Oliver Prout

He is a British photographer based in London. He was born into a creative family with his father a photographer and his mother an art director, Prout set up his first darkroom after leaving primary school. He was then trained in film and television and worked for the BBC. Prout is known primarily for his portraits and fashion photographs which he returned to in 2005 and 2007 after the BBC. His work is now shown in fashion magazines all of the world and his personal work is sold to art collectors.

 

The location of this image looks like a backstreet of apartment blocks in American cities. All the metal in this image is all rusted and dirty; there is also dirt in the grooves of the wood and graffiti along the brickwork. The male model on the motorbike reflects the grunge of the location with clothes that would reflect the working man on the docks during the great depression in America. The female model really stands out though because of her clothing which is very modern. She is the only thing in this image that looks new. The image is very desaturated which I think is to represent the dustiness of the location. Colour during the great depression would have been very rare because it would have been expensive; the desaturation represents this. When I look at this image I first look at the male model and I follow his eye line up towards the female. I then follow the staircase upwards and then look around the edge of the image clockwise which is the direction that the bike is facing. I really like this image because I feel that it shows the two characters emotions. I feel that the male would have been surprised and shocked when he saw the female because he might have never seen her dress so nice. He might have tried his best to dress nice and now feels a little silly because he didn’t put as much effort into it.

 

This image looks like it was taken in a mechanics garage. I think this because of the spanner to the right of the front foot and the concrete floor. The high heels in this image look very posh because of the stitching and extra ribbon used for decoration. I guess that the situation in this image is that the female is angry at the male and has thrown an image of them together on the floor and stamped on it. The portraits in the image also look quite high class because of his suit and the fur that the model is wearing, the precise make up and well styled hair. However it looks like socks or leggings have been worn which is quite unusual and the images frame is quite this which emphasises that it was cheap. A strong light source is in the top left of the image which emphasises the back foot and the curvature created by the heel. due to the reflection on the surface of the heels and in the background I believe that there is another light source from above the model that isn’t as strong as the other but is enough to illuminate the background and right side of the foot and ankle.