Missed Opportunity

This semester I think I got a lot of photos that I wanted to get. However, there are always a few pictures that you never took that you wish you did, and I certainly am no exception to that. Its not really just one particular shot, its more like a project I would have loved to do. I am very interested in fashion (even though I don’t dress like it!) and I think residents in the lovely city of Manhattan display some of the funkiest and freshest styles I’ve ever seen. I work a lot and always swamped with schoolwork so I don’t get to go into the city much, but I would have loved to spend a weekend in NYC. I would have just gone around to different neighborhoods taking photos of the different kinds of styles. I find that when I go into the city, certain areas display specific kinds of styles. People in the Upper East Side usually dress more elegant, with a preppy twist. The Village seems to have much more of a laid back style. People in Chelsea sometimes have an extravagant colorful fashion sense. I think its so interesting how one island can have so much to offer fashion wise, and have so many different styles at once. I of coarse would have wanted to shoot it in color… black and white would have done the fashion no justice. The most important part of clothes is the colors. Each color on a different style says a lot about an individual’s personality. I also would have loved to up the saturation and contrast to make the fashion pop from the background. I would have liked to play with the different environments and how they work with the varied types of clothing as part of the piece. Even though it sounds like it may be more of an editorial, fashion project, I would have tried made it more documentary. I wouldn’t ask the people to pose. I think the photos would be so much stronger if the subjects were just casual and doing their natural thing. I would have loved to use different angles and heights at which I would take the frames. I love shoes, so I think a worm’s eye view, sort of on the ground starting at the sole of the shoe looking upwards at the subject would have been a fantastic shot. It could have highlighted the footwear, along with the tall buildings and other people in the background. When I’m home for the summer, I usually work full time, but I would love to take a weekend off and go into the city. In my head, I keep picturing a photo of a girl wearing some kind of funky colorful bright fashions, in front of a hot dog vendor in Times Square with friends. It might sound posed since I’m already picturing it in my head, but I think a shot like that would be extremely interesting to compare to other styles such as a woman in a more conservative, traditional outfit near a book store or coffee shop on the Upper East Side. This project seems like it would be a great deal of fun, and very rewarding as well. This is something I will most certainly look into doing for a future project. Watch out Bill Cunningham, here I come! J