NB: There are a lot of grouped images in the post and I recommend that you view the original post, here, for an easier read.
My photographic partner in crime, Monica, has been suggesting that I join a photography Meetup from the website Meetup.com for a while now but the idea of going on someone else's photowalk has never appealed to me as much as organising my own. However, when Monica told me about a Meetup group where people were mentored by a professional photographer on how to handle the photographic assignments you may get as a freelance photographer, then I was intrigued.
The idea of this Meetup, Photographic Assignments, is that each week we meet and reply to a brief set by a fictional employee. The first assignment was to create a book cover for a new Anne Rice book, a sensual vampire horror book, set over decades with a story that centres around London's financial district.
There was a fake Art Director (the Meetup's organiser, Pete) who requested that the image did not have any people in it and that it clearly contrast old London against new London as well as having the other themes of the story in it too.
Here are my efforts, there are several iterations of each attempt as well as the original images for each and a brief description of what I was trying to do.
The main character of the story lived on Kings Road in the City, and this building is 20 Kings Road. I've cut the building in half and then mirrored it so make it look more pleasing, I dropped in a more dramatic sky and darkened it, upped the contrast and made it blue. In one version I've placed the Gherkin in the background and made it the same colour as the sky so it didn't detract from the building in front, I lost this in a later version as I'm not confident that it adds anything. I then dropped a aeroplane in.
This is the simplest of my treatments and perhaps the most contemporary but problematically the one that conveys the least about the story, about vampires and sensuality. What it does have is something iconically London, the roof of The Bank of England, but it's not internationally recognisable, much like my first image without the Gherkin. However, I'm am pleased with the tones, colours and composition.
The curved text was supposed to follow the contours of the building, but this has been the most criticised feature.
I took my inspiration from softback book covers, trashy ones, the type of book you might buy at a service station (truck stop) in the 80's. The only real trickier I've done is to cut out the image of the decorative dragon and place it as decortion on the cover, I've also made a version without the dragons and I'm not sure which I prefer.
As always I welcome you comments and views.
Expect to see more of my efforts from these Meetups and please visit the Photographic Assignment's Meetup page.
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