Inspirations and Ideas

For my professional practise I decided I would like to try using different lighting sources and camera techniques while photographing dancers. Below are some inspirational images I have found that I would like to try and achieve whilst photographing dancers.

The three images below are by Tim Walker was a freelance photography assistant in London. He then moved to New York City as a full time assistant to Richard Avedon. He initially concentrated portrait and document work for UK newspapers on returning to England. At the age of 25 he shot his first fashion story for Vogue and has photographed for the British, Italian and American editions ever since.

I chose this image as inspiration towards photographing the dancers because of the way the light shone off the disco ball creating the dashes off light on the models body and the wall. Disco is a form of dance and disco balls would be hung from the roof on to of a dance floor. Therefore, I thought using the light from a disco call would relate to capturing dancers. The shop underneath were the light is coming from behind was another way off lighting the model.

I would like to try and achieve something similar to the image below. The shadows create the effect as if the men are aiming towards the girl but they are not in the shot. Dance is about freedom and expressing yourself and I would like to try and achieve this by using a snoot (a cone-shaped fitment on a studio light to control the scene area illuminated) this will bring out a more promenade shadow from the dancer

Another one of Tim Walker images is the one below, I would like to try and capture something similar to the images below, where the images are took separately and then over lapped using software. As there are so many different moves and positions in dance I aim to capture the different images and overlap them

Bruce Monk

Bruce is a former dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company

I think the image below is stunning and creates the effect that the ballets are swans as he captures the images using a long exposure, the ballets dance and has they lift there arms up and down it creates the effect that they are trying to fly making them look like a swan. I would like to achieve this effect using a film camera and capture a ballet in the studio.

Nick Knight

I chose this image because of the way the light fires out from the models to give the effect that the light source has crashed into them, forcing them away. I found it an inspiration towards how I can light the subject.

When I photograph the dancers I would like to capture them while they dance and not have them posing and you don't get the same passion you would if they were to be dancing