Uploads from Miss Aniela

The divorce

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:52:46 -0800

Be sure to look twice...

Sedimental

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:50:42 -0800

Shot last week with Matthew's input, in a great hurry and amongst decaying goat bones...

I always 'listen' to my images to allow them to be what they sincerely feel like - I interpret this image in a more personal way than my other recent work. Funnily enough that happened last time I was in a desert...

When I was working on processing this, I thought of Yulia's work. She wrote, as a contributor in my
first book, about her images, her nudes and semi-nudes that although are beautiful, serve a sense of melancholy. I felt inspired by that admission of hers to share an image that is simpler than the last surreal image I shared, and just conceptualises a feeling, a quiet and fleeting sense of nostalgia I feel right now, engaged in a peak-and-trough analysis like the figure here. I am starting to understand that madness and melancholy will always be part of my life, I just have to make them more welcome guests.

So much black and white recently. Aching to do something in rich colour!

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Stuffed birds

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:46:18 -0800

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

Very happy to add to the Surreal Fashion series, one with a dark turn!

This was shot at our latest Fashion Experience at Dalston Heights. These prop house locations have been one of the best things about 2011. It was the first time that it got dark outside as we drew to the end. We had mince pies, Celebrations and lot of weary shutter fingers...

For this set-up, I saw the manky stuffed birds in cases and knew I had to do something with them, together with the painterly Renaissance look of the model Gemma. It was lit with a constant light or modelling lamp, can't remember which. Afterwards, as soon as I darkened the whole of the picture, I knew it was going somewhere. From then it was a case of making the birds come out of their cases. I toyed with making a bird appear to be flapping, but then decided I did not want to make the birds look real. I wanted ambiguity, to continue the appearance of them being stuffed.

I thought of the work of Peter Kemp when I processed this. And I also thought of the Mulberry campaign by Tim Walker, although I'm a bit reluctant to say that, because my surreal fashion series was not inspired by him to start with ;) I really do just let the props in these locations take me along weird and wonderful journeys.

I have just launched a website especially for the event. It has London dates for 2012, along with pictures, videos, testimonials and more. So, if you want to come along to one of these quirky places with us next year and join the party, let me know :)

Proudly presenting:
www.fashionshootexperience.com

Model - Gem Huh. Costume - Sarmite Ostanevica. Styling by Pash @ StyleCreative, hair by Tati Zarubova, make-up by Monica Storrs.

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Tentilla

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:48:26 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

How I love and hate how things turn out sometimes! I wanted to shoot something in my garden before the electric autumn colours of the plants subside, but little did I know I would become my own electric plant. I knew the picture was going in a surreal direction, and it took on many forms as I worked on it. On a whim I masked out the top half of my body, and it became a much more powerful shape, the tentacles spoke to me and that was it.

Felt some of the sculptural influence that also went into Incestipede (I thought of it as an autumnal variation); and the weird Bourdin-or-something inspiration that went into Corolla.

I really enjoyed this shoot, shooting by myself with the timer. Walking back inside grazed, wet and manky, I didn't feel any of it, excited to boil up both a tea and an edit.

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Bird's eye

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:23:44 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

I love how pictures can fall together, each component where it wants to be. So much of the photography culture teaches us to have a plan, to know how to 'direct' the model and thus to know beforehand what we want. I have found that intention and direction, in terms of reaching the final 'image' for those in this surreal series, have to be tempered by what the picture tells me.

In processing this image, altering the size of the picture frames on the wall, or vividly changing both of their content, felt wrong. Extending the whole composition to the left, to show more of the room and an adjacent door, felt redundant (which is unusual), and I instead favoured a tight portrait frame. Keeping the black corner on the top left was important to mirroring the khol round the model's eyes. Changing the content of the picture held by the model would also be wrong: the picture's purpose was to make only a subtle difference between the woman in the picture frame, and in her 'real' picture on the wall.

The point of these images in this series is never to be obvious, always to maintain riddles. I'm not as crazy on some images as others in this series; they come at me like a sequence of shifty characters, some more likeable than others. I'm overall really enjoying my seat on the ride of this series...

