Shoot outline

OUTLINE:

This project will be delivered in a form of a fashion editorial and presented as a series of prints accompanied by a video installation.

The idea standing behind this project is based on the social phenomenon of hipsters (especially hipster feminine).

By hipster I mean a person that belongs to a (anti)subculture that can be defined by a certain play of surfaces/ a game of outward signification (“I now it when I see it”); the same way of dressing, and the same way of expressing opinions and interests that are the same as well (talking/blogging about art and culture but not active participating or contributing to it – an artist can't be called a hipster).

“If subculture have always known snobs, and collectors, and connoisseurs, the character of the hipster's claim to knowledge may be somehow different; superior, dominant knowledge -functioning as self-assertion or as compensation- possessed before anyone else. “

By hipster feminine I mean a female hipster that can be described not only by the play of surfaces (“if hipsters were fashion victims, then all women were hipsters, and therefore none were”) but mainly by the presentation of that outer signification and the media she chooses for that self-presentation;

“At the height of her fame, authenticity, desirability, specificity, inventiveness -her roundness as a character – the female hipster existed in front of the camera, photogenic and photographed; and so it was here through the lens, that the hipster feminine came into definition. She may have remained a muse and a subject, flattened and available for exploitation. But if so, she was a muse for herself, and for other women. “

The shoot will be based on location (river bank, forest, marshes) , possibly Richmond Park or Epping Forest in London. The reason for that is that model agency I am going to work with is based in London.

The idea for the shoot is inspired by hipsters and spreading lack of authenticity and uniformity of tastes and trends (especially those within fashion-photography-) that follow after them. But the final outcome is supposed to work as a kind of manifesto AGAINST this phenomenon. I want to bring the whole form back to basics, “attach roots” to it, strip it down from the pretentiousness and uniformity and fill up the empty form with content.

The hair, make up and the styling will be brought to minimum as the idea is to present the girls as hipster feminine condemned by nature, stripped down from the pretentiousness and brought back to the basics of who they really are as individuals (as opposite to the uniform mass of the hipsters).

Because there will be so very few elements of the wardrobe required, a lot of emphasis will be put on a very skilful styling and me working with each one of the models individually.

My biggest challenge in this project is taking care of the right composition, art direction and editing (selecting pictures as well as the post processing them; colours and light).

I want the final outcome to look very natural (in terms of poses), almost spontaneous. Colours are going to be pastel but quite dark (with some stronger accents of yellow, red and green in order to give them this painting-like feel).

Light is going to be quite contrasty but softened by a haze (maybe even natural if shooting early hours at the marshes).