Donny Dean?

This is a photo of my pal Donny, which I shot last week. I'm hoping to persuade him to be my "James Dean".

I was at Andy's last night and he's a bit of a James Dean fan. I'd never really noticed this poster before but because I'm thinking about this "dreaded unit" idea I was totally fascinated by it.

Up 'til now I've just thought about shooting people individually. Wonder if I should be looking at duo's?

The poster

I haven't put up the poster yet, I'll wait until next week once I've had a chance to talk to all three lecturers. I did speak to Keith and showed him the poster and he seemed quite enthusiastic. He said no one has ever done it before at the college. Which could be taken as "that's too ambitious and nobody ever wanted to try it!"

I also spoke to a bunch of beauty students who liked the idea but said "we're still only doing nails at the moment". Which is worrying. Maybe that's 'cos they're still just in their first year though. I'm sure I can get a few people who are a bit further advanced.

A few more girls have been in contact on my Facebook page telling me they love it, so I don't think I'll have a shortage of models. Maybe they won't be so happy once they learn they've gotta pay for it! I want to finish the prints on 16"x20" fibre paper so the whole project won't be cheap.

Also, in class today we had an informal chat where we had to present our latest images to the group. I was very impressed with the work of two students who had used medium format; the quality was outstanding. So I think I'll shoot using that, IF this idea goes ahead. Medium format film is much more expensive than ordinary 35mm, so the cost to the models will probably be higher. Mind you, one of the potential models said "I'd pay over £100 to have a photo of myself looking like that"... hopefully it's not going to be quite THAT expensive!

This is a poster I created a few hours ago as part of my Digital Imaging class and I'm going to put it on all the college notice boards tomorrow. If I get enough interest from the hair and make-up people then this project could be onto a winner. If not, I'll reconsider my options.

First ideas

Before I was accepted onto the HNC Photography course I had to attend an interview at the college and present some of my images. I then had to write a 500 word essay about what I would do for the Graded Unit.

I wrote some old tat about photographing castles or something. Now that I'm just about past Module 1, which involved a lot of darkroom stuff, I've decided I really want to complete the Graded Unit using film. I also like photographing people. And I also like Madonna. And guess what!

Greta Garbo, and Monroe Dietrich and DiMaggio Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean On the cover of a magazine Grace Kelly; Harlow, Jean Picture of a beauty queen Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers, dance on air They had style, they had grace Rita Hayworth gave good faceLauren, Katherine, Lana too Bette Davis, we love you...

So, that's 16 Hollywood stars and I need to produce a minimum of 16 prints. I'm going to recreate 16 top hollywood portraits in the studio and hand print them.

More tomorrow. I've still got to finish Module 1.

First post

Hi. Thanks for reading my blog. This is going to be an online diary for me to document everything about my Graded Unit over the next 6 months. It'll also be a place for me to share my images with the clients who come to be photographed.

The Graded Unit is a part of my HNC Photography course. I think I have to produce a minimum of 16 images which form part of a series at the same time as completing the course. I'll know more about it in the next few days as we're only just coming to the end of module 1.

All of my diary entries here and all of your comments will be used in my final evaluation essay. Don't post anything if you don't agree to this.