Model is Mia Gerhardt, dress by Louise O'Mahoney & styling by Pash Mistry. Hair by Tati Zarubova and make-up by Monica Storrs. Check out the blog post on this shoot, complete with video.
missanielablog.com/roost-october

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Immaterial girl

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:14:56 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

Sometimes editing pictures is more than making changes to them. It's about looking, thinking and listening to the image, to hear what it's telling you, and following what you hear to make sense of what is in the frame, make changes or ditch it.

I puzzled for ages over whether I'd done a clumsy thing to position that mural of magazine cutouts in the corner, and cage in the foreground. But as I attempted different edits, the puzzle started to fit together piece by piece: a woman within a shut space, the cage a microcosm of the room, having only had a mural of images to gaze at, that once blocked the light that now floods in. Nature seeps into that yellow-wallpapered, oppressive environment. Does the image's message raise nature over nurture, with the woman's reflection validating the self-worth she has discovered? Or does her self-admiration, especially being lissom, blonde and beautiful herself, posing wistfully and coyly, validate her superficiality instead - together with nature being slammed trapped, dropping withered leaves, unable to penetrate the room after all? Or does the picture mean something else entirely? I like questions as much as answers.

Another from our latest shoot event. Dress by Louise O'Mahoney. Styling by Pash @ StyleCreative. Model is Olla G. Hair styling by Tati Zarubova, and make-up by Grace Gray. Thanks to Hannah Coates for reflector assistance.

I thought of Tim Walker's work as soon as I saw the trapped bush in the window and the model in her candy-pink styling. I also reminisced of Rosie Hardy's work during working on it.

Check out the video of the day

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Resurfacing

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:42:36 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

Spent all my Sunday on this with hot water bottle and sweet tea on tap. Nearly gave it up in the process, and nearly gave up photography itself. Matthew says I've just got a case of PMT - that is, 'photography maunge time'.

Shot at our latest Shoot Experience at the Roost in London: model is Olla G, styling by Pash Mistry, dress by Louise O'Mahoney, hair by Tati Zarubova, make-up by Grace Gray, assistant on this one was Hannah Coates. A big thanks to the full house of attending photographers who made the event possible. Event-wise, my heart lies with these shooting events over conventional workshops. It was a fun day and due to requests we're going to organise another London one before Christmas. :)

Check out the video of the day

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London/NY Fashion Experience

Stay awake and watch

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:15:40 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

More from the Sunday session with model Zane, we spent most of the time in an orchard full of crooked and broken trees.

I didn't have a plan for this shoot, but the shoot had a plan for me ^

A couple more pictures below.

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nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:26:46 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

I feel in a quiet mood today...

Green mile

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:23:31 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

From a wander yesterday with model Zane, thanks to Matthew for inputting on this set-up and for expertly lighting it with just a couple of reflectors...:) Thank you to Bernard and Luciana who joined us all day for shooting, editing, casserole and carrot cake!

More from this shoot to come

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Manmade

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:47:19 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

Made during a levitation-themed workshop in London on a studio roof the other week, during a wave of exotic heat very strange for the first day of October.

Shot with flash & an ND filter and stitched from at least 5 pictures. The framing could have gone so many different ways, and certainly this composition was not the one with the most onscreen impact. Oddly enough, inspiration from a programme I watched about the medicalisation of childbirth went into the final choice of framing and title.

Model is Fawnya Frolic
Assistant was Matt

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www.fashionshootexperience.com

Grooming For An Elegant Lady

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:00:42 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

And things get more bizarre... the idea of animal hair pieces didn't come to me until I crossed an antler inadvertently over the blonde lady's head and had a lightbulb moment, after having stared long and bleary-eyed at this, I found myself saying 'YES' out loud and knew I had to make the whole image work no matter what. I thought back to the hair piece creations of Nagi Noda that I came across online few months back, and it became part of the inspiration for the outcome here...

To see the original 4 pictures that went into this, click here onto my FB page

I realised more than ever that when it comes to Photoshop work (or even photography in general) there are things that shouldn't work but do, and things that 'should' work but just don't. I make a conscious effort to only work with the components I love, the ones that really click. After finishing the two 'paintings', I left in the woman standing there, after contemplating cropping her out. Standing here, I think she kind of represents 'me'...

