I'm Paul Pious James Deman GiovannI £rd.
paulgiovanni.com
UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED : ALL IMAGES PRESENTED ARE MY OWN)!
Essentially speaking, his tumblr functions like a public sketchbook where I have a good look at my pics out of the coop to try and work out which ones are any good...?
Once taken, then digitally edited and presented here, the REAL work starts:
PRINTING, MOUNTING and REAL TIME layering...
Here's more about how and why I take pictures...
Interview No 3
In this the third of 23 interviews, The Official Short Clone to Paul Giovanni £rd asks about how and why PG£ takes pictures...
OSCTPG£: At the begining of 2009 you suddenly got keen on taking photos...Why did this happen, and what do you think you've achieved so far..??
PG£: I re-got into doing pictures for a number of reasons...
Firstly: I felt the arrival of my first child needed to be an inspiration to branch out and creatively challenge - rather than to retreat and make excuses - THE ANTE NEEDED TO BE UPPED!!! I NEEDED TO TAKE ON FAR MORE THAN I COULD REALISTICALLY CHEW!!!!
Secondly: I felt it unlikely I was going to be in London for long, so I wanted to make use of the HUGE opportunities that lie here for photography and in particular working with interesting models...
Thirdly: I was figuring that there was money to be made in wedding photographs and commercial portraits and I thought it possible I might be better able to commercially compromise myself in photographic realms than I am with words..
Fourthly: I've been into photography off and on for years and having not owned a decent and viable camera for a few years, I was missing it and really wanted get one and TAKE SOME FUCKING SNAPS!!!
OSCTPG£: So what were you looking to photograph and what kind of equipment did you want to play with..??
PG£: I was almost completely interested in portraiture in all times and places. It occurred to me that having as I did a reasonable following of very handsome folk reading my blogs, I might be able to convince a few of them and perhaps even some strangers to pose for free and form that I could build up a portfolio that could put me in touch with some pay for jobs...
OSCTPG£: How easy was it to get people to model??
PG£: Initially, I was amazed at the response...From just one blog and bulletin post on the then failing myspace I had 4 or 5 people say they'd sit down and most of them weren't even people I vaguely knew...But promises don't always materialise into sitting ducks, and so, most of those who said they would clucked out at some point and had it not been for one person in particular, I might have had to work a hell of a lot harder to get the whole job going ...
OSCTPG£: Who was this person...?
PG£: Seraphina Rodriguez Guiterrez Thomson...She's easily the most versatile and PURE RAW iconic model of our times...
OSCOPG£: She replied to the original add...??
PG£: Phina had been aware of my blogs for a month or two and she dropped me a line saying she was a contortionist and would be happy to pose despite my add saying I was trying to do things that weren't too wierd...I was overawed by what might be possible and I initially said, I'd be in touch in a few months after I'd got myself warmed up on some easier models...I really didn't want to start with a model that would be so challenging...
Well, I got back in touch a few months later, in which time all except 2 other perhaps simpler model folk had led me up the garden path to nowhere land...I explained that I was still a little raw and amateur to be taking on such a challenging photographic task as contortion, but that I'd have a go if she could be patient...She was fine with the idea and we met up and did the first shoot in April 2009...
OSCOPG£: How did that work out??
PG£: Initially, we did a shoot indoors here on Fish Island using a skanky duvet to white out the floor. It was a rank amateur effort on my part, but one that produced some good images and gave me confidence to keep working...
If you're interested in modelling,comissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCOPG£: Before we get into that any further, lets talk about your philosophy of photography...
PG£: Well, the first thing I insist on when making pictures is an amateurish, mistake ridden approach AT ALL TIMES..!! Yes boss, if there's one thing I find interminably dull about photography it's this obsession with clarity of shot, clean and sharp lighting AND TECHINCAL BRILLIANCE...!! I find that approach all too often bleaches the soul of the image...I much prefer my shots to be fuzzy, dirty, rough, amateurish, accidental, contrasty, dark and vague so long as they make for an interesting picture...
OSCTPG£: So you're setting your own rules..??
PG£: Essentially, I mostly have no idea what I'm doing and i think that challenges me to create something out of nothing - whilst not intentionally not following the rules...
OSCTPG£: So you like to make mistakes..??
PG£: My whole photographic technique relies on me knowing a few basics, mostly ignoring them, taking lots of pictures at more or less complete random - and then editing things that look good into rough but hopefully decent and emotionally striking images..
OSCTPG£: So, you do or you don't know what you're doing ??
PG£: Mostly not. I understand that a long exposure means you get movement and more light...I understand that I don't much like flash....And I know that good images are very often accidental and could be made just as easily by a Chimp as by a degree trained photographer...These facts aside, I know very little about what I'm doing or trying to do...Essentially, I find the technical basics of photography to be more or less completely incomprehensible and very dull to learn and practice, so I try and remain as ignorant as I can - which gets harder to do the more pictures you take...
OSCTPG£: So you've not consulted photography books or done any kind of formal training...??
PG£: I occasionally dip into 'HOW TO' books and sometimes I get close to understanding concepts of intent with photos from reading them...I also like to look at other images to get ideas as how not to take my own - but I instinctively react against any kind of tutoring and I don't want to know too much about how to get the PERFECT SHOT!!!
OSCOPG£: If you don't read much or have any interest in taking lessons, how do you improve your technique as a photographer...??
PG£: Firsty, I'm not that interested in improving my technical skills beyond a point....I'd like to be a little better than what I am now, but the way I work is to go on a journey...I don't want to have a very clear idea of the place and the way to get there to be all marked out with knowledge...
It's like travel...If I go somewhere, I don't want to know what it's like there before I go...I don't want to read books about it, or hear other peoples tales of what they did and where they went...
I want to turn up like a virgin and be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY AMAZED!!!
For me The Lonely Planet guidebooks are an abomination and the death of REAL adventure...
So with photography it's the same..
OSCTPG£: Does this mean that quite a few of your photos are utter crap...???
PG£: Yes...The vast majority of my initial images are utter and complete fucking crap - as are many better photographers...For me, it's all about the edit - that's where I find what kind of a picture and mood I'm working with...
OSCTPG£: So what percentage of finished and displayed images are you happy with???
PG£: At the time of posting on www.paulgiovanni.com I'm usually at least 80 or 90% happy with the images I display, but I often find them lacking afterwards so I cull them and replace the duff images with pictures of roses...I plan on having culls every 6 months or so, to keep things fresh and decent...
