Wonderland - Christian Oita

Christian Oita was originally a writer, born in Romania and raised in Germany. He then became an artist, and voiced his disdain for the art of photography, claiming it "is basically a lazy way of creating images with no original outcome whatsoever." It was only a few weeks later that he put down his paintbrush and picked up a camera.

He specialises in male fashion photography, but he occasionally shoots females for magazines such as this Emma Watson Wonderland cover shoot. He's used coloured backgrounds and gels and editing to create a hazy wonderland effect. The pastel colours are reminiscent of a candy scene, but he doesn't go as far to cast a colour on his face.

I will be taking his use of filters and colours in my next shoot as an experiment with portraiture.

Gel

These photographs I found on pinterest are reminiscent of Christian Oita's Wonderland shoot, but with a more dramatic effect. The filters and gels are used on the models faces as well as the background and the colours add a dynamic to the face without distorting it. 

Here the use of multiple gels from different angles is something I'd be interested in replicating in a shoot. The yellow light acts as a highlight, whereas the red light is used more to cast a coloured shadow. The blue light is used more for emphasis and seems to be pointing nearly face on at her. I will be experimenting with the placement of lights as well as the colouring.

Brainstorm

To find inspiration for my theme, I went up on Pinterest to create a brainstorm of initial ideas. To begin with, the idea of colour and make-up were the ones that stood out to me as they are more obvious ways to change how a portrait is received, Other ways that I could manipulate the appearance of a portrait were through the use of gels or severe editing after the initial photo was taken. I will be experimenting with all of these ideas in my pre-shoots.

What is Portraiture?

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter" 

- Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Dorian Gray

By dictionary definition, portraiture is the "art of painting or taking portraits". A portrait is a painting or photograph in which the face and expression are visible. Photographers and artists alike often create portraits to capture the emotion or likeness of the subject or to use their face to convey a certain message. However, portraiture can be warped or edited to become not just a portrayal of human likeness but something more. Manipulation of the human form can be disturbing or moving or striking and what was simply a photograph of a face can become a statement, a commentary or simply an interesting piece of art.



With my portraiture, I want to tamper with the concepts of colour, perception and depth to challenge the notion of the portrait. Inspired by photographers such as Rankin, and artists such as Andy Warhol, I plan to combine art and photography, surrealism and pop-art, colour and light to create something more than a photograph. 
Bibliography:
The Portrait of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Art History