Serena Andreini

I spoke with my tutor about ideas for my Final Integrated Assessment. I mentioned the idea of waiting until dancers had performed a routine in front of an audience then to capture a portrait of them as soon as they came off so I captured them still in the zone of performing, their emotions, them still having adrenaline and of happiness that they achieved performing in front of a live audience.  

When I was talking to my tutor he had a look on the internet and came across Serena Andreini work. A University student who had this idea and exhibited images of dancers after performing. (Details of exhibition below)

Returning Backstage

This series of portraits feature dancers photographed seconds after they have finished performing. As soon as the dancers go backstage, they pose in front of the camera still sweating and out of breath. This is a private moment when they have been finally discharged from their role on stage but are still physically and mentally involved with what has just happened. Seconds before, they were objects for public entertainment but, since the audience has left, they are transitioning to being simply present again in the "real world" out of stage as themselves. These portraits attempt to describe the feeling of emptiness that follows the adrenalin-charged exertion of live performance by capturing the expression of dancers who are recovering from the strain of the show and the realisation that it is over.

Therefore, I felt that I was unable to capture the idea I had as I feel I would of been copying her, so I had to go away and think of an alternative idea. 

Another idea I did have was to capture dancers who had bruises and scars from dancing and capture them in soft low key lighting, this was another idea. I went away to look for inspiration and to think what other ideas I could think of to shoot for my FIA as I new I wanted to stick with dancers but was unsure as to what to base the images around

Below are examples of Serena Andreini's work. 

Ben Hopper

I was looking through the Internet for some inspiration, also when speaking with my tutor he recommended Ben Hopper who has captured several pieces of dance images along side other forms of performers such as circus performers. I found his work interesting and inspirational because of the use of natural lighting as well as flash lighting he uses. Also, how he includes the different backgrounds and props but as well as that the different poses the performers are in the structure of their body is.

Below are examples of his work



You can see from the shadows that there was artificial lighting uses in these images. I like the way the person who is doing the flipping how is stood and the positioning of his arms and the person he had flipped are.

The use of different camera angle, how is low down using a wide angle lens emphasises the dancers and the use of the sun flare. I like the image but I am sticking to studio work and the lighting but I may try different camera angles, so instead of being straight on the dancer I may try going lower or higher but I want the focus to be of the structure of the person so If I found the camera angle distracting I may not use it. This is an idea I may use when capturing the dancers in the studio

The silhouette of the images makes your focus on the shape of the performers rather than their facial expressions. Nice use of the light from behind. 

I like the flexibility of the dancer and the use of props are included and the sunlight caught in the background emphasis the structure of his body.

Overall, I found his images inspirational and different and it has given me a few ideas to think about when in the studio capturing images of the dancers

Dancers Portraits

Another one of my ideas was to photograph portraits of dancers as they are, so no emotion and no movement, pretty much the opposite of what dancers are about. When they perform they perform with emotion and passion so I wanted to capture the opposite of that. My aim was to capture them as they are so girls with no make-up and have them sit there so they become a little bored and you start to see the emotion of emptiness but when the girls arrived they have put make-up which I had asked them not to.  I still decided to capture them as these where practise images as I was unsure whether this would work or not

As I began to capture the dancers, I asked them to relax which they did but they didn't have the emotion of emptiness as I hoped and looking at them I feel they look like just standard portraits images and have no further/deeper meaning to them. 

I used two lights either side with a soft box and a flash to light the dancers, so it lights the performers but brings out some highlights such as the collar bone in the image below 

Overall, I felt that I was happy with the outcome of the images. They are good photos but the meaning behind I wasn't feeling the project myself, so decided to use this as leaning curve and change my idea but still stick with dancers. 

Below are the portraits I captured from the shoot. 

Below is a contact sheet from the portrait shoot. I tried two sets of lighting, the soft box and flash lighting then two tungsten lighting either side to give the dancers shadow but I found it gave too much shadow.

