Last week I had my second site visit to the Artemis collection in Leeds to finalise ideas for the 'Get Stuffed' project. It was a chance to explore the storage rooms in much more detail, as last time as we were a bit pushed for time and christ is that place big. There were so many things I'd completely missed on the first site visit so given then opportunity to come back was a real treat.
The first task of the day was to unload all the photography gear from the van and set up in a small room behind the workshop in prep for the shoot. During my placement, myself and Lord Whitney had made a rough list of the 10 animals that we believed would work best to bring real charm and life (or not as the case may be) to the photographs with chosen families. Having had a second look round the stunning collection, we came to a decision that 10 definitely wasn't enough as there was so much choice on offer. As a result of this, we extended the animal gang by another 5 pieces. Choosing the final cut wasn't easy though. Pushing a trolley round, grabbing the critters we liked most, was a sort of surreal super market sweep moment that I can honestly say I never thought I'd be doing. I couldn't have asked for anything more though as I was loving it.
Next was the makeover. Some of the poor creatures needed a little sprucing up, so out came the glass polish and dusters along side a good helping of elbow grease and within no time at all everyone was looking suave. This was later a bit of a pain, as they glass was so clean, the light was bouncing of every possible angle creating loads of glare.
Whilst Amy and Bek starting taking some shots of the animals, I tried to get some quick sketches done, taking full advantage of the different positions I could place things. The photo shoot was for a set of promotional postcards that are going to be made in order to inform families around the Leeds area of the project. In response to these, families interested in taking part can then get in touch and apply. Once animals have been chosen and allocated to people, an information pack will be given alongside their specific creature, full of facts, illustrations and other little bits about their rented pet. I am going to be using the references that I made, with the photos taken by LW to produce the illustrations that are going to feature in the packs. A decision hasn't been made yet as home the final pack is going to look but I'm stoked to get started on it and it should be finished towards the end of May I think.
It was dead interesting being behind the scenes and helping out at photo shoot, as it was all completely alien to me. What made the day slightly easier compared to photographing live models, was that the animals were very cooperative and didn't move around much. It was quite a peculiar site if I'm being honest but a most enjoyable one. As I mentioned earlier, the only challenge was avoiding the glare and reflection that the glass was creating. The only way of really avoiding the problem was to shoot the images slightly off centre, so that the lens wasn't directly parallel with the cases. It seemed to solve the problem pretty well and didn't obstruct the shots that were wanted at all.
Time seemed to absolutely fly and I didn't actually get chance to make reference sheets for every animal but made a healthy attempt at it. The process of taking photos seem to be much faster then my hand with pencil but I knew that I'd have to do some extra afterwards anyway. The photos turned out brilliantly and I have no doubt that they'll look even better once printed. I found myself laughing back at most of the close up shots, as it genuinely looks like some of them are smiling or have just been caught doing something. I'm a fool though. The group photo at the end of the afternoon was definitely the highlight of my day. Organising all the various sized boxes was a challenge on its own and took quite a bit of time getting it spot on. We weren't sure if all 15 would even fit on the backdrop so some had to bunk up on top of each other. There was a real sense of narrative seeing them all together that is going to lend itself amazingly to the project as a whole. Again, it was a bit of a pain trying to arrange everything so that the light wasn't reflecting straight back at the camera, but you're bound to get some glare with that much glass. Non the less, the final shots worked a treat.
I got a real buzz working for a live project knowing that the imagery was actually going towards something real. I didn't go to Artemis expecting anything less than great things to come out of it and it looks like I was right. I can't wait to get cracking on with work for the illustrations and seeing the project develop. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.
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