*ooof*: Alienated Richard

A happy new year to all of you me+richard readers all over the world! I hope you all had a great 2012. 2013 is set to be an interesting one for all of us Armitage Afficionados – Richard’s star is set to rise and shine brightly, as we have already seen from the amount of press and promo that has come our way in advance and in the wake of The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey. How exciting! I have high hopes for an avalanche of Armitage news, interviews, images and sightings that will bury last year’s drought.
While our dear Servetus is killing the miles today on her big trek back from the holidays, I have decided to sweeten her absence by presenting you with a new *ooof*. As a little nod to our hostess I am picking up on a suggestion of hers for today’s instalment of *ooof*. She suggested a look at the most recent photoshoot of Richard’s – the FAULT magazine fashion spread, shot by Paula Parrish in New York. This is an as-yet unpublished spread, and all we have seen so far are a couple of previews that FAULT themselves are teasing us with, plus the caps and behind-the-scenes video of the shoot itself. I have chosen the image that is also going to appear as the alternative cover for FAULT 13, due to come out in two weeks’ time. There is another reason why I am following Servetus’ suggestion. After my last *ooof* which concentrated on the photoshoot of Richard by Victoria Will, this will provide quite a contrast to the images that I hailed so enthusiastically last time. In fact, the differences – both photographically and in terms of approach – could not be greater between these two female photographers. Let’s look at the image itself first.

Thinking hard?
Richard Armitage in a fashion image by Paula Parrish from forthcoming FAULT magazine, issue 13.
Image sourced on richardarmitagenet.com

Armitage is thoughtful. Reminiscent of Rodin’s thinker, Armitage is posing outdoors, head (almost) in hand, staring off-camera. He is sitting at an angle to the camera, leaning against a wall in what is obviously an outdoor space. His head is at an angle, with his right hand reaching up to the crown of his head to give us the pensive pose. Parrish has chosen a nice pose for her subject – the half-profile of Armitage’s head accentuates Armitage’s prominent nose – a trademark of our man??? – while bringing his left eye (almost) into the centre of the image. For the droolers among the viewers, there is also the exposed neck which stands out clearly against the background and which is crying out loud to be stroked and touched, while the right hand with a slender-looking wrist invites the viewer to gently grab and clasp in an effort to move Armitage’s head closer for a little snog. (Oooops, has my imagination run away with me again???)
Has Armitage just come back from mucking out the stables? Or has he been on a two-month mission in Afghanistan again? His skin appears dirty, with streaks of mud on his wrist and forehead, stains on his jumper and a solid stubble on his cheeks. Rhetorical question – you and I know from watching the FAULT video again and again and again that Armitage had scrubbed up pretty well, was squeaky clean and in fact quite nicely, even if casually, dressed for this shoot. The stains and dark patches we see on the images are caused by a very special type of post-production that is more or less a trademark of Parish’s: This image has effectively been photographed twice. Parrish has firstly done her primary shoot with Armitage. At a later stage she has rephotographed the photograph to achieve this visual effect. If you are interested, hop over to her portfolio page where you can see how she does it: She projects the image onto a rough, uneven wall and then photographs the projected image again. And there is her final image.
This leads to an interesting effect. While, on a superficial level, the viewer might get misled into believing that the sitter is dirty and just home from a Rugby match, in fact she is effectively “de-facing” her subject. The image itself almost becomes a meta-image. As a photograph is only one interpretation of a (person at a) given moment in time, this is now an “interpretation of an interpretation of a (person at a) given moment in time”. (Do you still follow me? I know, I am drifting into structuralist thought again.) As such, it interestingly supports Barthes’ reading of an image as a “punctum”  rather than a “studium” – due to the added layer of alienation, the image receives more personally, emotionally touching detail than if viewed in its original version. (Now, that’s all my fancy analysis – it could well be that Parrish does not give a flying f*rt about this and simply likes the visual interest of her photographed projection…)
Whether substantiated with some high-flying, pseudo-academic theory or not – the image *is* interesting to look at. But having said that – this technique is rather unusual for a fashion spread. It is not unusual for a photographer like Parrish to churn out work like this, though. A look at her website will tell you that she is a fashion photographer – but she is also pursuing fine art photography at the same time. In this shoot – and a number of previous fashion spreads – she has married her fine art aesthetics with the commercial brief and created rather distinctive fashion images. It can be argued, that this alienated depiction of clothes (and their wearer) may not be ideal for a fashion spread. After all, the clothes are getting obscured by the grainy, bumpy, dirty textures of the projection surface. The conversion into b/w adds another layer of alienation/divergence onto the intended presentation of clothes… In that respect, I would not necessarily call this a good fashion concept.
In terms of portraiture, however, this is extremely thought-provoking and interesting. Yes, the sitter is getting obscured, too. The viewer now has to penetrate two layers of interpretation instead of one. (Or even possibly more if we consider that the sitter himself is only offering us an interpretation of self as he is consciously posing for a fashion shoot and acting a part as requested by the photographer/client/stylist/himself…) I find this a fascinating challenge. Not only is my eye engaged in discerning details, in telling fact apart from effect, but my brain also needs to interpret fact and effect into a meaning. Moreover, images such as these score less on droolworthiness and more on the aesthetics – giving “the thinking fangirl” a good excuse to ogle “Alienated Richard by P. Parrish”… I mean, seriously, which intellectually equal husband could ever complain if his esteemed other half stuck an artsy-fartsy murk shot of Armitage to the wall…
Hope I haven’t alienated *you* with my theorizing! I have only really scratched the surface of what I wanted to address in this *ooof* – it looks as if I have to do this in two parts. I don’t think I can rely on your patience much longer today. And nor can I on mine 😉 – I will finish this up asap but am meanwhile looking forward to what you have to say about this shoot…

All text © Guylty at me + richard armitage, 2013. Please credit when using excerpts and links. Images and video copyrights accrue to their owners.

~ by Guylty on January 2, 2013.