Final Image for Child Exploitation

I decided to pick this photo I've taken because it shows a sad child. It represents how upset and trapped children feel. It's also in black and white to create a more dramatic look.
I haven't have a chance to add writing on it because I didn't have an appropriate software to do that.

University research

University of Cumbria

Formed in 2007 from Cumbria University of Arts is a great university with academic strengths in many subjects. Their campuses are in Carlisle, Lancaster and Ambleside. These are lively, great and affordable places to live. 
 I picked a campus in Carlisle. From my research I really liked that place and it seemed very friendly and welcoming. I also really liked it when I went for an interview there. The campus is very modern and has great new equipment. 

University of Bolton
Close to Liverpool and Manchester, Bolton is a great city to study. It's a modern university with friendly staff. 
My own experience of the university was a little bit different as I didn't really like the city itself and the campus I was supposed to study in, was not modern and it was very complicated to find it.

CV

Arletta Kwiatkowska

1 Bank Parade                                                                                                

Otley                                                                                                                 Mob: 074 4360 8632

LS21 3DY                                                                                                          Email: arlettalafleur@gmail.com

PERSONAL PROFILE

Bilingual, energetic and ambitious student who has developed a mature and responsible approach to any task that I undertake, or situation that I am presented with. I am excellent in working with others to achieve a certain objective on time and with full dedication. I would describe myself as a well presented, hard working person who thrives at the chance of learning new skills. I have a mature outlook, excellent communication skills and enjoy working with public. I always like to get the task I have been given done in a professional and efficient manner and I have proved these skills through my studies at college and work placements. My work placements have helped me build my confidence as a person and hopefully will carry on so. I am also willing to take on any training necessary to enable me to carry out my work well.

SKILLS AND QUALITIES

• ·         Able to listen and act on instructions
• ·         Good communication skills
• ·         Good timekeeper
• ·         Flexible approach
• ·         Mature attitude and good work ethic
• ·         Willing to learn and take on new tasks
• ·         Excellent team player
• ·         Ability to multi-task
•  
• EMPLOYMENT/ WORK EXPERIENCE

Nov 2014 – Mar 2015             Cancer Research UK – charity shop, Otley, England

Assisted in local charity shop stocking shelves and segregating clothes. Helped with customer enquiries, not only telling them where to find items but taking them to where they need to be which proved my willingness to help and provide excellent customer service. As well as stock control, I was given an opportunity to work on the checkout area which involved speed, concentration and politeness.

Jun 2012 – Sep 2012               Africae Deserta Project – Gdynia, Poland

My duties involved organising events and preparing rooms for meetings and presentations. Dealing with customers and people I’ve worked with gave me an opportunity to improve my confidence and to learn how to be responsible. Multi-tasking was not a problem and I really enjoyed being busy and having a lot of responsibilities and things to do and look after. I could also observe and learn how to run a business from the inside and how important it is to keep up to date with everything.

Jan 2012 – May 2012               Animal Shelter “Ciapkowo” – Gdynia, Poland

It was my first work placement during school. I was given an opportunity to work in an animal shelter, helping with sorting out cat and dog food, taking dogs for walks and playing with cats, which I really enjoyed. It gave me an insight into the amount of work involved to keep animals clean, happy and safe. It has taught me how to act responsible.

October 2015 – present           ‘The Chevin’ Pub – Menston, England

My duties involve serving customers at the bar as well as food running and taking orders. I also do a lot of tidying up and cleaning up after customers. This job gives me an opportunity to be confident and outgoing. I’ve learned a lot about multi-tasking as it’s an important part of being a waitress.

EDUCATION

• ·         Level 3 Diploma in Photography, Bradford college, Bradford (Sep 2014 – present)
• ·         Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media, College Technology Campus, Leeds (Sep 2013 – Jun 2014)
• ·         Prince Henry’s Grammar School, Otley (Sep 2012 – Jul 2013)
• GCSEs           Polish (A*) Maths (B) Science (C) English (D – resetting the exam to improve the grade)

HOBBIES & INTERESTS

• ·         Taking care of animals and playing with them
• ·         Photography
• ·         Fashion & make-up
• ·         Muay-thai, kickboxing and fitness
• ·         Travelling

