DAPA Venue

I had emailed several dance schools asking if I could exhibit my work in their studios as my metaphoric images was based around dance and would fit well in their dance studios. After emailing a few venues DAPA came back to me wanting me to come in and show them some of my work.

I spoke with the lady in charge Jayne and she was captivated by my work and at first was not going to let me exhibit my work but after her seeing my images she could not resist not having my images up in her studio. I went and showed some of my images that I was thinking of exhibiting and she loved all of them and said she will leave it up to me as to what I want to exhibit and how I would like to exhibit it.

I measured her walls and there was a strip of white down the middle so I measure either side which came to about 240cm either side.

I went away and ordered my prints with Paul Graham, after speaking with him we decided to go for a box frame where the print was then stuck on the box frame so there was a small boarder, no mount and no glass on top. They should be ready in time

More details on how the DAPA venue went in a new post

Hannah- St Anne's

I went out with the same dancer I photographed with her dance partner so I could continue the theme of the poem and the story behind the images. I asked Hannah to perform her routine but on her own to see what effect it created and there is a part were she stands strong with her arms high and it reminded me of her lifting her arms to rise up linking it with her death.

Below are some examples of images I found appropriate and would maybe like to exhibit.

The image below is the image I have chosen to exhibit alongside my other pieces of work. I feel that the piece of work fits with the images and continues the story and how she is dying, as she raises her hands high ready to go to heaven the fabric symbolises how she is bound by her partner and not being able to let go but also how the important things are in the back and she can move on and up to heaven.

The image below is that same above but I have cropped it shorted so it is more narrow to fit with the other images and how you focus more of the model herself then the background

I decided not to use this one as I felt it did not have the same effect as the images above.

The two images below I liked because of the low camera angle and how she stands tall and she looks powerful but because of the close up and the crop of the dancer I feel that it stands out compared to the other images and portrays the images of how powerful and tall she is. Whereas, the other image with the fabric, it shows that she is still strong and is ready to move on.

Below are contact sheet from the shoot.

Over all I am happy with the image with the fabric, it has metaphoric meaning behind it and fits in with the other images making them link with the poem I have chosen.

Emily and Nikki at Formby Beach

I wanted to try and continue the group images and the use of fabric so I took 2 female dancers Emily and Nikki to Formby beach to capture their routine and to photograph them using fabric.

Unfortunately they are both gymnastics and Emily performs freestyle. So there movements was not as fluent as previous dancers and because of the fabric, you can tell even more that they were to stiff because they are gymnastics. I captured them both doing there jumps and flips but found then to have no emotion behind the image so I have not used them. There was one image (see below) I liked but it reminded me to much of a previous image and I don't like the lighting.

Below are contact sheet from the shoot that day

Unfortunately I found these images not to have the same atmosphere as the previous images so I have learnt from this such as to go on a day when the sun if not fully out as it was too bright and I felt the image didnt have the same feel/emotion as the pervious images and looks too different.

Le'Tasha Practice

Today I went out with Le'Tasha, another dancer to practise using fabric and to give her more of an understanding as to what I was trying to achieve. Below are some examples. I wanted to do something similar to what Rachael was trying to achieve so that the fabric was covering her face and the focus being on the fabric and her body. The fabric is meant to symbolise a lover and is telling a story.

The image below is to symbolise that the dancer is being abused. It was enspired by the poem below the image and how the fabric is her partner who is covering her and coming down on her and she is the fetale position and can't do anything as he is to be and over powering. The colours of the fabric sumbolised bruises as well and her lover.

A Mending To A Broken Heart

© Rhiannon

I Talk to him He talks to me. My heart, it swells And Begs to be Free. Does he know what's become of me? He hits and shoves Punches galore I know damn well, that it could hurt more. I try not to cry and not show the pain But deep down I know he's winning this 'game'. To me he's perfect but oh so very vain. I will never, ever over come this pain. I'm nothing but a punching bag, to quench his anger's thirst I grab my arm, and limp off to the nurse. She asks what's wrong I lie and say I fell. Why do I constantly go through with this hell? These tears are for him, and that I hope he knows. These emotions, this pain... why must it show? If I hide it away, I'd be lying to myself. He's abusive and cruel And my friends begin to worry They're afraid that he'll cause the death of me. It brings me to tears, because I know that they're right. They say "Step Up!" They tell me to fight! I tell them the truth "I can't" It would tear me apart. So I Walk off to my room, and try to mend my broken heart

