Primary research
In relation to my project, I decided to go out and do my own research on subcultures from their perspective, highlighting their experiences and reasons why they first got into the culture. Online sources don't tend to mention much about their actual lifestyle and it can vary for different people. Gathering my own research through interviewing members of the subcultures gives me a lot more information that I can share to others to bring awareness to these subcultures.
Interview with Georgina: Member of the Emo community
I got into the rock community about 4 years ago. It was inevitable really and it was bound to happen when I think back at it. I grew up in a very music-orientated family who had very diverse music taste and think that's where I get it from being open to literally any genre of music. I remember the day I came across Iron Maiden. It makes me laugh thinking about it because I was always so adamant too my dad saying ‘Oh I hate the sound of guitars, it’s a complete racket. I’ll never like rock music!’ and then I was at a family gathering and we were playing Guitar Hero. It was my turn and my dad chose for me to play ‘Two Minutes To Midnight’ by Maiden and that was it, I was completely hooked. It went from Iron Maiden to Ozzy to Black Veil Brides to Alice Cooper and it just kept growing. I think the reason I started to enjoy rock music was because I needed some sort of escape and to feel like
someone understood me, and through rock music I found that. I was no longer this girl who was trying to fit in and copy every trend like everyone else, I was in fact standing out. I remember starting to dress in the Heavy Metal/Alt style and it was so weird because of the looks I’d get from people like I was some sort of demon and to start off with it really bugged me. But then I took it and owned it, now the stares and looks don’t bother me at all anymore. I dress the way I do to express my individuality, my uniqueness. There’s going to be no one out there that’s the same as me, so I should start embracing that. I'm very influenced by the 80’s Glam Culture like bands such as Bon Jovi, Def leopard, Poison, etc, but on the other hand I’m influenced by the more
modern bands such as Asking Alexandria, Palaye Royale, All Time Low, Pierce The Veil. There’s a never ending list! I’m honestly grateful for the Rock Community, through it I’ve made great friends in the industry itself, It’s allowed me to finally be myself and find myself.
someone understood me, and through rock music I found that. I was no longer this girl who was trying to fit in and copy every trend like everyone else, I was in fact standing out. I remember starting to dress in the Heavy Metal/Alt style and it was so weird because of the looks I’d get from people like I was some sort of demon and to start off with it really bugged me. But then I took it and owned it, now the stares and looks don’t bother me at all anymore. I dress the way I do to express my individuality, my uniqueness. There’s going to be no one out there that’s the same as me, so I should start embracing that. I'm very influenced by the 80’s Glam Culture like bands such as Bon Jovi, Def leopard, Poison, etc, but on the other hand I’m influenced by the more
modern bands such as Asking Alexandria, Palaye Royale, All Time Low, Pierce The Veil. There’s a never ending list! I’m honestly grateful for the Rock Community, through it I’ve made great friends in the industry itself, It’s allowed me to finally be myself and find myself.
Interview with Harry: Member of the Grunge community
My first introduction to a ‘grunge’ aesthetic was brought about by music, at the time my older cousin was heavily emo and I overheard her music, it was something by the Black Veil Brides. Over time it grew on me, I too began to listen to their music and similar things. Shortly after discovering this I began to let my hair grow, instead of the short sides and long top it became long all over after nearly a year, my fringe covering half my face and my right eye, it’s a style that I wear at the present day. Whilst growing my hair I found a love for darker shades, it started off with greys, but it turned to blacks, it was also shown through my clothing, my interest in what I wore soon changed from hashed long-sleeved with an under-shirt to black hoodies and black shirts with different, darker prints on them. Over time my collection grew, my entire wardrobe slowly became completely black as it is today. My room shifted from a cream, blue mix to grey and black. My music taste also grew all over the darker spectrum of artists, my personal favourites becoming Slipknot, Lamb of God, and Five Finger Death Punch. I strangely look up to a paranormal investigator named Zak Bagans, his style and interests heavily influenced my tastes and looks, outlining my interest in the unknown. Overall, my aesthetic came from the influences around me and my personal interests in different fields, it first started around four years ago or so, it shaped my tastes and look completely, helping me to realise what my style actually is.