REFERENCES

Available on request

Personal Statement

When I think about Photography I feel like it is a secret art of bending reality and travelling in time. This is a secret science which allows people to communicate far beyond the language and culture. It is an exceptional and genuine tool to enjoying infinite possibilities, capturing row emotions, preserving moments, sharing perspective, telling a story and even healing and initiating meditation. It is clear act of love to the world showing very often even more than it is possible to see just with the bare human eye. My first camera led to hours hunting bugs, flowers, dolls, my family members and friends. This progressed to composing subjects through angle and lighting, learning from experience, constantly expressing myself visually. I like playing around with light to create different images and moods. I am also fascinated with the concept of outdoor and adventure and enjoy to explore the diversity and reality of the world. This is exactly what I try to study and define in a digital way. Despite making photography my biggest hobby, I was always sure that the knowledge is the core point in developing the best skills in the future and this broaden my understanding of the subject. I have studied it for the last two years at the Bradford College and it has enabled me to develop an independent and self-motivated practice. I have enjoyed discovering many genres of the photography, specifically landscape still life and documentary. I also find the work of many old and new photographers highly inspirational. While at school I experimented with different disciplines including macro photography, which reflects on my constant interest of small and simple objects. Working in a studio always gives me great satisfaction because of learning from experience and the opportunity of getting everything perfect and the way I envisage it. I am hard working and always determined to achieve the best results possible. Additionally one year of Creative Media Studies at the Leeds College gave me some knowledge about many theories and concepts that have further improved my understanding of cultures and history of the industry. I hope during a degree course I will be able to bring some of these concepts into my work. As so far my experience is basically correlated with my travels and cover many modes of production from landscape, wildlife and portrait to food and still photography. 4 years ago I have taken part in the “Conquer the Impossible” project which was a round the world trip with my family where for 5 months we have all worked as volunteers with kids in 15 countries. In those countries during the trip we have made Inter-culture Workshops for kids in primary schools. This was a great travel and photography experience as I have been capturing around 6000 shots and later on assisted in picking the best one to be used to document the project. This experience allowed me to witness first-hand what skills are required for becoming successful within the context of commercial documentary photography. My life experience taught me how to adapt to new situations, live on a budget and has prepared me for student life. I have settled in UK only 3 years ago and had to take all GCSE courses in one year. Despite many challenges I have made an impressive progress with my English making it now my first language.  I look forward to possibilities for further study, enabling me to pursue my future career ambitions in the industry. However I would like first to take a Gap Year and get some valuable life and work experience. This will also give me a once in a lifetime opportunity to take part in “work away” project in South Asia and I believe that it will push further my enjoyment and enthusiasm for Photography and Film. A gap year would also aid my preparation for university life as I believe the experience would improve my confidence and independence.

'You're beautiful'

As a part of my final major project I decided to do something different and exciting. I created series called 'You're beautiful'. It includes photos of people before and after I've told them that they are beautiful. I think it was a good idea because it shows how people react to certain things in such different ways. I really like how the photos came out and I'm sure I will continue these series in the future.
I've taken all of the photos in the studio, using high key lighting. I used a soft box only because I wanted my photos to come out soft and delicate so they would look better in black and white after I edited them.

This is one of my other images, not from 'you're beautiful' series but an additional one I did to see what it would look like. 

moodboard

magazine research

This magazine cover looks retro. It means it relates to the styles and fashion from the past but some of the things are still quite fashionable nowadays.
The cover is aimed at teenagers, aged 15-19, mainly females with a good income.
The title is big and visible in nice, girly colours, same as the headline.
The cover is just one, big photograph with one person in it. The photo is probably taken on location. They've used high key, hard lighting.
The design is similar to what I would like to achieve but my idea is to do it in the studio, not on location.





   
 





This magazine cover looks modern.
It is aimed at men, aged 25-45, with a good income.
The title is big but it's hidden behind a person on the cover.
It's just one, big photo just like on the other cover. The person looks straight at the camera.
They have used high key and soft/hard . The background is plain and blends with a white short which means that it was taken in a studio.
















This magazine cover is modern but it also has a retro touch to it (an old camera).
The magazine is aimed at women, aged 18-25, with an average income.
Like on the other covers, it's just one, big photograph.
High key and soft lighting has been used.
The background is white and as in the other cover it blends in with clothes. It's been taken in a studio.













This magazine is a bit different than the other ones. The cover is retro.
The magazine is aimed at women, aged 23-45, with a good income.
It is also one, big photo but there's two people in it.
Low key and hard lighting have been used.
The background is dark but it's still plain, which shows that it's been taken in a studio.

final

This is my final magazine cover. I wanted to make it look a little bit retro. My model's hair is wild and her clothes are casual. I decided to go with a Teen Vogue cover because I wanted my audience to be teenagers, aged 15-19 or maybe even a little bit older. I matched my headings and sub headings with the things that young females may like.