The image below is the oppsite of the image above and the poem as it is showing she is breaking free and standing up to her lover and is more powerful than she thinks

Below are examples of images captured from that day that stood out to me but decided not too use

I feel her leg does not look correct because her legs look too white and needs to be stronger. Whereas she looks just standing I would like more strength and more performance

I like the use and movment of the fabric but not the movement of her hand it looks too blurry

Again I like the use of the fabric but not the colour of her legs

The movement of the fabric brings out the colour but I don't like the way the fabric looks squared and how it does look like a piece of fabric, I wanted it more to blend in

I tried a different technique of a wide angle images so you can see the tree but I feel that the dance disappears and does not stand out as much as I hoped.

Below are contact sheet from today photo shoot with Le'Tasha

Next time I will ask Le'Tasha to perform more with the fabric and to see what the outcome is.

French Connection Advert

I came across the new advert for French Connection and how it uses fabric and the use overlapping. I found the idea of overlapping the different fabric and people inspirational and how some of the people are re sized so that one was zoomed in, the over was made bigger and how the image and the colours compliment each other.

You can see the new French Connection Advert below

http://www.mydaily.co.uk/2012/02/07/video-how-to-make-a-fashion-ad-in-30-seconds-by-french-connection/

Wind (Tornado Idea)

I had an idea to have the dancer on a beach and have her turning into the fabric to symbolise a tornado and that she is going crazy and spinning out of control.

I went to capture the image and felt that it did not have affect I had hoped. The image below is a test shot and I found that it did not have the same effect I had hoped for. The fabric was too short and I was too close. I will try next time and use longer fabric and will capture the image from far away and try use a panoramic images. I will use a tripod to capture the dancer turning in the fabric

Below are the images I captured when photographing Hannah the dancer as she turned in to the fabric

Partner Images- Hannah and David (St Annes Beach)

Below are some images I captured from the shoot in St Annes on the beach with Hannah and David. I explain how I like the images and the meanings within them but also discuss how I can improve these images.

The routine that Hannah and David chorographed it based around a couple and the women is dying but her partner can't come to terms with loosing the love of his life.

When out photographing I asked David to hope the fabric and perform using the fabric but as he danced I felt that the fabric has no signicance to the routine and decided to capture more images of the two of them performing thier routine.

There was a pier of the beach so I tried to capture some images using the pier behind the dancers but felt that your focus was taken away form Hannah and again that it had no signficance what I was to relate to the viewer.

The two images below are images I liked but campared to the last two images I felt they were not as strong emotionally.

The image below is different from the two images above but again I found the surroundings distracting and Im not as engaged as the two I like the most. The image below is t symbolise that although the sun is shining they are in darkness.

The lats two images are the most appealing to the concept and poem I have found. They symbolise holding on and not wanting to let go. The first image shows emotion and holding on and she fades away and the second image shows how she is moving towards the light but he can't let go. I have invisioned panaramic shots that why they are cropped like that but next time I will go out with tripod and capture a panaramic image so that it does not need cropping.

Below are contact sheets from the shoot.

In conclusion I am happy with the images I have captured. I have decided not to use the fabric as I felt that the images were not as effected as I had hoped. Therefore, I decided that I would ask the dancers to perform there dance as I capture the image. The poem below is the poem I have decided to use and feel is a good explanation for the piece of work.

Holding On, and never letting go!

For a moment,
A cursed moment,
I thought of life
Without you, love.
And darkness,
Was all I saw
As my heart gave up
On love;
My breath
On life;
My mind
on sanity.

I made a
Mountain
Out of a
Molehill.
I allowed peeking eyes
And misunderstood words
To cause me to flee.
I left my love
Behind,
Wondering,
Wondering
And longing…
And myself,
I was dying.

My feet
Followed
Illusions,
Not our hearts…
And I
Nearly lost you.
If there were no God
No heaven, no hell,
Then suicide
Would have been my way.
For life without you,
Seems worse than death.
And without you,
I don’t exist…

You are me…
I am you…
My smiles… you are!
My love,
My wife,
Thank you,
My grip on you is tighter
I’m holding onto you!
I would never let go.
I love you!

Copyright ©2010 Leslie Alexis

Leslie Alexis

Taken from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/holding-on-and-never-letting-go/