Styling by Jay Jessop, models Jemma Saare & Hannah Beaumont. Shot at the PODAS/Phase One workshop at Weston Park.

Check out the blog & video

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The hunt

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:02:19 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

I've always liked 'painterliness', but at the moment I'm interested in blurring the lines between a painting and a photograph in a new way, by taking parts of real paintings, and editing them in PS into my own photograph.

Some thoughts as I go along... what I find interesting is exploring how the territories of two art types can meet. A photograph must be taken of a real existent subject, whereas a painting can conjure up anything. But then, both art forms are a form of fiction, especially for a photograph taken of a contrived set-up like this shoot.

I took hunting dogs, dead birds and rabbit from a painting I saw at Weston Park (below). It was a painting hanging on the first floor by the bedrooms, a quite weird one which caught my eye on my first visit and felt compelled to take a pic of. I weaved them into a scene I shot in the Conservatory. What I find interesting is that the painted elements don't look exactly real - because they aren't real - but then neither is any photograph truly 'real'. I also like that the unpalatable subjects - the dead animals - somehow become sanitised or easier to bear, or more artistic, when painted - almost as though they are 'censored' within the new place they sit in this image. The photograph is processed with rich colours to suggest that painterly aesthetic and create more of a collision between the two art forms.

Model is Siobhan Priest, styling by Jay Jessop, assistance from Matt.. shot during the PODAS workshop.

I felt inspiration from the hunt scene in Hitchcock's Marnie, thinking of the hunting theme and the brooding, disturbed-looking woman...

Check out the blog & video

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Storm Door

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 07:17:38 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

The first time I saw the painting of stormy ships in the music room of Weston Park, I felt an urge - but an urge to do what, I didn't know. How does a photographer take inspiration from paintings without just trying to copy the painting, or pose someone next to it? My current pictures have been trying to answer that, and challenge the place of paintings so that they take on a new life. So with a terrific feeling of excitement, I went overboard quite literally, and spilled in lashing waves of the fictional sea around my model, pleasuring in the opportunity to get closer to the painting's detail, meeting every character on each crest. Though it took a while, the result is actually quite simple: just half photograph, half painting.

Check out the blog & video

Inspirations and references... Tim Walker (loads of his images are relevant but those snail ones I had in my mind during my time here), the fashion element of Peter Kemp's work; Helen of Troy, C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader... whilst editing the dress I also thought of Brooke Shaden's flowy skirt images...

(I spent the whole of my carvery with Matthew today trying to decide on the title... funniest suggestions were 'Femaelstrom', 'Poseid herself' and 'Nauti-lass')

Shot during the PODAS workshop, using the modelling light of a Profoto parabolic/giant ;) Model is Kim Rowley. Styling by Jay Jessop. Assistance & input from Matt

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Another whirl

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:15:49 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

This feels like a blast from the past. Multiple dancing figures composed in a pleasing shape with the obligatory vignette and generally innocuous, easy on the eye whimsicality... with the added presence of paintings, I felt it hark back to my old picture Their evening banter. It was part of my demonstration at the workshop, and I enjoyed making it, happy that I caught the theatre costumes in flamboyant flared motion, using one of the most impressive rooms at Weston Park, the dining room. Behind the chandelier is an original Caravaggio!

Special credit to Matt for his logistical influence on the outcomes at this workshop, in particular here for requesting this room to be cleared, setting up the flash with a 'Giant' Profoto parabolic reflector, and also suggesting dancing figures...

Models are Hannah Beaumont and Kim Rowley. Styling & hair by Jay Jessop.

Check out the blog & video

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Forward & back

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:56:22 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

First picture from the most exciting photography adventure I've been fortunate enough to experience! We spent 5 days in the grand estate of Weston Park in Shropshire, delivering the first fashion & portrait workshop from Phase One's 'PODAS' series, first also in the UK. Matt and I were instructors, co-hosting with Drew Gardner. It was a dream workshop, with the attendees, models and stylists all sleeping over in the house itself, and shooting with the new IQ backs for two days straight.

