This is my final album cover for this project and for the 'reputation' album that I have been focusing on. With the album cover, I wanted to create an image that held a lot of meaning and symbolism but in a simple way. I didn't want it to be overwhelming to look at, or too confusing to understand on first glance, as if this was a real album cover, i'd want the viewer/fans to understand it immediately and therefore listen to it/ buy it.
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The boots symbolise strength and particularly feminine strength and power, blending into the black background but simultaneously standing out and creating a sense of power and importance. Using the rule of thirds when cropping this image, I wanted to emphasise the sense of simplicity and balance, with the album title written in the opposing corner of negative space, I feel like it balances out the image and also stands out as there are no distractions around it.
The spotlight I added onto the boots carries the narrative of fame - the way the boots are starting to step into it and the emotions that come with stepping into/out of that spotlight, not only on a stage but in the media and living a public life that is exposed to criticism from the whole world.
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The backstory of the album itself is that it was Swift's 'comeback' album after she was scrutinised and 'cancelled' by the entire internet and media for something that she did not do. The boots stepping into the spotlight in this image is that sense of a 'comeback' and re-emerging despite the scrutiny and hate - feminine strength and power.
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I had also bedazzled the boots with snakes - a strong theme in the album and a motif that was carried through all promotional content during that era. The snakes became an iconic symbol of 'reputation' as Swift had taken something she was being called in a hateful way, and turned it into a symbol of power. Showing this in some way on the album cover was important as it is quite a simple image but with layers and deep references to the music.
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The lighting in the image is dark, the boots almost blend into the background however the soft side lighting has created stretched shadows behind the boots, I wanted to achieve this to carry the idea of leaving something dark behind - overcoming a 'dark time' and stepping into the light in spite of it.
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If I were to do this again and shoot another album cover I would possibly explore different subjects and maybe models to carry narrative through facial expressions and body language, however, with this project I wanted to challenge myself and divert from the original reputation content - very model and portrait focused - to try and convey the same message in objects and symbolism.
For my final teasers, I selected images that I felt each held a different but cohesive story. The first, having a sense of motion and uncertainty, edited in black and white to be cohesive to the aesthetic and showing an electric guitar to provide insight to the upcoming music style.
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The second being the busiest image and hinting towards the themes and concepts in the album, dark, luxurious, snakes, shaded and secretive. I also wanted to keep the colour on the lipstick as it is a busy image and wanted a point of difference in the image to break it up a little bit and offer a main focal point, additionally to this point, I used a shallow depth of field to make sure the image wasn't too overwhelming and hard to consume as I really wanted to find a way to carry through a lot of imagery in this one. The sunglasses symbolising the hidden away aspect and being shielded from the world, the snake jewellery continuing that motif, and the lipstick offering a sense of luxury and performance. The way the items are all 'falling' from the bag is a way of conveying the idea that the personal aspects of someone's life are always on show, being leaked to the media, being misconstrued and stolen.
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The final teaser, having the same bag but instead of items spilling out, this time it is smoke. I wanted this to carry on the story of the second teaser but also change the narrative (like Swift did with this album) and show the idea of her personal items being 'burned' and are now gone - the public doesn't get any more access to them and also she is starting new. Another key concept of this album is 'rebirth' and having the previous items gone and replaced with smoke, I wanted the final image seen before the album release to be a reset, or rebirth.
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I also added text to the images, signalling a countdown to the album release in a slightly cryptic way - much like the original release. I wanted to create a sense of tension and anticipation leading up to the album and also emphasise the sense of secretivity. The viewers can get a lot from these images about the concept and theme and aesthetic but the mysterious countdown emphasises the idea of a surprise creating excitement around the album.
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If I were to shoot more teasers for this album, I would probably stick to doing objects for this part as I think the symbolism is effective in the way that it offers a lot of information but you have to work to find it and put the pieces together. Next time I would work more with curating a narrative around all 3 images and tell a more convincing and chronological story in the order of their releases and experiment with more techniques in shooting and also post production, such as, different lighting, maybe capturing motion with flash instead of a slow shutter speed and experiment with multiple exposures.
Overall this project was a big step for me - working in a studio based setting and constructing images to tell a narrative. I went in knowing little to nothing about studio lighting, setups, how to tell a story in an image, etc.
I learnt a lot about lighting, from different techniques like silhouette, rim, split, rembrant, and butterfly, to how to actually achieve those and where to position the lights. I learnt about multiple exposures with a flash and how flash can capture movement very well.
I experimented with building a home studio setup and the challenges that came with that such as achieving a solid background, extending the lighting techniques I had learnt using my phone and a torch.
I also experimented a lot with props over the course of this project which I hadn't worked with before. I initially found it difficult to decide what story I needed them to tell and how to do that, additionally how to create good compositions with them to create a balanced image.
However, I feel like I in some way achieved that and managed to get the hang of it. With more time and practice, i'm sure I could learn a lot more and experiment in a lot more ways to develop my skills even further, but in the time working on this project, I learnt a lot.
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If I were to do this project again, I would push myself further out of my comfort zone not only using props but models too and focus on learning how to direct in that way.