Interview with Lewis: Member of the Metalhead community
I’ve been into the metal scenery for about 5-6 years now and it has completely changed me. When I was 7, I used to be a massive fan of the game Guitar Hero which was my first introduction to the Rock and Heavy Metal genre. During the game I played a song by Lamb Of God and Megadeth, that was it, I was immediately hooked. I loved the sound of the guitar and heavy background beats and it was like it was meant to be. I started having guitar lessons which made me engage a lot more with the music world. Playing myself and facing my own struggles and difficulties really put it into perspective for me how much effort and work musicians put into their albums and shows and I finally found something to strive for. Since I first picked up a guitar I have never put it down, my motivation to get up in the morning is music and my life fully revolves around it, I’m now at the point where I can’t imagine my life without it. My dream is to have a career in the music industry, specifically as the lead guitarist and singer in a band. Although it seems like I have a long way to go, I work hard and practice everyday to make my dream become a reality. A few months ago I had the opportunity to get some advice from Lonny Eagleton, the bassist from Black Veil Brides and he gave me some insight on the touring lifestyle and set me on track for my goals as well as helping me to realise that you don’t need top grades or music schools to get noticed but instead need to work hard, practice and promote yourself just like how Lonny did. The metal image has also been a massive part of my life as it symbolises how much the music has influenced my life and represents who I am as a person. I think the image alone can tell people a lot about me even if they have never seen me before. Personally I love the brutal ness of metal music and metal concerts and it’s something that I want to feel more involved in later on in life.
Interview with Josiah: Member of the Emo community
Growing up my parents were always getting me to listen to metal music. They'd play band music anywhere between Bullet For My Valentine to Def Leppard. This led to me listening to a wide array of music genres but mostly the heavy ones! I remember hearing all sorts of heavy albums in the car as a child, my favourite was always 'Master of Puppets', by Metallica! I latched onto how visceral, and chaotic the music sounded, there is just something so exciting to me about the intensity of the music. As I grew up, I began to make friends with people with similar music taste to me, and I was always thinking how badly I wanted to look like them. I idolised the aesthetic of the emo subculture, and it massively influenced how I dressed and carried myself. I loved the attention I got, and the weird looks from having long hair, and consistently wearing darker clothes than everyone else, but I also loved the feeling of being able to express myself purely by what I was wearing. A lot of my influence comes from the bands I listen to, and the community surrounding those bands. Bands such as Periphery, Motionless In White, Black Veil Brides, and the people I meet at their shows, teach me to express myself however I want, and that is an incredibly liberating feeling.
Editorial Magazines
Research
Metal Hammer is an English magazine that was written by Metalheads for Metalheads due to the lack of understanding in pervious magazines before Hammer was published. Being written by metalheads means it has a better understanding of the metal world and it's exactly what metalheads want to read with in depth interviews with rising stars that aren't featured anywhere else. It is classed as a type of editorial as their is article sections that include the editor expressing topical issues, usually about stars in the metal scene, usually with the magazine openly expressing their own opinion. I originally looked at this magazine because I was drawn to the strong portraiture and exceptional use of the layout design. I like how the images are very montage like and are made to look like they have came from elsewhere. I also like the use of images accompanied with the text discussing the band/singer photographed. I think the use of quotes is quite clever and is definitely something I want to bring into my editorial at a later stage. The use of the text on top of the images and wrapped around the images is quite clever and makes you drawn to both the text and picture elements within the magazine. I think this is a really good idea for an editorial as its not like a photobook and you want the audience engaged with both the photos and the text. the cover to the magazine is gloss whereas the rest of the pages are matte and very think like a standard magazine that you see everyday. The binding is saddle stitch making it easier to tear and fall apart making it a cheap affordable magazine.
