*ooof*: Here’s Looking at You, Armitage

This is the second time that I have started the process of producing an *ooof* by writing the ficlet first. What does that tell us about my priorities, I wonder? Is fiction going to take over from my photographic lectures? Before you rejoice – no. I don’t think I can ever stop writing the analyses. They may be my little cloak, the excuse for ogling studying photographs of RA, but much more than that they are an essential part of being a photographer myself. When I first started studying photography, I resented having to look at other photographers’ work in class or as homework. I believed then that it stifled my own creativity, or took away my confidence in my own abilities as a photographer because I was reminded how perfect other people’s work was. Over the years, however, I have come to understand that the process of “looking” does not just apply to my own work – the seeing of the world around me and the (almost) tangible look through my own lens and the editing and post-production process – but to being open to inspiration from other practitioners, understanding the technicalities of their approach and the visual language used by them, and taking bit by bit what I like and admire, while ignoring what I do not appreciate.

All the best of us take inspiration from each other, and some of the best original work is produced when trying to emulate someone else’s style, but failing spectacularly. Essentially, it is very hard to reproduce *exactly* what someone else has captured. As much as I guess in my *ooof*s about apertures, lighting methods and compositorial devices – I could never recreate 1:1 the images that Ascroft, Parrish and Co. have made. Not just because I use different equipment and I do not have access to the exquisite sitter who modelled in their shots, but because I go at it with my own ideas, my own mind, and my own expectations. This realisation, however, frees me to look at their work and take my cue from it, without having to fear (inadvertant) plagiarism. The look at other people’s work is essential as a motivational and an educational tool. The ficlets – to get back to my starting point – are another creative realisation of the idea that was sparked by the inspirational piece of work.

That was what happened to me when I looked at today’s image.

Armitage still looking good on a window sill
Photographed by Anders Overgaard for Glamour, 2013
Sourced via RAnet

Here we have Mr Armitage posing in a shoot for Glamour Magazine, photographed by Anders Overgaard. Perching on a ledge by a window, Armitage is pictured tying his shoe laces with his right leg drawn up towards his body while craning his neck to look out of the window. How very natural. Not posed at all *coughs* What drew me to this picture were several things. There is of course the unavoidable splash of red in the image. Although restricted to the side of the image, the red fabric of the waistcoat with its shiny texture acts as an eyecatcher, a signal colour that will make this image stand out when you turn over a page in a magazine and come to an article featuring this illustration.

More interestingly, the pose of the subject and how it moved my gaze attracted my attention. It is interesting to consciously note how your gaze moves – it tells us much about our powers of perception as humans, as females, and as individuals. Before you follow me, why don’t you test this yourself. Scroll back up to the image and consciously follow your eyes as they make their way around the components of the image, and then compare with *my* journey (which I hope will be more or less the same as yours). If you can, make a mental note of the fleeting thoughts that may (or may not) cross your mind as you are surveying the prey subject.

As a starting point, my gaze stopped on a point in the centre of the image – this is probably an automatic reaction, schooled by many years of looking at photographs, with my brain assuming that the most important part in an image will appear in its centre. That is not quite so, here, where my gaze settles on a raised knee. But from there the journey gets quite winded and interesting. From the raised knee, the gaze next settles on the face of the subject, or more importantly, the eyes. This is quite typically a starting point for the movement of the gaze, as humans tend to look for the eyes/face in a portrait. Then the red fabric of the waist coat attracts my attention. My gaze follows the line of red down the back of the subject. Then primal instinct kicks in and the Arsitage demands attention, so my gaze lingered notably longer on the thigh/bum area that is quite noticeable in the image and that engaged my interest partly due to the tight trousers, partly due to the enticing shadows that always attract curiosity. However, my gaze eventually prised itself from that area and followed the line of the thigh up, back towards my initial starting point, the knee. Nothing new there, and so it followed the line of black fabric on the shins down towards the ankle, and then the line of the shoe’s sole to the tip. The shoe tip being roughly the same visual line as the exposed forearm, my gaze then moved towards the left, to the hand, wrist, and skin of the subject. The end. Here’s a visualisation of the journey:

That is a rather demanding circle of vision that our gaze has completed there, *ooof*, don’t you think? I feel exhausted for my eye muscles, frankly. And it amuses me no end, that the journey actually looks like a letter α (Greek alpha) – for Armitage, again? (Cf. “A is for Armitage”) But notice how light and colour or absence of light and colour guides our eyes – or in absence of light, strong lines do. Highlights on the clothes of the sitter will attract our attention, dark spots are mainly ignored.

The pose of the sitter in this image demands a lot of eye movement. Which is interesting as it mirrors the inherently dynamic arrangement of the (human) shape. Even though this is a pose that has been held, there is movement implied. And more movement than, say, in the fan candid from last week. It is challenging for the viewer, in a way, but visually very interesting. Note, btw, how it works with the averted face of the subject. Would this pose equally well if the sitter had looked at the camera? The answer is no – it would have looked contrived and silly. Who ties their laces and simultaneously smoulders out of the window? With that in mind, however, the image receives an undertone of voyeurism, of catching someone in the process of getting dressed albeit at a stage too late for a more gratifying view, save for the juicy thigh-bum-combination.

A note on the overall composition of the image, which only revealed its interest to me after several viewings. The framing and square cropping of the image has resulted in an interesting near-symmetry that is visually very appealing. In front we have the subject, sitting upright, the head touching the frame at the top left, back all down the left side of the frame, his right leg drawn up and his left leg stretched out to the bottom right corner. That essentially creates a triangular shape, cutting the image in half – if you imagine a rough line going from the top left to the bottom right corners. Nice, especially if you consider the vertical lines of the window frames as creating a calming, regularly patterned backdrop – negative space.

