Paul Morel

Paul Morel is a professional web developer, designer and photographer from Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. He is fascinating photographer who has an eye for creative photography. He has divided his work into Fashion, Beauty, Portrait, Personal and Men. That is exactly what fashion photography is. His works mostly falls in the fashion and beauty category. He has shot for quite a few magazines and his style of monochrome photography is something which Morel excels at.  Morel shoots with a classic fashion photography style using rich black and whites and vintage colours. The shots are uncomplicated in its beauty and form but nonetheless very easy on the eye. 

I chose Paul Morel's portraiture work because of the simplicity in his shots, how they subject matter is so significant in his images even when in colour. I always believe in the ideology that when you photograph individuals in black and white you capture raw emotions whereas colour photography is affected by clothes, hair colour and other factors. A majority of the model's he has used are the classical 'girl next door' like in the first image, sixth and eighth, nothing is 'glossy' or 'designer' about this images which is what I adore. It doesn't exactly tackle with my idea of 'Insecurities' but it is Morel's style of work which I grew a passion for.

Image Analysis: 

The first thing that caught my eye was the texture it has from the greyish and black clothing and raindrop backdrop; the grain and inked background makes the image less simple than others. The image as an whole hasn't got a less significant subject to another aspect in it.The two image's has a great sharpness effect to it, my vision seems to be focusing on the hands pressed against the lips on the left image; and the nose on the right side image. These are two distinctive aspects but yet not greater than any other subject, just want my eyes focus on. This image has the power of reflecting human art, the clothes used aren't big and bold but yet the individual in the image has that sadness in her eyes. The colour of her eyes from a black and white filter shows a crisp green colour and even though they aren't large eyes they still seem to look weary and sad. The fact it is black and white really effects the mood when looking at the image as well as the contrast in the image, it is a posed look but still gives off an emptiness and the model seems so fragile. The structure of the model with wide depth of field, is fascinating it adapting very sharp lines comes off her face, jaw, nose and hands even. The reason I chose this image to respond to was based on the texture and the opportunity to use Photoshop in adapting a similar technique. The simplicity of the model is a great factor of the image giving it all those sense of emotions.   

The main focus in this image is the fallen hair onto her face and half opened lips. It's a significant part of the portrait even though it has been captured with a wide depth of field. The image itself is so simple yet captures a from of human art. The pushed back face, with the highlighting line coming from her jaw and her hair gently resting on her face. The pose from her lips; factors which make the image as strong as it is. It's effective how her hair rests on the middle of her eye just giving us a peak of the colour in her eyes. The emotional effect of this image isn't as clear in contrast to the image above this. It's subtle in the way it hardly overlooks daily life or even reflect a fleeting moment. It's the idea of model's having that 'perfect' structure in their face and 'shining' brown hair. The background in the image isn't seen as much in contrast to the first image, which is effective in a way that you focus on the subject matter as a whole; her face and the eyes don't wander to the irrelevant. The colours in this image are quite dark and there isn't that 'bright spark' anywhere of contrast or brightness, it's quite complimentary to the model in the image and adds a real intensity. I chose this image because of how he adapted portraiture and didn't have the model straight up, facing forwarding instead it's been slated so your eyes follow the trace of her jaw line. The image have a simple but effective composition. 

Responses:

F-stop number of F/29, Exposure time of 1/2000 sec and ISO speed at 100.

My response to Paul Morel's Portrait Image. I had to take a set of two shoots to attain these images; as both were differently posed and had various different factors. When shooting them, I also edited them separately and added the inked background effect as solo images on Photoshop. With the background it was easy for me to join the two images and focus on the contrast and brightness, attaining that light similar to Paul Morel's and the emotional effect of emptiness. These image's have succeeded in highlighting the significant aspects of the image such as the jaw line in the right image. I wanted to be able to signify what Morel assumed were right to highlight. There is that slight edginess of these images, the 'posed' slumped face leaning on a hand and the hunchback but still having that 'perfectly structured face.'

f/16, ISO speed 100 and Exposure time and 1/125 second.

My second response to Paul Morel's portrait shot. On Serif Photo plus I added noise as Paul Morel's image included a slight grainy texture which is almost lost in the original image, as the power of the individual's emotional effect. There is a massive difference in the two images; the hair. Brown hair has such a subtle yet powerful effect on the image yet the blonde hair in my image is lost with the face of the model. This image is expected to be seen on the front of a highly influential magazine; the pose, the way her hair falls gracefully. I feel as though model's are told exactly what to do and this is what I have attempted to show in this image; capturing the soulless life of a model.