Overall, I am glad I captured these images as it was an idea of mine so I'm glad I was able to try capturing portraits and may try it later on and try different techniques such as having one person in at a time, making them wait for longer and make sure the girls have no make up and maybe think about what clothing they are wearing as well so it does not stand out as much, maybe to have a head and shoulder shot with no clothing so you focus more of their face. 

Abstract Images

For my Final Integrated Assessment I decided to go a bit alternative then my previous work. My previous work was about full portrait photography and the shape of the body, this time I wanted to keep with the theme of shape of the body but decided to get a little closer and make the dancers perform more flexible positions so they look abstract. 

Today I photographed two performers, Lucy who is a ballet dancer and Emily who performs freestyle. 

I chose to use a black background because I wanted to go a bit more dark with the images and because the leotards the dancers are wearing are black they blend in with the background making the dancers body stand out and gives a surreal effect to the image. 

Below are some chosen images from that days shoot

Lucy faced towards the back of the wall and lend back to stretch her back and because her arms are double jointed she able able to turn her arms so that her thumbs are on the inside of her feet. As she is wearing a black leotard with fabric you can hardly see the rest of her body apart from her arms, back, hands and the bottom of her ballet shoes making you double look and gives the image a surreal effect. 

The image below is of Lucy's legs from the side and instead of standing up tall on point she performed a different pose so that it did not look like a typical ballet position.  Again because of the black leotard and the black background blending in with each other you can just see the shape of her legs and because standing on your toes is not a normal position other than when ballet perform it makes the image look a little surreal.

The image below is of Emily stretching out her back, she is more flexible than Lucy so she is able to bend back more. Again I like the image because of the blacks blending in with each other so it looks abstract and surreal. I like the image below but compared to the one similar to this with Lucy I prefer Lucy's because you can see her face in this image and it is more of a portrait image. Whereas, I am trying to get more close ups so I am unsure about this image but will continue to capture alternative, close ups of dancers who are flexible.  

Below are contact sheets from the shoot with Lucy and Emily

Overall, I am happy with the shoot. The images on my camera looked like the exposure was correct but when uploading them onto my computer they looked a bit too dark so next time when shooting I will use my laptop and connect my camera so they will upload to Lightroom straight away and can look at the exposure.

The images above were captured in my home studio using naturally lighting and a tungsten to highlight the features on the body. Next time I will be shooting in the studio and will use a black background and tungsten lighting again to it keeps the image dark but highlights the key features on the dancers body. Overall I am happy with the view images I have but would like to work on getting closer to the subject and be more surreal. I would like to try flipping the image when editing making it more surreal and would like to push the dancers when position there body.

I prefer this then capturing dance portraits and as it keeps with the theme of shape of dancers and people think mainly dance is a pretty form of art but there is more to it than fluent, soft movement, it can be difficult and can have a dark side to it with the pressure they are under.

Surreal Images

Today I photographed two dancers in the studio today, Megan and David. I wanted to keep the to theme of keeping the dancer moves and stretched and to give them a surreal affect. Working alongside the dancers I asked them to stretch out as I captured their movements. I used a black background as I wanted to go a bit darker than my previous work. I asked the dancer to wear a black leotard so that the blacks blend in with each other so it leaves the different body parts giving it a surreal feel to it. Below are a selection of some of the images I chose to show my tutor. 

The image above was of Megan. She was lead on her back, with her legs in the air and she spread them out and put her hands out in front on her. I then flipped the image in lightroom so it made you look closer at the image as her hands are flat like they she is pushing on them but because they are at the top it makes you look closer at the image. I like the image but could like to be more surreal with the image and have the hands in different positions or the legs

I like the image above and it highlights the body and the arms and you can just make out the feet so it give again a surreal affect to it. I like how the arms are stretched out making them look longer than they are and the muscles on his back. The only thing I don't like about the image is his fingers/hands are not equal and instead of looking at his back and the structure of his body you start to look at the fingers instead. Next time I will try something similar but make the arms not symmetrical. I will also brighten the image more to bring out the highlights of his back

The image above has a very surreal affect it to as it reminds me lets rather than arms. Again like the previous images I like the image the dancers back creates but my eyes are drawn to the hands and the arms and whether they are in line with each other. I will be capturing some more images of David the dancer and will try to capture his back but will try think more about where his arms lie.

