes of my series I wish to assert 'difference' as foremost and essential in the viewing experience of twins I put forward.

Cont..............

New Blogs

Hi Guys,

You might think it's been a while but I have been blogging, just not on here.

If you want to keep up with my current blogs then this is them:

http://iamtheweddingphotographer.blogspot.co.uk/

http://sammisparkephotography.blogspot.co.uk/

I'd love some followers.

Kornelia Shoot - No Man's Land Project

Again , this blog is for criticism and I would appreciate any after you have read what i'm trying to achieve (below).

The images here with Kornelia intend to show how teenage years can feel isolating and unsure, this goes two fold for Kornelai as she is Polish and came across here a few years ago with her family.

Kornelia is 15 (believe it or not) and I'm trying to bring out the serious side of her because she is a bit older than her sister and it shows in her behaviour - she is more introverted and serious, quite self aware, much more so than Natalia (not shown here). 

I am also trying to get a feel of  the whimsical, the ephemeral, a soft and hazy feel to show that teenage years are not real as such and full of uncertainty. In a way I want to show how teenage years are for trying things out, playing, moving from childhood to adulthood....that kind of thing.

Any crit very welcome from photography folk. (click on images to see them in detail)

Cheers.

Park shoot with the girls (No Man's Land Project)

This blog is actually to get some crit off my uni mates so I'm uploading a few of the same sort of images, which you wouldn't normally see.

I've decided to play on the different personalities and ages of the girls. For the younger one, Natalia, I'm focusing on her playfulness and with Kornelia, the older one, I'm going for a more serious feel.

My aesthetic is meant to bring out the whimsical, the ephemeral, a soft and hazy feel to show that teenage years are not real as such and full of uncertainty. They for trying things out, playing, moving from childhood to adulthood....that kind of thing.

Any crit very welcome.

Cheers.

Beach Shoot with Natalia and Kornelia

This is a shoot from a few weeks ago.

My flash wouldn't work, which I was gutted about as I think fill in flash is going to be the thing that makes these images look the way I want them to. Basically the only images I've been happy with so far is the shoot before this one with Natalia and her friends.

After a crit at uni, people liked the pared down background of the above shoot because it helped them focus on the subjects better.

With these images, I still really need to get more of a whimsical feel going......and there are a couple of shots that would get near if my sodding flash had worked (It would have gotten rid of the nasty shadows).

Any crit welcome. FYI reminder - the project looks at the teenage years as transient years where nothing is certain and things change quickly and often. I'm looking to get a whimsical feel, dreamy as such, and i've been trying to pick backgrounds that are also changeable like the sea (changes with the tide) and nature which changes with the seasons. Any suggestions of other appropriate settings would be appreciated. :)

     

  

.....nearer I get

This shoot is from the other day where I followed 3 teenagers along the coast trying to get some useful shots of them. I'd asked for the three of them to participate instead of just Natalia, but by the time the shoot came about I realised that photographs of the three of them weren't going to be useful to my project. I took quite a few pics of them non-the-less which they can keep, while stealing single shots of Natalia where I could. I actually think having her friend's along helped to relax her a bit so I'm not entirely unhappy with some of these shots. They are certainly more in keeping with how I want this project to progress. So, one memory card full and an injured knee and foot later here is an update on my project.