Candid yet posed- Experimenting with location in fashion photography. Charlie

Adopting inspiration from Helmut Newton and Bailey's approach a candid yet controlled street fashion photograph, Charlie and myself explored Manchester's Northern Quarter whilst spending a lengthy yet brief half an hour in China town. My intentions were to mix the natural everyday life and movement of the city with the presence of a fashion shoot.

For me, it was simply allowing Charlie to act as if he were simply going about his day; as if there was no camera present. Spur of the moment photographs alongside the general candid nature of the city makes the subject stand out whilst refraining from looking over-posed or unnatural. This was very enjoyable as it allowed to be spontaneous with my angles and general approach to photographing.

The photograph above (left) was shot in China town. I had noticed a rather interesting looking gentleman smoking a cigarette on the corner of an alley way. In many of Bailey's street photographs featuring Jean Shrimpton what made the photographs most engaging was the reactions of passers by; they make the photograph more RAW. For about five minutes we coughed excessively, shouted, and even whistled... he eventually turned round and BANG. It was a very rewarding photograph to shoot.

The photograph to the right allowed me to adopt a Cartier Bresson approach with the colours of perhaps Guy Bourdin and William Eggleston. The ultimate and overwhelming power of the sun breached the roof tops of Northern Quarter... By slightly over exposing the film and using a standard on camera flash to prevent Charlie from being just a silhouette I was able to create a rather bold and striking photograph. Lens glare is something I usually despise, however, in this instance i felt it reinforces the colours present within the photograph.