OSCOPG£: Going back to the question of models - what's you technique for working with models...??
PG£: I prefer to work with people long term...To get a good photo I think you need insight into the character - you need to get in and around the layers of who they are and dig a little into what gets them going...For instance, having some skinny horse on broomstick legs turn up and go for a salad the minute I start struggling with the basics isn't what I'm interested in photographing...Essentially, I want to portray beauty, in that sense I'm the same as many photographers, but my version of beauty isn't anything to do with someone being polished or perfected without a hair astray or precision SHARP!...I like the beauty to often be dark and unpolished...I like the deeper beauty of character and I like to not direct the model at all...
OSCTPG£: You don't direct models at all...???
PG£: Say with Phina, I knew she would be able to do contortions, so I knew certain things would be possible and that wierd human shapes would be a part of any pictures I did of her. But each time we've done a session, I've let it take it's own course and I rarely tell her what to do when...
Therefore many of my favourite pictures of Phina have been of her in between positions, or depict her in ways I'd never think to ask her to sit - I find it next to impossible to do that. Sometimes when I'm liking a particular something, I ask for a tweak or too to the position - but that's usually because I can start to see the picture I want and need to get a foreign object out of the corner of it. Otherwise, I like to sit about, drink and chat and keep the camera running, then look at what I've got later and try and build those raw unintentional images into something with depth and feeling that would have been missed completely at the time if I'd have been chunttering down some well laid planned out train tracks of what I wanted the image to be...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: So are you serious about taking pictures or not...?
PG£: That all depends on what you classify as being serious...?
I'm VERY serious about making good pictures and getting satisfaction from seeing them evolve and then looking at them regularly from that point on...
I'm also VERY seriously hoping other people get what my ideas are here and don't just lazily dismiss what I'm doing as being amateur unpolished rubbish that is done so because I'm incapable of learning how to use a multi trip flash gun, light meter or studio lighting...
OSCTPG£: But you are an amateur...?
PG£: At the moment yes, and in many senses I will be even if I go on to make money from any of my images...
OSCTPG£: I'm still struggling with why you don't try and improve your images in technical terms...?
PG£: Because that's not what I'm trying to do..
I like HIGH CONTRAST and pixel grainyness - i like faces to be messy and rearranged by the light and the movement...
Look at painting - there are many people who can paint very well and do perfect reproductions of either existing paintings or real time scenes - but those people aren't great artists - they're great technicians...
And the last thing I want to be is a great technician...
With photos, I'm exclusively interested in provoking a response in the viewer of the pictures - of making them frightened or wary or aggressive or confused - I'm not looking to make them go...
'Oh yeah, that's a very clear technically brilliant picture, taken with a Nikon Bum 1, with HIG RAZ lighting at 75mm f3.2...'
I only want an emotional human response and I feel that they way most people go about photography is completely emotion free...
OSCTPG£: OK...Well, I'm still not sure I get it, but thanks very much for your time...
PG£: Thank You
Interview 4
OSCTPG£: In this the 4th interview, I'd like to talk with you a little more about your photographic progression, ideas and theories as per discussed in Interview No3.
PG£: SHOOT!!!
OSCTPG: One thing I most clearly remember from the last time we talked was that you were seemingly intent on pursuing a primitive 'uninformed' approach to taking pictures that relied on mistakes. An approach that it could be argued enhanced and stylized what many serious photographers would consider to be basic errors...
PG£: Yes...?
OSCTPG: I'm wondering first of all, if, as you've taken more pictures and worked with more professional models, how you've found it possible to remain naive about the basics of taking photos and how you've got the models to accept, understand and work with the results you've made..?
PG£: Well although my style is simple - it's all so complicated....
I've found that overall my knowledge of the basics of taking pictures has improved slowly and steadily this last year...
It's inevitable that if you practice any art form you learn more and more about how to do it - about how to get the kind of images you want and about how to avoid the images you don't want...
This so, the kind of photos I want to take largely remain the same, and I've found I get better and better at the kind of blurry, movement, contrasty images I like to make....
Thing is, I take photos how I do, because I LIKE the colours and the sharp harshness and the MESS...
And so I've learnt how better to make these images and how not to take too many clean and tight and sharp FLASH FLASH FLASH!!!
OSCTPG£: So you've become better at producing the images you produced when you knew less as and when you've learnt more..?
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
PG£: I can more easily and quickly contrive to make the images I like & produced previously rather than having to find out how to by trial & error...
What I haven't found is that I dislike the style that originally found me. I like it more & more, and I less and less want to adopt the more conventional, polished and recognised way of making photographic images...
OSCTPG£: You enjoy the mistakes and make them more often...?
PG£: I've not felt like I was making mistakes before - just that my being naive and uneducated enabled me to find something better, more satisfying and more interesting than all this dull imagination free shit served up my most of the sheep who study and read about HOW to do it rather than go to the trouble of finding their OWN way to do it...
I like my style, and this last while, I've learnt a few tricks to make those kind of images better, quicker and to order...
OSCTPG£: So you've still not felt tempted to buy a whole bunch of studio flash and spend a grand on a new camera then...?
PG£: I'd rather spend it on a gold plated fish or a stuffed crocodile...
I have bought in 2 new lenses this last year and I only use one of them - the other doesn't fucking work - it's some cheap Sigma crap that's fussey as to which canons it fires or not.
The one that does work is a basic wide angle Canon zoom - it cost about £30 and it does everything I want of a lense and so I think I'm done with lenses - I only use that one, the one that came with my old film Canon EOS that I had been using as standard with my EOS 300D no longer works either, so this wide angle thing is now my one and only...
I can't really see I need any other equipment at the moment apart from props, masks and perhaps things I might find knocking about, that might have a good ability to play with light..?
I stand by my idea that a camera is run by an imagination and not by its own genius...
But these days people have UNBELIEVABLE cameras on their phones and so I might be wrong on that...
OSCTPG£: Moving on to models, this last year, you've spent time working with models who've had more experience. How has that been..? How difficult have you and they found it to work to a more unconventional style..?
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
PG£: Well first of all I'll talk a little about who and where I found these models.
After initially relying on people who didn't consider themselves to be models, I decided to go down a more traditional path...
OSCTPG£: Why..?
PG£: Well, I was finding it very hard to get enough people to pose and to get them to pose quickly. I was mostly going through social networks to find people and I found it to be incredibly hard work to get anyone I liked to look of to agree...They'd be a lot of talk, but I was getting the impression that social networks are basically dating sites - nothing more nothing less...