For photography nerds this image again is most interesting as we can get some extra insight into the making of it from the behind-the-scenes footage that was published as an extra for the digital version of Glamour Magazine. I, for instance, am pleased to note that photographer Overgaard is shooting with a Canon dSLR, identifiable by the camera strap visible in the video clip – a 1D, by any chance?

He shoots people with his canon…
Overgaard shooting Armitage for Glamour
my screen cap

Even though the clip only contains a few seconds of footage with the photographer in it, there is still a lot of information contained in it that shows the location, the setting of the room, and the technology and techniques used on a pro shoot. For instance, the clip clarified for me that the image was not exclusively shot with daylight but that some flash was used. The light flashing is quite noticeable in the clip (around the 1:00 mark).

In case you are wondering – the flash is not attached to the camera. I would expect a professional photographer to use studio lighting for any kind of in-studio job, and so I presume that Overgaard is using a studio light that we cannot see in the clip. What you see on his camera (and what looks like a flash to the uninitiated) is actually a wireless trigger. To me this particular one looks like a Pocketwizard (the brand name – and how fitting, when shooting someone who was in “The Hobbit”… I can see bite-size Gandalf working his magic, sitting on top of the camera there…). A wireless trigger does what it says on the tin – it wirelessly triggers an off-camera flash or a strobe, i.e. it connects via radio signal with a light that is not wired to the camera and fires it. It gives the photographer greater flexibility in moving around, avoids messy cables and cords, and can simultaneously trigger several lights.

Overgaard, wirelessly triggering
Shoot for Glamour
my screencap

We can also see very briefly that Overgaard is illuminating the scene at the window with a very simply, very effective device, non-technological and most effective. He lights Armitage up with the daylight from two sides, even though the windows are only on one side of the room. He does that by placing large, white boards directly opposite the window. These throw the light back onto the sitter.

Not a wall but white boards!
my screencap

Phew – that was a long excursion into theory and practice. How about we relax now with a little story? Sit down girls, while Aunt Guylty reads you a nice story…

~/o\~

He surveyed his kingdom from the bathroom door. He really liked his new flat. Apartment, he reminded himself, they call them apartments over here. It wasn’t big – just a large living space with a little office area to the side, a comfy lounge space with a couple of sofas, a small kitchen, raised on a platform at the rear, fully equipped, mind you (time to get the Jamie Oliver app out again), and two doors on either side of the living space leading into his bedroom and the other into the bathroom opposite. Big industrial windows that harked back to the industrial use the building had been built for, let lots of light into the room, making the space bright and airy even on the dullest day. Pretty cool loft for a provincial chap like me, he smirked. It wasn’t quite up his street, all this coolness, but he had softened the look with the help of an interior designer and added a designer chair here, a few colourful cushions on the sofas and angled a rather large mirror above the sofa to throw some light onto the lounge area.

He felt at home – in this home away from home, so much so that old habits had crept in again. Books and magazines were piling up on the coffee table and beside his egg chair – perfect for reading in, one leg tugged under his bum – and he hadn’t bothered to tidy away the wine glasses he had consumed the last few nights while studying manuscripts, either. But now was not the time to think about that, he was getting ready for the day, and after a slovenly breakfast in only his boxers – he liked to sleep as unrestricted as possible – he had dawdled in the shower. He padded back, naked, into the living room, still damp. Or maybe it was the right time. Thank God there were no flats directly opposite his, he’d be done in for indecent exposure, prancing around in the nip like this. Haha, what a joke. Bending down to pick up the manuscripts from beside the chair, he wriggled his bottom teasingly towards the kitchen, then arranging the papers neatly on the coffee table, and straightening the magazines and books into stacks in tidy right angles. He grabbed last night’s bottle of Pinot Noir with his right hand. Oh, the dregs. Too precious to throw out. He downed the two sips from the bottom of the bottle, kicking his head back, pushing his chest out and brushing over his hairy chest with his left hand in a gesture of comfortable tactility. Ugh, oxidised. Maybe not such a good idea after all. He scratched his privates absent-mindedly. Making sure everything was back in its place and hanging smoothly, he shook his head at his disgusting habit of emptying the dregs, schooled by many years of frugality, gathered the wineglasses between his fingers and ambled back to the kitchen. Now for getting dressed, and quickly…

All done up in his new finery – that red-backed waistcoat really was delightfully tight around his chest, a pity the flaming, shiny red would be hidden under his jacket – he padded back from the bedroom into the living space, the shoes in his hands. He perched his bum on the window sill to get his shoes on and tie the laces by the light of the window. Suddenly he caught a movement from the corner of his eyes. He looked up, irritated. It was one of those minor distractions, like the movements on a TV screen in the corner of a pub – you can’t see the details, but the flickering movements on the screen compel you to look. Except there was no TV here. His telly was in the bedroom.

But there was the large mirror above the sofa to his left. In it he could make out the fuzzy shape of a person, half obscured up to waist-height behind metal railings, the rough stonework of red bricks partly visible, moving a hand to the face. Where was this coming from, he frowned. There were no houses opposite. He narrowed his eyes. Following the line of vision from the mirror, he turned his head to the right, in confusion, with a frown.

He cursed to himself, suddenly remembering his naked house-husbandly antics from earlier on. His next-door neighbour was having a fag on the fire escape, her gaze fixed on something slightly below his back. She was so close, he could see the blush spread all over her face as his eyes met hers.

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 October 15, 2013.