Nigel Barker (born April 27, 1972 in London, England) is a noted fashion photographer of British and Sri Lankan descent. He is best known for his participation as a judge and photographer on the reality show America's Next Top Model. He entered the fashion world as a male model and then 10 years later opened his own photography studio ‘StudioNB’. His professional success both behind and in front of the lens is very impressive. His work has appeared in such publications as GQ, Interview, Paper, Lucky, Seventeen, Cover, Razor Red and People. He has also created advertising campaigns for brands such as Beefeater Gin, Sean John, Pierre Cardin, Nicole Miller, OP, Ted Baker, Land’s End, Lexus and Frederick’s of Hollywood and worked with various charities. I really like Barkers clear cut and fashionable style, his use of colour, props and location is excellent and next year I would love to create some studio work along a similar style.
David LaChapelle (born March 11, 1963, United States) is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique and often humorous style. LaChapelle has been able to photograph lots of celebrities, including Angelina Jolie, Gwen Stefani and David Beckham and his high end budget allows him to create wild and fantastical scenes that appear to be a still from a movie. I really like his use of bold and vibrant colours and I would love to be given the chance to mimic and replicate his style in my future work.
He gained his first professional job as a photographer by boldly approaching Andy Warhol just after he had finished school and presenting him with his portfolio. Because of this I felt able to email Lachappelle with a similarly bold and cheeky request for work experience, unsurprisingly I have yet to hear back from him.
Within our video module Maria arranged for a video artist to present us with some of his work and talk to us about his career and answer some of our questions. He spoke to us about the importance of networking within the art world. Within every commercial industry connections are vital to success and the photography industry is no different. Successful artists of all genres from music to photography are at some point ‘discovered’ or have their ‘big break’. As a studying photographer this all seems hugely daunting and somewhat unfair. Connections aren’t only vital at the beginning of ones career, for example, David LaChapelle’s successful career continues to grow and grow as he becomes more famous and in turn more in demand. Every celebrity wants to confirm his or her own status by being shot by LaChapelle and the more successful he becomes, the higher his budget rises and the better his images are able to become. All this clarifies how important it is to get myself and my work out there as soon as possible. In every job a full CV is required to secure the position and because we aren’t all as lucky as LaChapelle to present a successful and powerful artists our portfolio, most of us have to start at the bottom. Because of this I have researched into various studios in leeds to ask for work experience and I also read lots of photography magazines and enter as many of their competitions as possible. Many photographers start by becoming another photographer’s assistant, this is also something I have looked into. As I am primarily interested in portrait photography and fashion, these are the genres of which I have and will email various photographers for work experience or assistant placements. However I would love the chance to work as an assistant with any photographer as I feel I have a lot to learn and assisting them and experiencing how they work would teach me a huge amount.
There are various websites available that display photographers’ work. Flickr is a site primarily aimed at amateur users that I have been using for the past 3 years. Flickr enables each user to comment on their own and other members’ photographs. Outside of my academic work I enjoy using Flickr to show my work and get feedback form other photography enthusiasts. It is also a great website for following my friends work and researching and developing ideas. Visit Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/
Gawker is a website that I have recently discovered that have an artists section, this is their blurb about how it works. “Participating artists will have a profile published and a select group have their works rotate across Gawker Media titles. In addition, Gawker Artists offers our readers the opportunity to exhibit artists' works on their own websites by becoming an exhibitor.” The ‘Gawker Artists’ scheme is aimed at more professional practitioners than Flickr – and isn’t solely concerned with lens-based work - it provides artists with the valuable chance to gain recognition. The possibilities offered by ‘Gawker Artists’ are very attractive, in a few years when I have developed a bit more as a photographer I would like to consider putting my work forward. Visit Gawker Artist at http://gawker.com/artists/
Whilst ‘Gawker Artists’ ostensibly offers more professional opportunities for artists, recently on Flickr I uploaded some images from my digital post production module and was approached by an online magazine to feature one of my images along side one of their articles. The email is shown below:
Hi Rebecca Blount, Here's a personal note from julianw: ___________________________________________________________ We are doing a story on Japan's new "i-pod tax" and your photo would be an ideal addition to our coverage. Would you allow us to publish the image or images indicated in this message, properly attributing them to you, of course? You would also be welcome to add other images to our coverage, or to contribute your own stories. Thanks, Julian
____________________________________________________________ NowPublic is a news sharing community that uses stories, photos, & videos from sources like you.
If you would like to learn more about this request, and the context in which your photo might be used, click on this link: www.nowpublic.com/import/48239e5c5a83d1.91537869 If you do give your permission, your photo will always remain your property, and whatever license you have specified will follow its use on NowPublic.com If you have any concerns about this, please contact our Quality Assurance Coordinator at quality@nowpublic.com
The PhotoShelter Collection is another website where photographers are able to show their work, however on this site photographs can be bought and sold. ‘We believe photography is an art and a profession, not a commodity. We are determined to restore diversity and freshness to this industry. We believe photographers deserve a level playing field and the majority percentage of their sales. Our community is open and growing by the hundreds every week.’ – PhotoShelter website. This is another website that I am planning to join in 6 months or so, when I feel my portfolio is a little stronger. Visit their site at http://psc.photoshelter.com/
The photography industry is extremely competitive and with more and more talented photographers graduating from university, with each year it becomes harder to become a successful artist. Because of this I have researched into other ways of making money from photography. Post cards, birthday cards, posters and calendars are all big commercial industries that all use photos in their products. This is something I would like to research into more, I would like to try and contact someone who might be able to buy some of my work, however, due to being busy with this years academic work I have been unable to obtain contact with anyone or any company regarding this. This is one of my goals for during my summer break or failing that, next academic year.
Product photography is also maybe a less glamorous side of the industry but that still has the possibility of making lots of money. Each item on a supermarket shelf has a graphic or photograph on it depicting the product in question, as more and more products are being developed and released everyday, this seems to be an area of photography that will not be exhausted – and one where money will always be made.