Polite, 'pretend something else' dating sites...
Which is fine, but I wanted to get in a lot of hours of pictures and I had neither the time nor inclination to play 'NICE TO MEET YOU TOO!!!' games for weeks on end and so it made sense to go for the jugular and get in proper models who were set up to turn up and start working without me having to charm or persuade them they wanted to do it - or that they'd get something from it...
OSCTPG£: Was money involved..?
PG£: I did about 10 or 12 shoots and did all kinds of deals...
OSCTPG£: Which web sites did you use..?
PG£: The first site I went to was Purestorm - but they didn't allow my account to pass vetting for a reason I'm, still not clear on...
Next I stumbled upon netmodel which looked like some shabby younger sister that was very ill thought out.
For a website about images it really does have the most ATROCIOUS sense of design - and the logo is probably the worst I've ever seen.
I didn't expect much from it all, but they did at least allow me to post a profile without it having to be vetted by some tit based mutants.
So, I put up a profile and images that were
challenging.
I was saying things 'I'm not going to try and make you beautiful - that's not my aim.' and 'I'm not interested in taking hundreds of identikit glamour pictures' - which is mostly what these sites are about...
Well, to my surprise netmodel turned up some really good models , but it took me a while to get established and just as I got established and was starting to motor a little, I got suspended...
OSCTPG£: Suspended for what...?
PG£: For getting to energetic & confrontational on the forums.
OSCTPG£: ????
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
PG£: Netmodel is primarily a tits and ass thing. 90% of photogrpahers on there are men, mostly over 30 who want to spend their leisure time taking pictures of pretty women in varrying states of undress...
Essentially, it's one BIG mid life crisis.
But like with the social networks really being dating sites, the people on there like to hide their real interests (seeing naked girls) beneath their art...
OSCTPG£: You're saying they have no interest in art or photography..? It's just about seeing the ladies in thier panties...?
PG£: I think they have an interest in art and taking photos for sure and some of them are very VERY good at it - but if they were only allowed to take pictures of naked men, many of them would soon loose interest in practicing their art...
OSCTPG£: So how did you offend them..?
PG£: Well any way I could really...
I found many people on there are very VERY touchy in how and why they talk about what they do.
It has to be dresssed up in a certain way - just like the ladies...
A lot of them banalify it - or kind of openly boast that OF COURSE THEY LIKE TO SEE NAKED GIRLIES - WHO DOESN'T?!?!
I would frequently try and get them going - get them on the defensive and claim they were FULL OF SHIT and that I was the only FUCKING GENIUS photographer on the whole site...
On the occasion of being suspended I was however more poking around at the kind of pictures and styles that dominate - and the nepotism of the moderators on the forums - how some people seem to be able to say more or less anything on or off topic and how others who aren't so regular or well known get chastised and edited at the drop of a hat....
OSCTPG£: What 'kind of pictures and styles dominate'
PG£: The kind of pictures that make me think of Hitler.
Pictures that are very VERY clean and pure and nazi like in their imagination of pure and very fashionable modern inhuman beauty.
The aim of most photogrpahers on there seems to be to imagine this kind of female TOTAL BEAUTY master race.
I find it all pretty silly and a bit frightening...
Making the beautiful EVEN MORE flawless and beautiful in images is a very strange thing to want to do...?!?!
Why not try and make the beautiful look a bit flawed or dirty, or edgey or dangerous or even mutated..????
Why not even out the playing field a little for those less blessed with looks..?
Give something to the viewer who might not be such a beauty themselves..?
From making comments about the images and the ideas of nazi skin, I then set about reporting every post that was off topic or offensive, because there was a debate about threads getting struck off and edited that were discussing the idea of purifying the skin by way of photoshop, and as per usual it seemed the moderators were being very picky about who and what they censured...
There never seems to be any kind of consistency with them - and one of them said that they only ever edit a post if someone complains - they don't check every post and apply the rules - they just follow up complaints...
Then...
I thought
FUCK IT!!!
Let's have them analyse my photos, let's put the dogs on ouvre?!?!
So i started a thread for a Portfolio Critique of what I'd done to date...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: Over what time period..?
PG£: All this in the space of 2 or 3 hours...I was PROPER ON ONE!!!
OSCTPG£: So it seems...
PG£: So, the critique was getting going - but no-one much was saying anything technical, it quickly slipped into the little boys making silly jokes and so I posted:
'THIS IS ABOUT MY FUCKING PICTURES!!!'
in the hope of engendering some respect
and I reported all the banal posts to the moderators...
One moderator who I'd had a run in with before was clearly getting bored & a little overwhelmed with my exuberance, and he told me I was 'Flaming' my own thread. He warned me to turn in and log off for the night and that if I posted another thread he'd suspend me...
I found this to be REALLY EXCITING!!!
So I posted an Off Topic thread
'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!'
and he suspended my account...
OSCTPG£: So it wasn't really about photogrpahy that got you suspended - it was nothing to do with your images or even your critique of others images..?
PG£: Nah, it was just me being a bit bolshy and drunk and dogmatic on the eve of my 36th birthday...I was having fun with the formular and the system and the angles of the moderators...I really enjoy just messing about like this....It's always interesting working people out and learning about human interaction and prejudice and opinion...
OSCTPG£: Was it disappointing to be suspended..?
PG£: I always feel a sense of elation when I get kicked off of something, the same when I decide to delete an account of whatever kind myself...
OSCTPG£: Elation..?
PG£: Since having a kid, I've really noticed just how much kids LOVE to destroy what they create. My daughter LOVES destroying brick towers she builds and when we went to the beach recently she LOVED making sandcastles and then
IMMEDIATELY
destroying them...
I think destruction is a very very important part of creation and growth. It gives an intense thrill and a whole new challenge and I think a lot of people forget this when they get older. They get too precious about the importance of things that they've created that really aren't worth the stress...
If you have talent you can build and build and build again - why cry over spilt milk..?
But there's this idea that destruction is a waste and you should have everything backed up 4 times so you never loose anything...
I think this is why I get excited and relieved when I get deleted or delete my own profiles or when a hard drive fails and I loose some work......
It's the idea that a window has been shut in my face that means I have to find a NEW and BETTER window in order to improve my work - to move it and me on - change, and change is always a good thing even if it can be a short term pain in the ass...
OSCTPG£: So did this suspension spoil your relationships with models..? Would they have known how and why you got suspended...?
