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Photo Progress - Stage 1
The first stage of taking my photos was brainstorming what I wanted for my front cover. I decided to research popular hip hop magazines, such as XXL, Vibe and Hip Hop. A lot of the shots were close ups, which highlighted the artist and drew attention to their facial expression, which was either intimidating, powerful or emotionless.
As many hip hop artists had these facial expressions, I decided to use this in my first set of photos as it was popular in many hip hop magazines. Secondly, I analysed the positioning of the face/body of the artist. I found out the majority of hip hop magazines put the featured artists either in the centre of the page, or justified to the right or left. The shots are either close up shots, or medium shots. Close up shots are effective in showing the expression of the artist, and medium shots are effective in showing the style of the artist and their music.
As you can see from my photos, I took into consideration the similarities between hip hop magazines, and incorporated those ideas into my photos. I have taken a medium shots and close up of my chosen artist, and used an emotionless and intimidating facial expressions to get across the genre of music. In addition, I stamped musicality onto the images by adding a pair of headphones. In the majority of my photos, I ensured my artist looked at the camera to show direct mode of address to the audience, which is effective in connecting the artist with the audience.
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