Development Photographs.

To start off with my developments, I used the kitchen as the setting for my work. I had taken home the lighting kit to use for my developments to achieve similar results to my work in my responses. I had noticed within the lighting kit were some coloured filters. I decided to trial these filters to create a powerful mood upon the photographs.
I shot these at night therefore the background was dark and moody.
I finalised on experimenting with the red and yellow filter to reflect my chosen photographer Miles Aldridge. Aldridge uses bold and bright lights within his work to create a sense of power.

Above are my first experiments with using the red filter. I wore provocative clothes to highlight the theme that I was going down. My aim was to portray the power that the woman has in todays society. I wore 'sexy' clothes to go against the general stereotype that a woman has to slave away in the kitchen. Not only this, but I wanted to portray that the woman can do more than just cook and clean- I brought the two contrasting stereotypes together, highlighting that women can do both if they wanted.
The red filter that I used in these photographs seemed to drain the majority of my face out. Objectively, I feel that the content within these photographs are a good representation of what I was trying to put across. The bubbles that I was using to wash up are present in the composition, however are bleached out by the harsh lighting that seems to be beaming down onto me. The angle of looking up to my figure enhances the theme of empowerment. My facial expressions were mimicking photographer Aldridge as I am looking very serious and bored. This was to highlight the stereotype even more, almost as if I am saying it is easy for me to multitask and to be portrayed as 'sexy' as well as cook in the kitchen.
Overall, I intend to take the theme further, yet experiment with using a different style of lighting. 

The next set of photographs, I used the yellow filter. I stood in the middle of the kitchen so you could see all of my body, therefore showing the full extent of my outfit. I experimented with different angles, yet preferred the angle from down below, looking up. The light was placed to the right of me. I took inspiration from Nik Sharma with the placing of the light. This created a harsh shadow behind me. Again, my facial expressions were to highlight the power that a woman can have. Comparing with the red filter, the colour is less harsh and vibrant therefore it allows you to capture more of my facial features and the silhouette of my positioning. 

As a comparison to the yellow filter, I used the red filter for my full body shots from the same angle. Instantly, the colour red is very powerful. The photographs taken seemed to lose part of my legs due to the black blending in with the background. As these were taken at night, the natural lighting was already dark, therefore adding more contrast with the red lighting was too much. I feel that it would have a different effect having used daylight. 

The last part of this shoot, I took inspiration from my research into powerful women. Amongst the mood board that I created were very provocative photographs of famous women. In particular, the photograph of Audrey Hepburn looking into an oven inspired these compositions. I proceeded to crouch down by the oven and open in. I experimented with different angles from above and on the same level. As I am wearing heels, my position adds to the theme, as naturally that is a very difficult position to hold for a long time- it portrays strength. 

My first developmental photographs have given me a starting point as to my direction for further experiments. The power of the woman is a very important theme that I want to carry forward, however, I feel that it could be taken in a different direction to these photographs. I feel that natural daylight will be key to my developments as my attempts during night time do not necessarily link with my chosen photographers. My inspiration for my work would be the photographer Aldridge due to the contrasting colours used- I believe that I could not only use the theme of contrast within the colours, but also my overall approach to my developments. I intend to incorporate photographer Nik Sharma's lighting techniques as I experiment with daylight.