PG£: It's wierd because at the time I got suspended, I was chatting with about 6 models arranging shoots and most of those won't now happen because they don't have another point of contact with me or because they'll perhaps quite rightly get freaked out as to why I've been suspended - but I don't feel like I've lost much at all...
The best and most promising models I have other contacts for, those who can see past the bullshit will turn up anyway, and I now have a new challenge to find new ways of getting models in...
OSCTPG£: So you see it as an opportunity...?
PG£: In all honesty, i t struck me as being a bit of a lazy bitchslap from the old men...
The middle aged moderator will know he's perhaps spoiling my ability and reputation by suspending me for nothing much at all...
It's a pretty nasty thing to do - and very male...
The inference in a supsension is that I'm a danger to the models - whether intended or not, that's the impression it gives...
And I'm not any kind of a danger...
The thing is netmodel and the rest are the kind of sites that are all about tits and ass, and so most of the models are young ladies between 16-30 which is limiting and a bit of a trap...
I was warned to
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
and I think I maybe willingly harri karried my account on the eve of my 36th birthday - my subconscious could see me turning into another dull middle aged tits and ass photographer if I hung around netmodel too long with all this access to nubile sexy young ladies - it's all too easy to get corrupted and forget the reason for the journey...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: OK...So let's talk a bit more about the models you worked with from netmodel and the kinds of pictures you ended up with...
PG£: I had this wierd unconventional profile, no references and I was trying to get them to work for free or close to free...
That didn't get me any takers, so I found a few models who I felt I could get something good and varried from and who would work for deals that involved some wine as payment and sometimes a bit of cash and they nearly all worked well...
They gave me references and I started posting the pictures and then it became much easier to get other models to work with me...
OSCTPG£: You said Seraphina in particular was an important model when you first started working with models. Do any of the models you worked with stand out from netmodel above and beyond the rest..?
PG£: Well like I already said, all of those I worked with came along and engaged with what I do and tried really hard to do the job and perform and I don't have any complaints about any of them - they were all very professional and I got proper good pictures on every occasion...
OSCTPG£: So did you take many pictures of tits and ass whilst working with netmodels..?
PG£: I was hoping to, I had all models turn up on the basis that I might ask them to strip off...
I did some topless stuff with one model and one particular shot with another that was very specific and calculated - that was full nude, but the body was mostly covered with cables...
Thing I found with doing nude was there's a very strict kind of code as to what is accpetable in terms of camera angles and what is considered to be tasteful....?!?
The whole thing is split into quite strict levels and my style of shooting is very random. I like to click the shutter whenever I please. I couldn't be doing with having to hold my fire so these levels are protected and respected and I don't want the model to feel abused or uncomfortable so in that case I'd rather not do it...
If I'm going to shoot nude or topless I need to feel free or else it's not really going to work...
I'd also say that my style probably works best with clothes - to add in colour, if I did nude work it'd probably be quite frightening and dark and full on and dirty...
I'd like to do some still, but it's gonna have to be well understood by the model so there can be no problems during or after the shoot...
OSCTPG£: You've become interested in using masks on shoots. What's that all about...?
PG£: One day I started looking at masks on ebay, thinking
'This looks like FUN!!!'
So I bought a whole bunch. I got a few Halloween ones & a plastic duck, a Mandrill, & a welders mask with a skeleton airbrushed onto it...
OSCTPG£: And how did you use them..?
PG£: I left that to the model - one lady didn't want to put any on, but instead she started throwing them around and stamping on them and shit like that...
OSCTPG£: It's a curious idea to get in beautiful models and then put them in masks...
PG£: I guess if I try to track back and think about what might have been happening in, there are several possible explanations on that...
OSCTPG£: And they are...?
PG£: Well, the idea of making traditionally beautiful models who are most often employed to look more and more BEAUTIFUL!!! look wierd and perhaps even grotesque and ugly - but fun..? is something that interests me as an idea...
Then there's the whole thing of having great looking women doing what you ask them to do - there's just the 2 of you in the room...
HEAT!!!
Sometimes you need something to defuse the tension either sexual on your, and perhaps even their part, or to make them and yourself laugh and relax & chill out or to make them not look quite so attractive...
OSCTPG£: And suggesting they wear wierd masks makes them feel at ease..?
PG£: Essentially, the masks are always fun to get out - a good laugh and I reckon perhaps a whole new genre of modelling...?
OSCTPG£: Any ideas as to how the models found working with you compared with other more professional types..?
Well, one thing I find fascinating about net.model and other amateur/pro modelling sites is that almost all of the images are
EXACTLY
what you'd expect to see on such a site...
More or less no-one is trying to do anything different from that...
BEAUTY MUST BE OBEYED AND ENHANCED!!!
LADIES MUST BE PHOTOGRAPHED IN THEIR BRAS IN ABANDONED BUILDINGS!!!
There's also A LOT of folk trying to shoot the most fashionable styles of the moment, with the correct photoshop techniques. They have all the latest gear or else they try and ape all the latest gear with what they have.
It's like the autotune thing in pop music - a big old bunch of lazy sheep with no proper ideas of their own...
So, when i come along with this blurry messy style that appears to be and in fact IS a BIG old bunch of 'errors' that I LIKE, I was interested to see how people took it...
I initially found it hard work to get people to say yes to model, but once I got going, I found a lot of the models who actually worked with me to be very complementary of what I was doing to my face - and I do think some of them genuinely liked my style...
But then it's a models job to say
'YOU'RE PICTURES ARE WONDERFUL!!!'
in the same way it's the photographers job to say the model
'LOOKS WONDERFUL!!!'
and so I have never have been sure - and ultimately I don't much really care...
Very few of them have actually used any of my pictures for their portfolios - I've noticed that
OSCTPG£: Did any of the models approach you..?
PG£: No
OSCTPG£: And the other photographers..? Any of them seem interested in what you were producing...?
PG£: Not really no. I think some were watching and working out how and what I was doing, but I didn't have many or any really come to say 'HELLO DARLING!!! I LOVE YOUR WORK!!!'
Most of them are on there because they like to see tits, if you ain't got loads of tits on your portfolio they seem to turn off and not really engage with you...
OSCTPG£: It's not really that cynical is it...?
PG£: All I'll say is that I had one single topless photo on my portfolio...
It was a: 'Yeah, why is it necesary I'm topless for this..?' shot (see opposite)
it had more than 350 views...
It was an OK pic, but nowhere near the best and it was 1 of the 50 I had on display, many of which were much MUCH better on every level...
And you know what..?
