Andy Gotts
Photography
‘Scarlett Johansson’
2013
Andy Gotts is a photographer based in London and New
York and is mostly known for his captivating portraiture photos of celebrities.
He was inspired by actors and the work that they can create so he wrote to 300
actors/actresses asking for them to be a part of his project and got one reply
from Joss Ackland. After he finished these photos, Ackland loved the photos and
recommended him to a friend. This cycle then went on and proceeded until Gotts
had created enough photos for a whole body of work. A lot of his work has been
published in magazines such as: Glamour, Empire and Total Film. He also worked
with advertising campaigns. He wanted to show viewers the side to celebrities
that we don’t usually see due to their profession, which is why he got most of
his subjects to pull quirky facial expressions. I like how he has managed to
show different emotions in his work; when he was photographing Scarlett
Johansson in Paris, he shouted out an emotion and she pulled an expression that
conveyed that feeling.
Gotts has used a relatively narrow aperture to create
a deep depth of field as there are no signs of blur around the edges of the
subject; this means that he had to use slow down the shutter speed slightly so
that enough light can be let through the lens. I think that this use of
aperture is meant to persuade the viewers to look deeper into things rather
than only seeing somebody from one perspective; they may have a different side
to them.
Throughout this body of work, in particular this
piece, Gotts has used a fairly bleak colour scheme which juxtaposes well with
the fun and quirky expression the subject is pulling. The fact that Gotts has
placed the subject in front of a black background allows the subject to stand
out and creates depth in the picture. In this picture, dramatic lighting is
used to create a lot of differentiation and contrast in tone; this creates
quite a theatrical mood and gives off the implication to the audience that
there is quite a pantomime feel to the piece. Although the majority of his
other pieces are in black and white, this piece has a very low saturation,
meaning there is still a slight hint of colour in areas such as the cheeks,
lips and eyes. He has also managed to be able to create a crisp texture, as
evidenced by the hair in this image.
As far as composition is concerned, Gotts using a
variety of techniques that aid in the end result of a captivating and
intriguing photo. For example, most of the pieces are filled with the subjects
head, including this piece, rather than trying to capture the body; by doing
this, Gotts is able to show emotion much more successfully than he would have
showing the whole body. In a similar way, the shots are taken at a close up
which shows emotion and in most cases the quirky, fun side to the celebrities. In
this composition, there is a vignette that places an angelic mood around the
celebrity, highlighting the good and happy side to their personality.
Additionally, he has used the technique of simplicity as the face is the only
aspect in the photo and there are no distractions in the photo; there is
negative space around the subject as he did not want the viewers to be diverted
by any unnecessary information.
From looking at Andy Gotts’ work in detail, I have
come to the conclusion that I am mostly interested by the fact that he has used
unique and quirky facial features to show happy emotions. I want to be able to
create a similar mood in my work, which is why I will do one shoot in this
style and then reflect on how it went; this will then allow me to develop my
work further to create better outcomes. Another element of Gotts’ work that I
am interested in is the fact that he has used a black background and altered
the saturation of the face. I think that this provides a lot of contrast in the
piece, which is something that I would like to show in my work. In order to
produce something similar to Gotts’ work, I am going to start looking at the
result of shooting in the studio. From my own past experiences in the studio, I
really liked the result of using the butterfly lighting technique as this
highlights the contour area of the face and results in a more attractive
composition. Hopefully, when I am happy with the outcomes that I am producing,
I will then be able to convert the image into a piece also inspired by Vince
Low’s work as I think they work really well together.
No comments:
Post a Comment