This was one of the locations on the first shooting day, suggested by Matthew (location scout was just one of his several roles concerned with the outcome here, as well as picking outfits, jewellery and lighting...) The wind was blowing crazily around everyone including Eric holding a beauty dish on a stand to the left. Afterwards, Matthew suggested desaturating the flowers, and whilst I did so, I spied the split in Siobhan's dress and decided to drain colour from half of the picture, cautiously at first, to see if it felt right. This was the image I edited in front of the other photographers, who seemed to convince me I was not mad, and so it flowed into a fitting vision of the woman stepping into a scene from one the many old photos inside the rooms.

Assistance from Matt. Model is Siobhan Priest, styling by Jay Jessop. Check out the blog & video

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Harmony string

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:58:21 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

This year of photography has been an immense adventure of opportunities so far... mainly because of these shoots with new models & locations. I have been so inspired to just keep creating, exploring possibilities and not worrying too much about pinning a genre or label on the outcome.

You may have noticed I have a thing for paintings in images lately... so I'm looking forward to shooting at Weston Park next weekend for the Phase One workshop - there are dozens of huge old paintings everywhere :)

Shot at Dalston Heights on our August Shoot Experience. Model - Grace Gray, dress by Edwin Csh, styled by Pash of StyleCreative, hair & make-up by Kaylee Yasmin. Watch the video on my blog post.

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Buckshot

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:07:43 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

This was a mad shoot with flabbergasting juxtapositions, with a weird edit to follow, making the final thing quite possibly inexplicable. I shot loads of images of Grace with the horse and I played with a variety of them, spending hours and hours deliberating over the innumerable options I had with the editing. Finally I got a result I'm happy with... I think.

Shot during our Shoot Experience at Dalston Heights. Inspired by... childhood cartoon pillowcases, pin-up art, street wall art... and just the props themselves that were laying round in the location.

Model: Grace Gray. Costume: Valkyrie Corsets. Styled by Pash of StyleCreative. Hair & make-up: Kaylee Yasmin.

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She took the dog out

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:51:03 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a photo:

Another weird edit... be sure to check out the 'before' scene on Facebook so you get the full 'story' ;)

There are so many things I could have done differently in the shooting to open up other routes for the processing. But I've realised lately that one definition of 'art' is in the notion of eliminating possibility... of saying 'yes, I choose this, I am happy, this is as it stands'.

This was taken at our latest Shoot Experience at a new location, Dalston Heights. Again we had 5 new models, plus a 6th more familiar face, Grace Gray, the model here. She came along to do make-up, and then also put on a corset for me :)

I'm really enjoying playing around with different forms of surrealism. Levitation-type imagery is the more obvious hyper-realism, making something impossible look 'possible' down to the last shadow and crease. Then there are images that look surreal but don't actually have anything that extraordinary going on in them, often straight out of camera (which I think the trickiest to approach - I want to do more of those.) Then, there are images like this one, that are blatantly unreal but somehow not purporting to be real; self-reflexive, almost drawing attention to the very mechanics of production.

The main drive for this one was a picture I took of Grace that looked strangely painterly. So I simply decided that she belonged in the painting. There has to be some inspiration from Peter Kemp here. Peter is a Dutch portrait photographer with an amazing vision, and with whom I hope to collaborate. His work is worth a long look.

Model: Grace Gray. Costume: Valkyrie Corsets. Styled by Pash of StyleCreative. Hair & make-up: Kaylee Yasmin.
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Unbreakable

nobody@flickr.com (Miss Aniela) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:30:18 -0700

Miss Aniela posted a video:

This is just a 90-sec excerpt from my video Unbreakable for LA-based band Gunslinger. Please watch the whole video! Follow link here to Vimeo, or, if you prefer, to YouTube.

I worked on this together with my partner Matthew. The model/actor is Grace Gray. It's a story I put together through moving image with a brilliant, deep and haunting track, and a thoroughly satisfying commission I can't wait to do more of. Plenty of room for improvement on future work so I am aware this is just the beginning!

You can read about the production, and inspirations behind the video, on my blog post.