It had 10 times the number of views as any other one of the rest of those 49 images...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
paulgiovanni.com
UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED : ALL IMAGES PRESENTED ARE MY OWN)!
Essentially speaking, his tumblr functions like a public sketchbook where I have a good look at my pics out of the coop to try and work out which ones are any good...?
Once taken, then digitally edited and presented here, the REAL work starts:
PRINTING, MOUNTING and REAL TIME layering...
Here's more about how and why I take pictures...
Interview No 3
In this the third of 23 interviews, The Official Short Clone to Paul Giovanni £rd asks about how and why PG£ takes pictures...
OSCTPG£: At the begining of 2009 you suddenly got keen on taking photos...Why did this happen, and what do you think you've achieved so far..??
PG£: I re-got into doing pictures for a number of reasons...
Firstly: I felt the arrival of my first child needed to be an inspiration to branch out and creatively challenge - rather than to retreat and make excuses - THE ANTE NEEDED TO BE UPPED!!! I NEEDED TO TAKE ON FAR MORE THAN I COULD REALISTICALLY CHEW!!!!
Secondly: I felt it unlikely I was going to be in London for long, so I wanted to make use of the HUGE opportunities that lie here for photography and in particular working with interesting models...
Thirdly: I was figuring that there was money to be made in wedding photographs and commercial portraits and I thought it possible I might be better able to commercially compromise myself in photographic realms than I am with words..
Fourthly: I've been into photography off and on for years and having not owned a decent and viable camera for a few years, I was missing it and really wanted get one and TAKE SOME FUCKING SNAPS!!!
OSCTPG£: So what were you looking to photograph and what kind of equipment did you want to play with..??
PG£: I was almost completely interested in portraiture in all times and places. It occurred to me that having as I did a reasonable following of very handsome folk reading my blogs, I might be able to convince a few of them and perhaps even some strangers to pose for free and form that I could build up a portfolio that could put me in touch with some pay for jobs...
OSCTPG£: How easy was it to get people to model??
PG£: Initially, I was amazed at the response...From just one blog and bulletin post on the then failing myspace I had 4 or 5 people say they'd sit down and most of them weren't even people I vaguely knew...But promises don't always materialise into sitting ducks, and so, most of those who said they would clucked out at some point and had it not been for one person in particular, I might have had to work a hell of a lot harder to get the whole job going ...
OSCTPG£: Who was this person...?
PG£: Seraphina Rodriguez Guiterrez Thomson...She's easily the most versatile and PURE RAW iconic model of our times...
OSCOPG£: She replied to the original add...??
PG£: Phina had been aware of my blogs for a month or two and she dropped me a line saying she was a contortionist and would be happy to pose despite my add saying I was trying to do things that weren't too wierd...I was overawed by what might be possible and I initially said, I'd be in touch in a few months after I'd got myself warmed up on some easier models...I really didn't want to start with a model that would be so challenging...
Well, I got back in touch a few months later, in which time all except 2 other perhaps simpler model folk had led me up the garden path to nowhere land...I explained that I was still a little raw and amateur to be taking on such a challenging photographic task as contortion, but that I'd have a go if she could be patient...She was fine with the idea and we met up and did the first shoot in April 2009...
OSCOPG£: How did that work out??
PG£: Initially, we did a shoot indoors here on Fish Island using a skanky duvet to white out the floor. It was a rank amateur effort on my part, but one that produced some good images and gave me confidence to keep working...
If you're interested in modelling,comissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCOPG£: Before we get into that any further, lets talk about your philosophy of photography...
PG£: Well, the first thing I insist on when making pictures is an amateurish, mistake ridden approach AT ALL TIMES..!! Yes boss, if there's one thing I find interminably dull about photography it's this obsession with clarity of shot, clean and sharp lighting AND TECHINCAL BRILLIANCE...!! I find that approach all too often bleaches the soul of the image...I much prefer my shots to be fuzzy, dirty, rough, amateurish, accidental, contrasty, dark and vague so long as they make for an interesting picture...
OSCTPG£: So you're setting your own rules..??
PG£: Essentially, I mostly have no idea what I'm doing and i think that challenges me to create something out of nothing - whilst not intentionally not following the rules...
OSCTPG£: So you like to make mistakes..??
PG£: My whole photographic technique relies on me knowing a few basics, mostly ignoring them, taking lots of pictures at more or less complete random - and then editing things that look good into rough but hopefully decent and emotionally striking images..
OSCTPG£: So, you do or you don't know what you're doing ??
PG£: Mostly not. I understand that a long exposure means you get movement and more light...I understand that I don't much like flash....And I know that good images are very often accidental and could be made just as easily by a Chimp as by a degree trained photographer...These facts aside, I know very little about what I'm doing or trying to do...Essentially, I find the technical basics of photography to be more or less completely incomprehensible and very dull to learn and practice, so I try and remain as ignorant as I can - which gets harder to do the more pictures you take...
OSCTPG£: So you've not consulted photography books or done any kind of formal training...??
PG£: I occasionally dip into 'HOW TO' books and sometimes I get close to understanding concepts of intent with photos from reading them...I also like to look at other images to get ideas as how not to take my own - but I instinctively react against any kind of tutoring and I don't want to know too much about how to get the PERFECT SHOT!!!
OSCOPG£: If you don't read much or have any interest in taking lessons, how do you improve your technique as a photographer...??
PG£: Firsty, I'm not that interested in improving my technical skills beyond a point....I'd like to be a little better than what I am now, but the way I work is to go on a journey...I don't want to have a very clear idea of the place and the way to get there to be all marked out with knowledge...
It's like travel...If I go somewhere, I don't want to know what it's like there before I go...I don't want to read books about it, or hear other peoples tales of what they did and where they went...
I want to turn up like a virgin and be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY AMAZED!!!
For me The Lonely Planet guidebooks are an abomination and the death of REAL adventure...
So with photography it's the same..
OSCTPG£: Does this mean that quite a few of your photos are utter crap...???
PG£: Yes...The vast majority of my initial images are utter and complete fucking crap - as are many better photographers...For me, it's all about the edit - that's where I find what kind of a picture and mood I'm working with...
OSCTPG£: So what percentage of finished and displayed images are you happy with???
PG£: At the time of posting on www.paulgiovanni.com I'm usually at least 80 or 90% happy with the images I display, but I often find them lacking afterwards so I cull them and replace the duff images with pictures of roses...I plan on having culls every 6 months or so, to keep things fresh and decent...
OSCOPG£: Going back to the question of models - what's you technique for working with models...??
