I don't want to go back to that mall,

the photobooth was full of eels.


Hahahaha!

Morning well spent.

From half 10 until 1, I helped make these with Abbie and Gayatri, not too bad a job really.
It's the conclusive piece for Brief Three, for which we got given both a model, a designer and a rough idea for which the pieces were based on. This is a mock spread for I-D, it's made me look forward to my own spread a bit more now.
Group work isn't so bad when it all comes together, even if some members have proved themselves to be almost entirely useless by this point.

Men being men.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

"I'll have to be honest and say I'm a bit of breast man!"
The shoot today went quite well, I have a feeling that my final images are within what I took today, I just need to tweak some of them. It was a lot easier than I expected, but boiling hot. I think I took enough time, I just hope that it wasn't too boring for my models really, they did a good job anyway.

My mind has been going 10 to the dozen today, I think it's thanks to a good breakfast.
My dissertation proposal is been looked upon in good favour and I've found lots of journals to help me out, I can't wait to start it properly, even if the thought of 10,000 words is unbelievably daunting. Everything to do with university work is whirling round in my head and it feels amazing to be so interested, even in other people's work, today was a great day.

Wow, lol.

I didn't notice this yesterday, talk about advertising.

This is me reviewing how well another shoot went..

..it was ok, better than the last one.
It was interesting to be thrown into everything and be given a ready-styled model. We were shooting this mini brief based around the film The Hunger - which the clothes were inspired by - for Dazed&Confused/I-D, the images were quite blue.
No photos to show you this time, we weren't taking them on my camera, and as a matter of fact I wasn't really taking anything.

At least there were less rows, even though the same person who was annoying the first time is even more annoying this time. No research, again. Nice one.

I wish I'd found this myself, I didn't. I love Lily Allen. I hope this photograph is up at the NPG, I can't wait to go home and see it if it is.

© Nadav Kander

I have to really prepare for my shoot on Thursday, it's not too hard, just need to get around 20-30 questions and mix them up for each guy to answer, I think it's much easier to get them to fill it in rather than record them, I bet it could get really frustrating having to type it out, plus it will give each of them something to do while I'm photographing another. I can't wait to do it though.

I went to the doctors today and they are giving away a free cinema ticket in exchange for a chlamydia test. Bizarre, it's to give people incentive so they make their 2000 quota.

Grrr.

Fuck you, Vans.

My feet are so sore, I feel I have to blog about it.

Tonight I am going to try and dress as Yoko Ono, but I'll basically just be wearing normal clothes that just happen to be white. I think it's an easy one to get away with considering that she's oriental and I am half......... it was either her or Björk, I don't really like either choice. I was considering Lovefoxxx but I realised that in order to make that good I'd have to go for a gold onesy, and I don't think I really have the body to pull that off.
It should be good tonight though and at the very least, I'll get a nice photograph of Moon and I in accompanying costumes, he's going as John Lennon, without a wig or beard and with his normal (ginger) hair...

I hope my feet get better, to try and make sure they do, I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading those magazines...
It feels so lame.
I've just been given a second brief for the studio as well, a fashion shoot - I have to email a fashion designer and state claim over one of her collections, we don't have to find a model this time though, which I am really thankful for, hopefully certain people will pull their weight this time round.

Mountain.

These should keep me occupied with research for a bit, hopefully they have a similar article to what I'm trying to get at, I'm hoping I don't end up having to go for Sunday supplements again.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I've just come back from Alice in Wonderland, it was quite good and I enjoyed it, I don't think it's an insult to call it a typical 'Tim Burton movie'.

Oh, heyaz Andy(!)

I have a proper idea, I am amazed with myself.
I may have mentioned I was going to focus on Andy and his weight loss - this has expanded, I am not focussing on male body issues and whether there is really a problem.
Due to the images I am shooting culminating in an editorial piece, it is important to note that whilst creativity is a key dimension within editorial photography, within certain magazines, it can be the written content that is important. So for my images, I will be focussing on classic lighting which will remain the focal point of creativity within my images against the innovation of the posing/makeup/costume etc.

Today I did a test shoot with Andy, who had already agreed to help me out anyway.
I had to do it at home because the studio is booked almost solidly and the only time I could get when I booked it was Thursday 18th at 2pm, which in terms of now is ages away. Some of these did turn out ok though.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

I want my images to demonstrate the normality of my model's bodies, with the accompanying text elevating how they are perceived. From talking with men since the beginning of the overall project as well as keeping a pulse on male magazines and infotainment programmes, there seems to be an increase in the amount of men who have certain issues with their body, however small, this contrasts greatly with the man of a few years ago who was a 'right geeza' - now even Nuts tells you how to dress.
The buzz-word 'manorexia' has been thrown around and there has been an increase in male body dysmorphia, but that isn't really what this project is about, it's about normality and how normal guys feel about these emerging problems.

I personally think the concept is quite solid, I just need some visual research and more photographs. Work, work, WORK!

Chomp.

In order to avoid doing any project work for the rest of the weekend, today's project was cooking. I'm quite proud of myself and in any case, right at this second there isn't much of a point doing any more of my RDB until I have done my shoot, tomorrow.
So I made Jamie Oliver's Steak, Guiness and Cheese pie - which I'm putting up there as one of my great culinary successes.

And I made some 'Cheeseburger Cupcakes' that I found on FoundShit.com. I got the recipe from here, they're pretty simple, but I don't actually really want to eat them now...

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I experimented with my flash-cord today to see if I can change the lighting effects for tomorrows shoot with Andy, as I don't really want to lug lots of studio lights home when the only reason I'm doing it at home is because the studio is booked solidly for the next week. I think I could make it look ok, I may take out a tripod.

Giggle Water.

http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

These are my favourites of what I took before we went out.
I really did enjoy last night, even though my only real memory is having Cantonese spoken to me by a black guy...

© Ruth Johnston

I haven't really done any work today, or most of this week for all that matter, I have some back issues of Vice that I need to look over, and an incredibly pointless and unproductive day of Uni ahead of me tomorrow. I've been quite lazy this week but the looming boredom of tomorrow doesn't really help anything.

I hate group work.

It was the most stupid idea ever to put a group of student photographers together, whoever thought of it, I am so annoyed with them.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

If we were in pairs, everything would go much more smoothly and we wouldn't be hostile to each other.

Anneka was nice though, and at least I got to touch the camera.