Photographer Research - Nick Knight

Nick Knight

Why I've chosen him

Nick Knight's pictures are different to a lot of fashion photographers. He positions his models in funny angles rather than having them standing up straight and posing. In the pictures that I've included below, Nick has taken a photo of a woman sitting down and a woman leaning on her arms in front. He dresses his models in bizarre but funky outfits to portray them as  being unique and trendy. This encourages me to perhaps find some crazy outfits for my models to wear in the future, along with crazy make up and crazy hair. Crazy everything is a good way to describe Nick Knight's photography overall.

Biography

Nick Knight is a fashion photographer who inspires me when it comes to creating a lively atmosphere through a photograph. He covers many topics in his fahion photography career, such as racism, disability, ageism, and more recently fat-ism. He is a truly inspirational photographer because he continually challenges conventional ideals of beauty. His photographs are extremely powerful and definitely exhale a message to the audience. His work is intriguing because it is different to an everyday fashion magazine with fashion photographs included. Nick's photographs all have a meaning behind them and aren't just shot to photograph a beautiful looking model. Nick has made his own book, been commissioning picture editor for i-D, shot advertising campaigns, had his work exhibited in exhibitions, was awarded the prestigious Moet Chandon Fashion Tribute for 2006, received an OBE in recognition of the contribution he has made to the arts over his illustrious career and also turned his hand to directing music videos. You could say Nick Knight was more than successful. His work caught my attention because every photo was loud and colourful with pattern oozing from many of his pictures.

Take a model styled by Camille Bidault-Waddington with hair by Sam McKnight. Let a four year-old, a one year-old and two three year-olds do what ever they want with her make-up, and then ask them to draw on Nick Knight's prints. This exuberant exploration of innocence and childhood creativity through film and still takes fashion back to the dressing-up box. In this piece of work, the model is pulling a blank expression on her face. This lifeless look doesn't afefct the quality of the photo as it's the mixture of colours that bring this picture to life. It comes across as though the colours have been splatted on. I enjoy doing this in my art work and would love to include splats of colour in my physical experiments.

With this photograph it looks as though this female has arms for legs. The longer you look at it the more it comes across as her having a disability.The fashionable skirt that's in the formation of a tutu creates a circle behind her face and upper body. This could be interpreted as her being the centre in this photograph; she is the subject. The coral orange and light colours in this photograph are captivating, keeping the atmosphere cool and calm. I like that the background here is white so that the colours on the model are what stand out in this photograph. 

This is a photograph containing mainly dark shades with the model's face and hair being the lightest part in this image. The hairstyle is rather abnormal and something I'd love to attempt. This picture has been taken so it looks as though the woman has nothing but a neck and a head. Her body has been darkened along with the rest of the circle outline around her face. I quite like the firey make up in this photograph because her eyes look mysterious and haunting but the pop of colour makes them look less intimidating, along with the subtle shade painted on her lips.

This is more of a model shot where the woman typically poses on a chair and sits in a way she would never sit originally. She's looking directly at the camera with a blank expression; just like many other models. If I were to create some model shots I would like to include some reactions and facial expressions to make the photograph less intense and more uplifting. Her dress includes pattern and her whole outfit is definitely filled with colour.

How he's influenced me

Nick Knight's whacky designs are outstanding. His models are not styled in your everyday make up and outfits. They all have features about them that are enhanced with either crazy make up, crazy hair styling or crazy clothing etc. His photographs make me want to create my own bizarre piece of work, but not technically apply costume and make up to portray this. I also admire how Nick covers topics such as racism, ageism and disability etc in his photographs. This is extremely inspiring because it not only means he creates beautiful pictures, but also beautiful messages. When I take my photographs I'd like at least one of them to have some sort of meaning/whacky feel and Nick inspires me to do this.

This photo joiner of Josh that I created was inspired by Nick Knight. I wanted to do a photo joiner of a person because I knew that it would look bizarre compared to just a normal photo of someone standing and smiling. It's quite an abnormal photograph and it was this theme in Nick's pictures that influenced me for this photo joiner.

Summary

Overall, Nick Knight is more than just your average fashion photographer. He enjoys making his pictures stand out by prepping everything in shot along with his meanings behind every photo. There's not one picture of his that is boring and each one is bound to contain some form of colour which is an essential formal element when creating a loud and bold picture with perhaps a strong message.