My latest photo editorial has been three months of research, planning, prop sourcing , designing and organization. Based around the graphic novel “Tank Girl” the shoot features two very talented and creative models and performers Emily Aoibheann & Natalie Da Costa who are both fans of the cult comic book.

Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett.

As the name suggests, the titular character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home. She undertakes a series of missions for a nebulous organization before making a serious mistake and being declared an outlaw for her sexual inclinations and her substance abuse. The comic centers on her misadventures with her boyfriend, Booga, a mutant kangaroo. The comic’s style was heavily influenced by punk visual art, and strips were frequently deeply disorganized, anarchic, absurdest, and psychedelic. The strip features various elements with origins in surrealist techniques, fanzines, collage, cut-up technique, stream of consciousness, and meta-fiction, with very little regard or interest for conventional plot or committed narrative.

So it was this eclectic, random and anarchic punk comic book feel that I wanted to interpret and to achieve visually. I thought about locations involving disused factory settings, forest elements and even got into contact with a military vehicle group who had a member that owned a Sherman WW2 tank (too expensive to hire!).

I eventually went with a studio option, Hi-Key combined lighting technique (flash, Tungsten and daylight) and created a comic book background using enlarged comic book illustration panels that I had blown up to A1 size to create a kind of “Living comic book” feel. Also subconscious inspiration came from the photo shoot that was done as promotion for the film Trainspotting this shoot has always stuck in my mind as a very strong , visually effective character driven shoot  in stark black and white shot from a high angle.

The props used were a combination of different props we had sourced and accumulated over the past while such as my bullet belt (that I had to consider taking through customs but eventually oped for the postal service), the weaponry was kindly on loan to me from a good mate Garret. Emily and Natalie did a great job on their own styling and make-up also.

Here is a sneaky peak at a select few shots from the shoot.

Emily Aoibheann

The selected shots ar now available for viewing in my main Gallery

“Butchers Clutch”

Digital Artwork from the “Childhood Darkside” project

]]> http://firstfocusphotography.com/2008/04/21/butchers-clutch-neonchaos/feed/ 0 http://firstfocusphotography.com/2008/03/04/the-birth-of-neon-chaos/ http://firstfocusphotography.com/2008/03/04/the-birth-of-neon-chaos/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:46:26 +0000 Wedge http://blog.photogenius.info/2008/03/04/the-birth-of-neon-chaos/ Here are some of the latest pieces from the EM@RT project

Birth of Chaos- EM@RT 2008

Fear Inside- EM@RT 2008

I have recently been collaborating with Artist, Stylest and Model Emma McElroy on a number of different themed projects incorporating Fine Art, Photography, Fashion, Performance and Digital photo enhancement to create visual imagery under the guise of EM@RT (Emma McElroy & Rick Taylor – pronounced E-mart). Although the images we have created are presented in photographic form for you looking at this computer screen, the images themselves and how they are viewed forms a part of the Art process as a whole, to date they have been produced as 20″ x 30″ canvas prints played on a 40″ HDTV monitor and would be intended to be incorporated into an installation piece consisting of an interactive display room/set with back and front projection onto textured wall surfaces and a a digital audio piece to create an experience for the viewer with live action and video played out together.

Dark Mill Project – EM@RT

Reflections upon the past

I have in the past produced artwork along similar themes and processes in 1996 I created a video piece for my BTEC National Diploma Foundation Art & Design course entitled “Break and Enter” which combined many different elements that were combined together and presented as a video piece. This process evolves by layering different elements and creative processes together, then taking what you have created and placing  it into a further artistic medium then repeating the process again and again.

For example I would firstly create drawing and storyboards of the images and themes I wanted to portray , I would then find locations and models / Actors and photograph them separately. I wold then combine these elements together firstly using traditional cut and paste techniques and later photoshop. I would then film elements of the location and also film the images I created photographically using a rostrum camera then edit sequences of live action and stills together and add soundtrack elements at the editing stage.

original storyboard sketches for “Break & Enter”

original background photographs for “Break & Enter”

Eno & Laura -original studio shots for composition

composite examples taken from sketchbook

I would then take what I have edited, filmed and photographed and put it back into the original environment and re-film the environment . The final result would then be presented as an installation that is a recreation of the original environment and involve interaction from the viewer. Sounds complex?, maybe so, but the end result is the feeling that is created from the mixing of mediums and realities, leaving you questioning what is real and what is really there. It is all about the emotions created by the complexities of reality.

Break and Enter was created in 1997 and was my first student film, edited in a cupboard with basic editing equipment, digital composites were created on Photoshop version 2 which I discovered for the first time in the graphic design department and was not being used by any photography students in my college. My final piece consisted of elements of Fine Art, Photography, graphic design and video production . This had to be jointly graded by three separate tutors from different departments of the collage and to my knowledge and the information that was given to me by the tutors I was the first person in the college to combine many different elements of digital media , video and photography to create artwork. They later introduced a course element based on these methods. Remember this is before digital cameras existed and before Photoshop was commonplace among photographers the world over and  its only 12 years ago!

Wasteland – 2007

Nightnight – 2007