Throughout this project I have tried to interpret and explore the Unit Theme ’Environments’ in a way that reflects me and my model personally. I always had a deep love for street art such as graffiti because it was a free and an amazing way of expressing your talent and skills to the public, furthermore it expresses freedom, wildness, culture and territory. My model is an artist and therefore I wanted to make her part of street art, make her feel as if she belongs to the backgrounds shown in my final outcomes.  

My main aim for this photoshoot was to successfully create a visual connection between my subject and her surroundings to depict a sense of belonging, meaning and a powerful relationship between her and her environment. To create these environmental fashion portraits I took subcultures, fashion, street-style, art, graffiti and youth into consideration. The culture I explored was a gothic/punk music subculture, which is consisted of Metal, satanism, rock music, drugs and its mainly black themed. At first I had numerous ideas and responses to this project such as including rooftops, skateparks, parks and riversides however the vintage looking Camden Town fitted perfectly with my initial project. 

I have picked Camden Town as my final area to perform my photoshoot for this unit.  In my opinion the location I chosen, perfectly connects and links with my theme of subcultures and environments, you can feel the urban and hipster atmosphere whenever you visit Camden Market due to all the music, workshops, markets, food, bars and lively night life. I was lucky to find a variety of backgrounds such as the market’s crowd, graffiti, main gate and neon shops which personally links with my model’s life. For instance I took a photo of my model standing in-front of a crowd of people who look exactly the opposite of how my model was dressed, they wore ordinary clothes whereas my subject dressed into fashionable and gothic clothes. Lastly Camden Town is a place of Social space, people travel there to interact with numerous outdoor and indoor activities such as art workshops, people visit Camden to shop for vintage and the latest fashion trends and also the food culture represents the variety of world’s gastronomy. 

When my final location has been stabilised and confirmed I moved onto finding the best fitted model for the photoshoot. I required a lady who wears heavy make-up, someone who is young, beautiful, stylish and has piercings to fit in with the gothic stereotype. My model wears gothic and black clothes on a regular which made me decide to pick her for the shoot as she will look great in her everyday outfits and would use her gothic style features such as studs or leather to express her subculture. 

The photographer that influenced me had to be the Brooklyn – born photographer called Jamel Shabazz which focuses on graffiti, hip-hop, street-style, sneakers and a drug-free lifestyle. HIs photography gave me the energy and motivation to focus on subcultures because of how interesting and different they are to each other and also the composition style he uses, such as models in the middle and in focus, having the background in focus and some blurred to point out the focal point and most of all the colourful and vivid themes he uses of the streets which gives meaning and power to the model because of how the background interacts with his subjects. 

On the day of my final photoshoot I was performing with a Canon 750D DSLR camera, with a 40 mm lens and a 18mm-55mm lens. The lighting created harsh shadows on some of the shots because the time of the day was a late afternoon around 4pm, however I was still able to use a sun reflector on my models face to enhance her make up and the details on her outfit. To improve the dark/harsh shadows I could have used a speed-light flash to brighten up more the shadows. I haven’t used a tri pod because I wanted ultimate control over the angles, perspectives, lighting and movement.

The editing process didn’t include any major changes but more minor adjustments such as improving the lighting, contrast, removing imperfections such as unwanted spots and dirt, changing the hue and making sure the white balance makes my models skin tone natural. I used photoshop for spot healing and cropping whereas I used Adobe Lightroom for lighting adjustments and adding sharpness into the shot.

Overall I really enjoyed gathering information, composing ideas, researching artists and going out there to the streets to take photographs. I have definitely learnt how to direct my model more, use the manual setting on the camera, keeping myself and my model calm during a crowded area and lastly reflect the environment through clothing and subcultures. I think I done well in my project, I stayed independent, focused and kept a narrative. To improve my project I would of changed the time of the day I performed my Photoshoot, having it done earlier would allow me to have a more natural light and had less harsh shadows.