The image above has a different feel to it has he is stretching out to you so although I like the use of different levels of the hands I don't feel it fit with the series of images

The perception of the image belows remind myself of a female. The shape of the shoulder blades give the impression of females breast but the arms make you look closer. The image is too low key and needs the highlights bringing out more and the position of the hands need to made more equal or to position them in an alternative place other than the back

The image above reminds me of Dali Salvador work. The shoulder blades meeting in the middle. I rotated the image in post production so it makes you look closer at the images and again give it a surreal feel to it. 

The above image is one of my favourites. Throughout the shoot I would show David the images I captured so he could understand what I was trying to achieve. We got towards the end of the shoot and I asked him to do a few stretches so I could capture him. As he did this stretch his black leotard blended in to the background and did not have the same effect. After discussion David felt comfortable to take his leotard off so I was able to capture the images showing the muscles within his legs and back. I feel this image works because he looks venerable because of the muscles in his body and because the image is not symmetrical you focus more of the shape of the body not whether everything was in line with each other. There was a lot of black empty space above David so I decided to square format the image so it was cropped more and it drew into the dancers figure.

I showed my tutor my images and he thought the one above was the best because of the lighting, it bought out the highlights more than the others and he felt the other images were too dark. He also mentioned about the image being too symmetrical. He said the image above you focus more of the shape of the body than whether the fingers are matching etc... I have taken his feedback into consideration and arranged another shoot to work on some more images.

When capturing the dancers I did think how I wanted to try more close-ups but as I was capturing I decided to capture more than I needed so I could crop but also I would go close up on the legs or arms and I found them to be too obvious and it just looked like what they are and did not have a surreal feel to them, but I will try more close up images next time when shooting to try more close-ups and try alternative ways of capturing the close-ups and how they possition their bodies.

Below are contact sheet from the shoot with Megan and David

Overall I am happy with the shoot, it was very inspirational and gave me some more ideas. Next time I will increase the lighting more so it brings out the highlights on the dancers body. I spoke with my tutor and he recommended that I add treatment to my images which I can be shown soon by Andy and the images are too symmetrical. Therefore, when looking at the images you start to nip pick at them such as are the elbows level, are the fingers equal. Whereas, the last image where the dancer David is bend over to one side, one arm and one leg you focus more of the structure of the body not whether everything is level or not. 

Next time I will increase the light and bring out the highlights more and I try be less symmetrical with the dancers figure. Also, I will try capturing close-ups in different ways to see whether they have the same effectas my previous images. 

Edward Weston

Weston had been a skilful and successful photographer for more than a decade when in the early twenties his own unique vision began to reveal itself. By 1930, when he was forty-five, he had produced a body of work that would come to identify him as a major artist, a man whose work has changed our perception of what the world and life are like.


Weston captured images of natural studies and images of nudity as they have an interesting shape to them. After shooting my images of Megan and David and speaking with my tutor I found my images to have an imspiration of Edward Weston within them so decided to look into his work more and use his images of natural studies and the form of the body as inspiration when capturing my next set of images in the studio. 


In a previous brief I used the large format camera and still have some film left over so I thought I would try and used film when capturing in the studio again as an alternative form of capturing the dancers. As my work is n black and white it could add the effect. 

Below are examples of Edward Weston's natural studies

Below are examples of Edward Weston's Images of "The Form Of The Nude"

Information taken from http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Edward-Weston.html