Photography Coursework

Johannes Stotters

This artist is very inspirational as she paints the full body of her models. Her work is mostly based around animals and bright colours, which is why I have chosen to research her. She fits in well with what I am doing for my coursework this year. Her overall images portray the theme of her photos very well, as her body paint is very technical and neat so you can completely tell what the animal the model is dressed as, in this case a giraffe. The composition is very fitted to the theme and makes you really look at the image because at first you can’t accurately see that it is actually a human model. The models legs that are lifted in the air represents the giraffes neck as they are know for their long necks. The stomach of the subject matter is the giraffes back and body. Finally, the models arms are the giraffe’s legs. I think the fact the model is on her top toes is very effective because the animal the model is dressed as is a very tall animal. The lighting in this image is overall very bright; I think this photographer has used a flash to make it this bright. The white background also helps to brighten the photo up. The aperture of the photos is focused mainly on the model because that is the main part of the photo, also the background of the photos always fit in with whatever animal her model is dressed as. For example the picture of the model dressed as a parrot has a leaf background because where that particular animal is from there is a lot of leaves and trees. With the Giraffe photograph Stotter has been very clever in choosing the colour of her background. She has used white so that the part of her model that is just painted white blends in with the wall and floor that she is on. This aspect has worked well because only the body paint of the giraffe pattern stands out, his makes the final image very eye catching. The depth of field is focused purely on the model; the plain background enhances the main subject as well. I would really like to try something similar to her work, however I think it would be quite difficult to find a person who could get them selves in the positions that the animals do. It will also be very time consuming, however I would still like to try it but maybe you start on a certain part of the body and then eventually develop to most of the body.