Kerrang magazine is a weekly British magazine, classed as the worlds greatest rock magazine since 1981 and is written by rock fans for rock fans. The magazine is the most popular rock magazine in England and is one of the very little ways for fans of rock to find out exclusive information about their favourite Rockstar's and feel a connection to other fans in England. As its written by fans, it makes it filled up with exactly what rock fans want to read and also includes high quality posters within every magazine featuring famous rock artists. Kerrang magazine features exclusive interviews, quotes as well as high quality portraits and band images that are all their to engage the reader. The layout of the photos with the text is different to normal magazines as the images work with the text. High quality portraits are centred in the middle of the pages with text surrounding and there is many double page spreads of images with text overlapping over the image, usually with quotes. Every page has a different layout and the magazine is very experimental. kerrang uses thin matte paper accompanied by saddle stitch binding which works with the magazine as the centre is full of posters of musicians and bands. Having the staples means it can easily be teared out without completely ripping the pages and the thin paper also means the posters can come out a lot easier than with thicker paper.
Alternative press is an American magazine, A5 in size, featuring alternative culture news, music releases, interviews with bands and singers from the alternative community and merchandise advertisements. The magazine is heavily photo based, with pages dedicated only to portraits accompanied with small amounts of text. Each page has a different layout with images positioned differently each time. The text has different fonts, positioning, and ranges in size. Bold text is used to address key features within the magazine, such as band titles and topics discussed. The images are meant to overpower the text as the first thing you see when you open the magazine is the photographs. The text size is quite small making it blend into the white background whereas the high contrast chiaroscuro lighting in the photographs makes you instantly drawn to them. The text is always smaller than the images within the magazine. The paper used is quite experimental as for each magazine they use a range of different paper types such as gloss, cartridge type paper and matte. The magazine uses perfect binding making it a lot more high quality than standard magazines and less likely to rip or tear like with saddlestitch.
The British magazine company Hammer also bring out special edition band specific magazines occasionally, focusing on the full stories of the band/musician. The magazines include exclusive interviews and backstories making you feel like you are getting to know the band in depth as well as exclusive never seen before photos of the band in high quality. The images again work with the text and take up the whole page making them the main focus. Unlike normal Hammer magazines, the paper quality is much better as it isn't as thin as the standard type magazine pages and it has perfect binding making it last a lot longer and is less likely to tear.
Adam Lowndes Photography
Adam Lowe is a wedding photographer who promotes his work through Instagram. Unlike normal wedding photographers, his photos are all thoroughly thought about before just taking a picture as he always thinks about the framing and what's in the background. His photos are very high quality and capture the moment linking to my documentary style portraiture with my friends who are part of the alternative community. I really liked how all his photos looked natural and I also liked the way he used light to brighten up the image without overexposing them. After watching many of his Instagram reels, videos and audios he uploaded, I got many useful tips on ways I can improve my own work in future shoots so I decided to get in contact with him through Instagram to ask hum some questions and to get some advice and some more useful tips for my future work.
Questions and responses
May I ask how you started out with photography? specifically in our field
Ok, so it's kind of hard to pin down where the exact point was when I got into photography but somewhere along the line between 10 - 14 I picked up a camera and a video camera and slowly started capturing. Within that time I also got into skateboarding and the music scene so my influences at the start were widely based upon these two genres. Then as I grew and got better gear, I went on to take pictures of still life and landscapes for a bit as that was just what I thought I was supposed to do. Every time I returned to skateboarding though I just adored it and this was where I took my best work in the early days.
Whilst at university I applied to work abroad for the summer at a camp taking photographs and doing this as a job for so long forced me to learn a lot more at a alarming rate! When I returned I tried to switch courses at university but stayed not studying photography in the end which made no difference to my life now. That year, 2010, I also shot my first wedding, my sisters. I was just doing it for a bit of fun really and didn't expect to fall in love with it so much. I caught the bug and have been doing it ever since. Part time at first and then went on to full time about 3 years ago.
Did you have any inspiration from others such as photographers that inspired you when you was younger or was it just an interest that developed into a career?