PG£: I prefer to work with people long term...To get a good photo I think you need insight into the character - you need to get in and around the layers of who they are and dig a little into what gets them going...For instance, having some skinny horse on broomstick legs turn up and go for a salad the minute I start struggling with the basics isn't what I'm interested in photographing...Essentially, I want to portray beauty, in that sense I'm the same as many photographers, but my version of beauty isn't anything to do with someone being polished or perfected without a hair astray or precision SHARP!...I like the beauty to often be dark and unpolished...I like the deeper beauty of character and I like to not direct the model at all...
OSCTPG£: You don't direct models at all...???
PG£: Say with Phina, I knew she would be able to do contortions, so I knew certain things would be possible and that wierd human shapes would be a part of any pictures I did of her. But each time we've done a session, I've let it take it's own course and I rarely tell her what to do when...
Therefore many of my favourite pictures of Phina have been of her in between positions, or depict her in ways I'd never think to ask her to sit - I find it next to impossible to do that. Sometimes when I'm liking a particular something, I ask for a tweak or too to the position - but that's usually because I can start to see the picture I want and need to get a foreign object out of the corner of it. Otherwise, I like to sit about, drink and chat and keep the camera running, then look at what I've got later and try and build those raw unintentional images into something with depth and feeling that would have been missed completely at the time if I'd have been chunttering down some well laid planned out train tracks of what I wanted the image to be...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: So are you serious about taking pictures or not...?
PG£: That all depends on what you classify as being serious...?
I'm VERY serious about making good pictures and getting satisfaction from seeing them evolve and then looking at them regularly from that point on...
I'm also VERY seriously hoping other people get what my ideas are here and don't just lazily dismiss what I'm doing as being amateur unpolished rubbish that is done so because I'm incapable of learning how to use a multi trip flash gun, light meter or studio lighting...
OSCTPG£: But you are an amateur...?
PG£: At the moment yes, and in many senses I will be even if I go on to make money from any of my images...
OSCTPG£: I'm still struggling with why you don't try and improve your images in technical terms...?
PG£: Because that's not what I'm trying to do..
I like HIGH CONTRAST and pixel grainyness - i like faces to be messy and rearranged by the light and the movement...
Look at painting - there are many people who can paint very well and do perfect reproductions of either existing paintings or real time scenes - but those people aren't great artists - they're great technicians...
And the last thing I want to be is a great technician...
With photos, I'm exclusively interested in provoking a response in the viewer of the pictures - of making them frightened or wary or aggressive or confused - I'm not looking to make them go...
'Oh yeah, that's a very clear technically brilliant picture, taken with a Nikon Bum 1, with HIG RAZ lighting at 75mm f3.2...'
I only want an emotional human response and I feel that they way most people go about photography is completely emotion free...
OSCTPG£: OK...Well, I'm still not sure I get it, but thanks very much for your time...
PG£: Thank You
Interview 4
OSCTPG£: In this the 4th interview, I'd like to talk with you a little more about your photographic progression, ideas and theories as per discussed in Interview No3.
PG£: SHOOT!!!
OSCTPG: One thing I most clearly remember from the last time we talked was that you were seemingly intent on pursuing a primitive 'uninformed' approach to taking pictures that relied on mistakes. An approach that it could be argued enhanced and stylized what many serious photographers would consider to be basic errors...
PG£: Yes...?
OSCTPG: I'm wondering first of all, if, as you've taken more pictures and worked with more professional models, how you've found it possible to remain naive about the basics of taking photos and how you've got the models to accept, understand and work with the results you've made..?
PG£: Well although my style is simple - it's all so complicated....
I've found that overall my knowledge of the basics of taking pictures has improved slowly and steadily this last year...
It's inevitable that if you practice any art form you learn more and more about how to do it - about how to get the kind of images you want and about how to avoid the images you don't want...
This so, the kind of photos I want to take largely remain the same, and I've found I get better and better at the kind of blurry, movement, contrasty images I like to make....
Thing is, I take photos how I do, because I LIKE the colours and the sharp harshness and the MESS...
And so I've learnt how better to make these images and how not to take too many clean and tight and sharp FLASH FLASH FLASH!!!
OSCTPG£: So you've become better at producing the images you produced when you knew less as and when you've learnt more..?
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
PG£: I can more easily and quickly contrive to make the images I like & produced previously rather than having to find out how to by trial & error...
What I haven't found is that I dislike the style that originally found me. I like it more & more, and I less and less want to adopt the more conventional, polished and recognised way of making photographic images...
OSCTPG£: You enjoy the mistakes and make them more often...?
PG£: I've not felt like I was making mistakes before - just that my being naive and uneducated enabled me to find something better, more satisfying and more interesting than all this dull imagination free shit served up my most of the sheep who study and read about HOW to do it rather than go to the trouble of finding their OWN way to do it...
I like my style, and this last while, I've learnt a few tricks to make those kind of images better, quicker and to order...
OSCTPG£: So you've still not felt tempted to buy a whole bunch of studio flash and spend a grand on a new camera then...?
PG£: I'd rather spend it on a gold plated fish or a stuffed crocodile...
I have bought in 2 new lenses this last year and I only use one of them - the other doesn't fucking work - it's some cheap Sigma crap that's fussey as to which canons it fires or not.
The one that does work is a basic wide angle Canon zoom - it cost about £30 and it does everything I want of a lense and so I think I'm done with lenses - I only use that one, the one that came with my old film Canon EOS that I had been using as standard with my EOS 300D no longer works either, so this wide angle thing is now my one and only...
I can't really see I need any other equipment at the moment apart from props, masks and perhaps things I might find knocking about, that might have a good ability to play with light..?
I stand by my idea that a camera is run by an imagination and not by its own genius...
But these days people have UNBELIEVABLE cameras on their phones and so I might be wrong on that...
OSCTPG£: Moving on to models, this last year, you've spent time working with models who've had more experience. How has that been..? How difficult have you and they found it to work to a more unconventional style..?
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
PG£: Well first of all I'll talk a little about who and where I found these models.
After initially relying on people who didn't consider themselves to be models, I decided to go down a more traditional path...
OSCTPG£: Why..?
PG£: Well, I was finding it very hard to get enough people to pose and to get them to pose quickly. I was mostly going through social networks to find people and I found it to be incredibly hard work to get anyone I liked to look of to agree...They'd be a lot of talk, but I was getting the impression that social networks are basically dating sites - nothing more nothing less...
