The importance of COLABS

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/we-spoke-to-the-artist-who-helped-inspire-die-antwoord

Were you OK with them using all your images without permission?"For every one photography fan, there are 10,000 music fans, which means that having Die Antwoord spread the Roger Ballen aesthetic makes my audience that much wider."

Outland

http://www.bjp-online.com/2015/04/video-roger-ballen-outland/


Ballens' work spanning over 20 years was assembled together to make this book 'Outland'.
His work in relation to my own brings attention to how I am constantly struggling between the aesthetic of my photographs and the story I am trying to tell or represent…



"I feel much more like a painter than a photographer right now. I am using a camera, but I am not using it in the traditional way as an observer."

I appreciate the reality of his photographs, surreal photos being both represented by a documentary feel and the uncertainness of how much the subjects are really 'acting' in the photos. 
The harsh flash and shadows created behind the subjects is something I would like to experiment with in my own photography and portraits.

Horns

I've been meaning to watch this film for a long while, and it did not disappoint, but maybe not in the way it would have hoped.

Firstly, Daniel Radcliffe has an awful whiney American accent and stiff acting which presents so many cringe worthy moments. Horns was not off to a good start from the beginning for me due to his pre pubescent face reminding me of a boy I once drunkenly kissed on one of many nights out (he was not a good kisser). For me, this made the film laughable and I could't take it very seriously.

I'm not going to describe the plot as I haven't got all week, but in short, he's a 'fallen angel' who has to work out and then tick off one by one the people that could have killed his girlfriend using his newly acquired powers making anyone around him admitting their selfish inner desires.  

As the film progresses you become sympathetic for his character, I repeat, his character, not him as an actor. I like the idea of the film but the script is not as strong as the films premise.

As a photographer I don't enjoy the colour tones, they are much too rich, browns, dark greens and reds with high contrast. It is very typical of the thriller/horror/fantasy movie genre. On the other hand the location in which it is shot is very interesting to me. It looks as though it is set in an old American town, the buildings and houses look large but the countryside is prominent and important in surrounding the characters, making them seem vulnerable. 

Running theme…. sexuality and the power of attraction.

Favourite cinematic still… 

A question you will definitely ask... "when will it end???" 

The still that sums up the whole film…