I don’t take any inspiration from any other wedding photographers or photographers for that matter now. I just follow things which inspire me like skateboarders or calligraphy artists or graphic designs or even chefs. Just anything which puts my mind in a non disruptive place. I find looking at other photographers work rather boring to be honest haha. It’s also very off putting as you’ll always compare it to your own.
So in terms of photography of skateboarding compared to weddings I’ve taken the vibrancy of the art, the look of movement, the wild angles and larger than life characters. That should give you an idea of how to convert your passion over but most of the time things like this happen naturally and then it’s only afterwards that you see how it happened.
Ive not many wedding photographers who’ve actually studied it at university but that doesn’t mean it’s the right approach it’s just an option.
The best advice I can give you now is to just practice practice and practice. Although you can’t see other people you can take photographs of yourself and experiment with that. That’s a real talent something which does help a lot. You can also get good at exploring how to use one space in a multitude of ways... for example this reel shows three different types of photos in one space.
(He sent me two short video clips)
Lighting techniques - Face the window, add a sunflare, go in front of a blind, click on face and drop the brightness
Unusual lighting - Kitchen light/ light stick, showing how light angles can change and effect an image
Is there any techniques that you find are really helpful with your strong portraiture?
Advice...
So at the moment with your work it doesn’t really look like there’s much technical thought into where you take the photo. It looks like more of a creative thought as in “I like this tree or this gravestone so I’ll take a photograph near it.” Where as how I see stuff... not saying I’m right is this light here is really nice so I’ll create with it. My work uses contrast heavily too so this is lent towards how I work.
So at the moment with your work it doesn’t really look like there’s much technical thought into where you take the photo. It looks like more of a creative thought as in “I like this tree or this gravestone so I’ll take a photograph near it.” Where as how I see stuff... not saying I’m right is this light here is really nice so I’ll create with it. My work uses contrast heavily too so this is lent towards how I work.
This photo I would have shot face on to the wall with the subject in the light on the left looking into the dark. Face on would have cut the floor and wall out on the right. You want as much minimal background as possible. Clean your shots up don’t show things which take you out or intersect weird. For example that bannister goes into his elbow and the railing into his head this is distracting. You’d be better with the clear space of the wall to work on so the only thing you see is the wall and the person.
Also remember. The eye is naturally drawn to the brightest thing in the shot.
Why specifically do you like working in your field of photography?
I’ve always been more into colour and magic within photographs, giving unusual perspectives with bizarre lens and making the photographs stand out as much as possible. This is all heavily influenced from my teens and none more so than the original photographs of the birth of skateboarding which captured Dogtown and the Z Boys in the States.
Being a wedding photographer is awesome as you can really craft what you think a wedding should look like and people will pay you for it. Saying this I do believe that as a wedding photographer I should do things in a certain way. For example I’ll never mute colours too heavily as you lose the intention of the couple picking those coloured roses, table runners or up-lighters for their day. I want to just basically capture it as it is with minimal interruption.
I love working within the field because it’s just such an uplifting place to be. You’re surrounded by happy people and can really make a difference even before anyone’s seen the photographs with how you are on the day. It’s as much a customer service role as it is a photography role.
The best lesson I ever learnt was to follow the light in every scenario. I work best with rules and this has really helped me so much. Basically whatever setting I’m in I follow the strongest light which is usually natural light and if I do that I can’t go wrong. For example you’ll hardly ever seen shadows across my couples faces or windows within the background of an image. I’ll also usually choose to light people face on to the light even in hard light. With these rules the photographs then become visible and rather than working with the most mahoosive canvas of availability I’m isolated to this pool of light through a window or this shadow etc. It helps keep my focus.
The interview with Adam helped me to start thinking more when taking a photograph, making me more aware of my surroundings and framing. It has also made me really concentrate on what I want in the photo instead of just taking photos without much thought to what's in the background. The interview has also made me want to experiment more with lighting and to put more thought into the areas I want the light to be shown through. I know also understand better how light can effect an image which is something I now need to think a lot more about.