Polite, 'pretend something else' dating sites...
Which is fine, but I wanted to get in a lot of hours of pictures and I had neither the time nor inclination to play 'NICE TO MEET YOU TOO!!!' games for weeks on end and so it made sense to go for the jugular and get in proper models who were set up to turn up and start working without me having to charm or persuade them they wanted to do it - or that they'd get something from it...
OSCTPG£: Was money involved..?
PG£: I did about 10 or 12 shoots and did all kinds of deals...
OSCTPG£: Which web sites did you use..?
PG£: The first site I went to was Purestorm - but they didn't allow my account to pass vetting for a reason I'm, still not clear on...
Next I stumbled upon netmodel which looked like some shabby younger sister that was very ill thought out.
For a website about images it really does have the most ATROCIOUS sense of design - and the logo is probably the worst I've ever seen.
I didn't expect much from it all, but they did at least allow me to post a profile without it having to be vetted by some tit based mutants.
So, I put up a profile and images that were
challenging.
I was saying things 'I'm not going to try and make you beautiful - that's not my aim.' and 'I'm not interested in taking hundreds of identikit glamour pictures' - which is mostly what these sites are about...
Well, to my surprise netmodel turned up some really good models , but it took me a while to get established and just as I got established and was starting to motor a little, I got suspended...
OSCTPG£: Suspended for what...?
PG£: For getting to energetic & confrontational on the forums.
OSCTPG£: ????
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
PG£: Netmodel is primarily a tits and ass thing. 90% of photogrpahers on there are men, mostly over 30 who want to spend their leisure time taking pictures of pretty women in varrying states of undress...
Essentially, it's one BIG mid life crisis.
But like with the social networks really being dating sites, the people on there like to hide their real interests (seeing naked girls) beneath their art...
OSCTPG£: You're saying they have no interest in art or photography..? It's just about seeing the ladies in thier panties...?
PG£: I think they have an interest in art and taking photos for sure and some of them are very VERY good at it - but if they were only allowed to take pictures of naked men, many of them would soon loose interest in practicing their art...
OSCTPG£: So how did you offend them..?
PG£: Well any way I could really...
I found many people on there are very VERY touchy in how and why they talk about what they do.
It has to be dresssed up in a certain way - just like the ladies...
A lot of them banalify it - or kind of openly boast that OF COURSE THEY LIKE TO SEE NAKED GIRLIES - WHO DOESN'T?!?!
I would frequently try and get them going - get them on the defensive and claim they were FULL OF SHIT and that I was the only FUCKING GENIUS photographer on the whole site...
On the occasion of being suspended I was however more poking around at the kind of pictures and styles that dominate - and the nepotism of the moderators on the forums - how some people seem to be able to say more or less anything on or off topic and how others who aren't so regular or well known get chastised and edited at the drop of a hat....
OSCTPG£: What 'kind of pictures and styles dominate'
PG£: The kind of pictures that make me think of Hitler.
Pictures that are very VERY clean and pure and nazi like in their imagination of pure and very fashionable modern inhuman beauty.
The aim of most photogrpahers on there seems to be to imagine this kind of female TOTAL BEAUTY master race.
I find it all pretty silly and a bit frightening...
Making the beautiful EVEN MORE flawless and beautiful in images is a very strange thing to want to do...?!?!
Why not try and make the beautiful look a bit flawed or dirty, or edgey or dangerous or even mutated..????
Why not even out the playing field a little for those less blessed with looks..?
Give something to the viewer who might not be such a beauty themselves..?
From making comments about the images and the ideas of nazi skin, I then set about reporting every post that was off topic or offensive, because there was a debate about threads getting struck off and edited that were discussing the idea of purifying the skin by way of photoshop, and as per usual it seemed the moderators were being very picky about who and what they censured...
There never seems to be any kind of consistency with them - and one of them said that they only ever edit a post if someone complains - they don't check every post and apply the rules - they just follow up complaints...
Then...
I thought
FUCK IT!!!
Let's have them analyse my photos, let's put the dogs on ouvre?!?!
So i started a thread for a Portfolio Critique of what I'd done to date...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: Over what time period..?
PG£: All this in the space of 2 or 3 hours...I was PROPER ON ONE!!!
OSCTPG£: So it seems...
PG£: So, the critique was getting going - but no-one much was saying anything technical, it quickly slipped into the little boys making silly jokes and so I posted:
'THIS IS ABOUT MY FUCKING PICTURES!!!'
in the hope of engendering some respect
and I reported all the banal posts to the moderators...
One moderator who I'd had a run in with before was clearly getting bored & a little overwhelmed with my exuberance, and he told me I was 'Flaming' my own thread. He warned me to turn in and log off for the night and that if I posted another thread he'd suspend me...
I found this to be REALLY EXCITING!!!
So I posted an Off Topic thread
'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!'
and he suspended my account...
OSCTPG£: So it wasn't really about photogrpahy that got you suspended - it was nothing to do with your images or even your critique of others images..?
PG£: Nah, it was just me being a bit bolshy and drunk and dogmatic on the eve of my 36th birthday...I was having fun with the formular and the system and the angles of the moderators...I really enjoy just messing about like this....It's always interesting working people out and learning about human interaction and prejudice and opinion...
OSCTPG£: Was it disappointing to be suspended..?
PG£: I always feel a sense of elation when I get kicked off of something, the same when I decide to delete an account of whatever kind myself...
OSCTPG£: Elation..?
PG£: Since having a kid, I've really noticed just how much kids LOVE to destroy what they create. My daughter LOVES destroying brick towers she builds and when we went to the beach recently she LOVED making sandcastles and then
IMMEDIATELY
destroying them...
I think destruction is a very very important part of creation and growth. It gives an intense thrill and a whole new challenge and I think a lot of people forget this when they get older. They get too precious about the importance of things that they've created that really aren't worth the stress...
If you have talent you can build and build and build again - why cry over spilt milk..?
But there's this idea that destruction is a waste and you should have everything backed up 4 times so you never loose anything...
I think this is why I get excited and relieved when I get deleted or delete my own profiles or when a hard drive fails and I loose some work......
It's the idea that a window has been shut in my face that means I have to find a NEW and BETTER window in order to improve my work - to move it and me on - change, and change is always a good thing even if it can be a short term pain in the ass...
OSCTPG£: So did this suspension spoil your relationships with models..? Would they have known how and why you got suspended...?