This is my spread sheet. It looks a bit less professional but I decided to go with a plain and clear look. I've used a lot of photos and I added descriptions saying how much each thing costs. I tried to make it look very summery but also I decided to use photos of more expensive things, to not make it look like a cheap magazine.

fashion shoot edited

In the studio I wanted to get clear and bright photographs because that's what I've seen in my magazines researches.

I've used soft box, beauty dish and a snoot. I wanted to try out different things while having in mind my main outcome. I found experimenting rally helpful and I loved using a soft box. It creates a clear photo, without any shadows and distractions. It's also good for photographing details and clothing.

To create some shadows in the background, I used a snoot and a beauty dish on the side. I like this effect because it's still clear but not as bland.

Exposure meters

Light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. It's often used to determine the proper exposure for the photograph. It helps people to determine which shutter speed and f-number should be selected.

• The camera's reflective light meter tries to make all scenes come out averaging about middle gray tone. This is often about correct, because "average" scenes normally do contain a wide mix of light and dark colored areas which do average out about middle tone overall. But there are also many exceptions.

High/Low Key

High Key and Low Key lighting are very different but similar at the same time. They both create a lot of contrast. High key images are considered happy and show off every detail of a model or a subject. Low key on the other hand is considered very dramatic and creates a lot of atmosphere and tension. When you look at a High key picture you will notice that it's very bright and lacks shadows.
Low key's tone is darker and there will be lots of dark areas in the picture and contrast will be very noticeable.

Lighting

Lighting equipment divides into 3 main categories; the light sources, the holders and things that control the spread of the light. ,  Most lights, regardless of the brand or model, provide heads that come in the form of a strobe surrounded by a reflector. Most strobe lights allow you to completely remove the reflector and attach different kinds of light modifiers.
The most popular types of light modifiers are umbrellas and softboxes. Reflecting umbrellas produce a diffused and soft lighting. The strobe light faces different way than a model or a subject.
Softboxes come in different shape and sizes. Light coming from a strobe head gets reflected inside the softbox and gets diffused through the translucent front. It creates a soft lighting but it's more focused on the model or a subject. Some other tools that control that control and modify the quality of light are barn doors, snoots and honeycomb grids.

Fashion Photography

Fashion Photography is a type of photography that focuses on displaying clothing and other fashion items. It is usually used to sell lifestyle and show people the newest trends. It's a very interesting type of photography because it focuses mainly on one thing so it doesn't matter where the photos have been taken, they will still qualify as fashion images. It can be a studio or it can be on location. Both of them are going to represent the same thing but with a different impact. Fashion photography is usually used in advertisements and magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair or Elle.

Fashion photography has been around since the earliest days of photography. From as early as 1840s, actresses, dancers and all the people interested in art and artistic world posed in their attire for portrait photographers, just like they would pose for portrait painters back in the day.

Mario Testino
Peruvian fashion and portrait photographer who worked for many famous magazines such as Vogue, V Magazine, Vanity Fair and GQ and brands such as Gucci, Burberry, Versace and Chanel. He's more of a studio photographer but works on location too.

  Low Key lighting used to create this image creates a mysterious mood and the pose and look on model's face make it all look a little bit scary. I think people focus more on the model's face than her clothes which is not that good when it comes to fashion photography.








Two photos taken by Mario Testino for Gucci. He used High Key lighting. Both photos are different and unique. Ones been taken in studio and the other one on location as you can see the grass outside.
I think both photos show fashion in a good way and it's the main thing Mario was focused on.

Annie Leibovitz
Considered one of the America's best portrait photographers. She has worked for many magazines such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and Rolling Stone. She photographed many famous people and she's also shot timeless nude embrace shot of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.



I picked two photos taken by Annie. She used both high key and low key. One photo is a lot older than the other so the quality of each one of them is different. I really like the photo she's taken for a magazine because it's very fashion orientated. The one with John Lennon is more unusual and artistic.

Edward Steichen 
was an American photographer, painter and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Camera Work and Art et Decoration magazines.He also worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue.



Here are two photos taken by Edward. He used low key lighting for both which creates this mysterious and classy look. I think they are very well composed and the light played a big role in creating them.

Seeberger brothers
known for being the first ones in fashion photography industry. They created many beautiful photographs of women and fashion in many different location which have been used in many magazines. They worked with many designers such as Chanel, Herms and Madeleine Vionnet.

                                          

I picked two photos that I found very interesting. One is quite unusual as it concentrates on kids fashion. It's a very cute photo. They mainly shot on location which means that the lighting was usually good and helped to create good quality images. They also had an eye for good composition.