Photographer Research - Miles Aldridge

Miles Aldridge

Why I chose him

The reason that I decided to study Miles Aldridge as one of my photographer's is because his work is extremely unique. His photographs are overflowing with crazy amounts of colour and they all have a story behind them. He's a successful photographer and perfects every last detail in his pictures. He's one of my most favourite photographers as I was able to analyse and evaluate his pictures in a lot of detail. His pictures made me think and feel a lot of different emotions and they all have such a meaningful interpretation. Unlike Solve's photographs, Miles uses his whole frame and doesn't shoot in a studio with a plain backdrop. He sets up a scene and shoots from there; this is what I inspire to do in the future, but for this project I have applied little techniques from his images into my own.

Biography

A fiercely original photographer, Miles Aldridge is best known for the technicolor dream-like worlds he creates and the glamorous, beautiful women who inhabit them. Aldridge's photographs often depict women in haute-Stepford mode splashed with lurid candy colors. He captures his subjects in a state of dramatic contemplation, making them more complicated and intriguing than simply beautiful. Born in London, Miles Aldridge studied illustration at Central St. Martins and worked as a music video director before officially starting his career as a fashion photographer in 1993. Miles Aldridge has worked with British Vogue, Paris Vogue, American Vogue, Vogue Italia, The Face, Numéro, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Paradis, as well as advertising assignments for clients such as YSL, Armani, Longchamp, L’Oreal, Hugo Boss and Paul Smith. A selection of his portraits are in the permanent collections at The National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the International Center of Photography in New York.

Acclaimed fashion photographer Miles Aldridge applies a cinematic spin to his vivid, Pop-infused photographs. Here, a woman stares back at the viewer as she poses in a bright neon green dress. Amid candy-coloured tools and accessories, she attempts to fix a sink, under the humorous title 'I Only Want You To Love Me' which suggests that she's attempting to fulfil a stereotypical male task in order to grasp hold of a mans love. Her outfit is portrayed as also being quite humorous because fixing a sink is a dirty job, with no tinge of glamour. The woman in this photograph is dressed for a completely opposite occasion. The bright colours attract me in this picture, even though they do not match in the slightest. This combination of colours is inspirational even though they clash.

A photograph of a woman in the cinema is evident here as she's wearing 3D glasses as part of a trio with cocacola and popcorn. She's looking above the camera lens which demonstrates the height of the cinema screen, however there's no other characters surrounding her, when in a cinema there should be. Furthermore, this photograph only focuses on her character. Usually you'd go to the cinema with your friends, but she seems to be alone which creates a strange atmosphere as it's different. The only bright colours included in this photograph are the lenses on the 3D glasses and her bubblegum pink lipstick, which therefore causes these features to stand out. I like the use of a simple background and the mixed signals that this photograph provides the viewer with. The colours on the lady's lenses is what influenced me to edit in photoshop with one of my own photographs.

This photograph is a large contradiction; a beautiful young woman in a long, fitted, grey silky dress is leaning against a car that looks jam packed, out of date and scruffy. From my point of view, this female should be posing infront of a Rolls-Royce or a Jaguar as these cars would partner well with her formal and glamorous appearance. Humour has also been inserted into this picture as this car is filled to the brim with luggage and bags that it would be impossible for the woman to even squeeze into the car. The suitcases are the only item in this photograph that burst with colour, therefore making this the subject of the photograph. It's also typical that a woman takes more belongings than she needs when going out or travelling. This picture has exaggerated this view by the overloaded car. Miles' work has such a variety of interpretations that can be made from his photographs; it's extremely creative and inspiring. The reason that I find him inspiring is because it's made me want to create some photographs where a group of bright colours are placed somewhere amongst a bland coloured picture.

Another perculiar photograph would be this one above. First of all, the female having this hair colour is completely abnormal and something you'd see a person from the 1980's with. She's also holding a hairdryer as though it's a replacement for a gun which creates an eerie atmosphere as she could be classed as a rather unusual character. To her right there is a mirror. This would usually be where a woman would dry her hair and add the finishing touches to her 'getting ready' routine. This character seems to need no mirror at all and decides to stare at what the audience would assume is, a blank wall. She isn't looking into the camera, so the longer you look at this picture the more you get the impression she's going to snap her head towards your direction even though she obviously can't move in a photograph. This is a picture with a bizarre atmosphere but this is also quite intriguing. The main formal element in this image would be colour which has been paired with other colours that most certainly do not match, yet contribute to the odd set up.

How he's influenced me

Miles Aldridge is one of my favourite photographers that I have researched so far. His work is amazing and influences me in many ways. It makes me want to set up real life scenes in my shoots overflowing with crazy colours. This may be a challenge for this unit however could perhaps be an influence for future references. His work pops and definitely catches your eye. There are metaphorical meanings behind a few aswell, especially the last picture that I evaluated. Each picture of his tells a story and it does this through only one photograph which is something that I'd like to do. 

With this computer experiment of mine, I applied the technique of selective colour  to Katy's glasses. It was the second image of Miles' in this post that influenced me because the model in his cinematic image had glasses on that were filled with colour whilst her face and hair was light and had colour reduced from both features.

I then edited this image further and applied around about the same colours of the shades of the models in Nick's image and made Katy's lenses the same shade. I liked this effect and thought the influence behind it was creative. I was also inspired by the third image, where a dull looking image is brought to life by a touch of colour. This photo could also be interpreted as meaningful as the viewer will wonder why half of the girls' faces have been cut off, making them question just like they'd question some of Miles' photographs.

Summary

Overall, this photographer stands out among the rest. He controls what goes where in each frame, and sets up a whole set let alone the position of his model. He's a very successful photographer who has worked with a variety of different magazines doing all kinds of different photographical things. His work isn't plain, simple or boring but quite the opposite and that is why he's part of my photographer research.