PG£: It's wierd because at the time I got suspended, I was chatting with about 6 models arranging shoots and most of those won't now happen because they don't have another point of contact with me or because they'll perhaps quite rightly get freaked out as to why I've been suspended - but I don't feel like I've lost much at all...
The best and most promising models I have other contacts for, those who can see past the bullshit will turn up anyway, and I now have a new challenge to find new ways of getting models in...
OSCTPG£: So you see it as an opportunity...?
PG£: In all honesty, i t struck me as being a bit of a lazy bitchslap from the old men...
The middle aged moderator will know he's perhaps spoiling my ability and reputation by suspending me for nothing much at all...
It's a pretty nasty thing to do - and very male...
The inference in a supsension is that I'm a danger to the models - whether intended or not, that's the impression it gives...
And I'm not any kind of a danger...
The thing is netmodel and the rest are the kind of sites that are all about tits and ass, and so most of the models are young ladies between 16-30 which is limiting and a bit of a trap...
I was warned to
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
and I think I maybe willingly harri karried my account on the eve of my 36th birthday - my subconscious could see me turning into another dull middle aged tits and ass photographer if I hung around netmodel too long with all this access to nubile sexy young ladies - it's all too easy to get corrupted and forget the reason for the journey...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: OK...So let's talk a bit more about the models you worked with from netmodel and the kinds of pictures you ended up with...
PG£: I had this wierd unconventional profile, no references and I was trying to get them to work for free or close to free...
That didn't get me any takers, so I found a few models who I felt I could get something good and varried from and who would work for deals that involved some wine as payment and sometimes a bit of cash and they nearly all worked well...
They gave me references and I started posting the pictures and then it became much easier to get other models to work with me...
OSCTPG£: You said Seraphina in particular was an important model when you first started working with models. Do any of the models you worked with stand out from netmodel above and beyond the rest..?
PG£: Well like I already said, all of those I worked with came along and engaged with what I do and tried really hard to do the job and perform and I don't have any complaints about any of them - they were all very professional and I got proper good pictures on every occasion...
OSCTPG£: So did you take many pictures of tits and ass whilst working with netmodels..?
PG£: I was hoping to, I had all models turn up on the basis that I might ask them to strip off...
I did some topless stuff with one model and one particular shot with another that was very specific and calculated - that was full nude, but the body was mostly covered with cables...
Thing I found with doing nude was there's a very strict kind of code as to what is accpetable in terms of camera angles and what is considered to be tasteful....?!?
The whole thing is split into quite strict levels and my style of shooting is very random. I like to click the shutter whenever I please. I couldn't be doing with having to hold my fire so these levels are protected and respected and I don't want the model to feel abused or uncomfortable so in that case I'd rather not do it...
If I'm going to shoot nude or topless I need to feel free or else it's not really going to work...
I'd also say that my style probably works best with clothes - to add in colour, if I did nude work it'd probably be quite frightening and dark and full on and dirty...
I'd like to do some still, but it's gonna have to be well understood by the model so there can be no problems during or after the shoot...
OSCTPG£: You've become interested in using masks on shoots. What's that all about...?
PG£: One day I started looking at masks on ebay, thinking
'This looks like FUN!!!'
So I bought a whole bunch. I got a few Halloween ones & a plastic duck, a Mandrill, & a welders mask with a skeleton airbrushed onto it...
OSCTPG£: And how did you use them..?
PG£: I left that to the model - one lady didn't want to put any on, but instead she started throwing them around and stamping on them and shit like that...
OSCTPG£: It's a curious idea to get in beautiful models and then put them in masks...
PG£: I guess if I try to track back and think about what might have been happening in, there are several possible explanations on that...
OSCTPG£: And they are...?
PG£: Well, the idea of making traditionally beautiful models who are most often employed to look more and more BEAUTIFUL!!! look wierd and perhaps even grotesque and ugly - but fun..? is something that interests me as an idea...
Then there's the whole thing of having great looking women doing what you ask them to do - there's just the 2 of you in the room...
HEAT!!!
Sometimes you need something to defuse the tension either sexual on your, and perhaps even their part, or to make them and yourself laugh and relax & chill out or to make them not look quite so attractive...
OSCTPG£: And suggesting they wear wierd masks makes them feel at ease..?
PG£: Essentially, the masks are always fun to get out - a good laugh and I reckon perhaps a whole new genre of modelling...?
OSCTPG£: Any ideas as to how the models found working with you compared with other more professional types..?
Well, one thing I find fascinating about net.model and other amateur/pro modelling sites is that almost all of the images are
EXACTLY
what you'd expect to see on such a site...
More or less no-one is trying to do anything different from that...
BEAUTY MUST BE OBEYED AND ENHANCED!!!
LADIES MUST BE PHOTOGRAPHED IN THEIR BRAS IN ABANDONED BUILDINGS!!!
There's also A LOT of folk trying to shoot the most fashionable styles of the moment, with the correct photoshop techniques. They have all the latest gear or else they try and ape all the latest gear with what they have.
It's like the autotune thing in pop music - a big old bunch of lazy sheep with no proper ideas of their own...
So, when i come along with this blurry messy style that appears to be and in fact IS a BIG old bunch of 'errors' that I LIKE, I was interested to see how people took it...
I initially found it hard work to get people to say yes to model, but once I got going, I found a lot of the models who actually worked with me to be very complementary of what I was doing to my face - and I do think some of them genuinely liked my style...
But then it's a models job to say
'YOU'RE PICTURES ARE WONDERFUL!!!'
in the same way it's the photographers job to say the model
'LOOKS WONDERFUL!!!'
and so I have never have been sure - and ultimately I don't much really care...
Very few of them have actually used any of my pictures for their portfolios - I've noticed that
OSCTPG£: Did any of the models approach you..?
PG£: No
OSCTPG£: And the other photographers..? Any of them seem interested in what you were producing...?
PG£: Not really no. I think some were watching and working out how and what I was doing, but I didn't have many or any really come to say 'HELLO DARLING!!! I LOVE YOUR WORK!!!'
Most of them are on there because they like to see tits, if you ain't got loads of tits on your portfolio they seem to turn off and not really engage with you...
OSCTPG£: It's not really that cynical is it...?
PG£: All I'll say is that I had one single topless photo on my portfolio...
It was a: 'Yeah, why is it necesary I'm topless for this..?' shot (see opposite)
it had more than 350 views...
It was an OK pic, but nowhere near the best and it was 1 of the 50 I had on display, many of which were much MUCH better on every level...
And you know what..?
It had 10 times the number of views as any other one of the rest of those 49 images...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
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