Exhibition Walkthrough

5 Minute Behind-the-Scenes Montage

Exhibition Slideshow

 These are the images that were printed for the exhibition in order the audience would view them From Concept to Catwalk.

Success

The opening night was a success with guests, wine and an incredible fashion show of Rachael's work.  

The setup took nearly two full days and paint drying as guests were arriving but the venue looked as if it had been ready for weeks with the help of tutors and the staff of the LPAC!

Thanks to everyone who helped and made it the event it was.

Scott Dean

The Dock - Final Shoot

Tuesday marked the end of my use of a camera for From Concept to Catwalk as Rachael and I completed the final shoot of the summer. Each shoot had it's difficulties, but all were a success. Talking Heads again did the hair and makeup for the shoot which took at Burton Waters Boat Sales. The original idea I had was for the model to stand on the front of a boat with the sky filling the frame behind, but health and safety limits what can be done so I used a dock in the marina to incorporate the water theme once again into the shoot.

Our model Victoria was a pleasure to work with and looked stunning during the beautiful weather we had for the day. (Every outside shoot has been sunny and every indoor one has rained even when I planned the dates weeks in advance) Becca helped again with transportation and moving equipment around, luckily this time she didn't have to get wet.

The next steps before the opening night on Friday, 28 of August is to finish printing the 21 images, edit documentary video of the photo shoots with music, design handout, promote the event and set everything up in the LPAC for Friday. See you there!

Après-coup An Exhibition by Rob Coley

Après-coup

by Rob Coley

This multimedia installation will explore the elusive, protean and fragmented nature of memory. The work has been created and defined through a collaboration with sufferers of dementia, a group assembled from across England. By exploring the strong or significant memories of those for whom recall will become increasingly imperfect, après-coup aims to question the emotional constitution of all memory.

Drawing particularly on psychoanalytic notions and debates surrounding the mutability of the still image, this work considers the degree to which perception takes on meaning retrospectively. The exhibition will further reflect upon the temporality of the still image and its status as a mnemonic device.

Après-coup will be at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre in September 2009. The private show will take place on Friday 11th September from 18.00-21.00 and the installation will be open to the public on Saturday 12th September from 11.00-18.00.

Follow the development of the work and read further updates by visiting www.blog.robcoley.com or email Rob directly at rob@robcoley.com

Tennis Court

Thank you to David Lloyd tennis and fitness centre in Burton Waters for letting us use an indoor tennis court for this shoot. Samantha Iancono of Talking Heads salon did the hair and makeup on this shoot. Our model Emma looked too good to be on a tennis court but we managed to make her fit in.

This shoot I originally had the idea to have the model immersed in a sea of tennis balls, but after Wimbledon I saw plenty of these shots so my idea needed to change. Since we had a tennis court to use, I felt we needed to use the perpendicular lines of the net and boundaries it offered us to work with the outfit. Lighting would also be a huge factor in this shot as to not simply use a very flat and steady white wash, but bring out some contrast in the shadows of the balls and net.

Even though this shoot has offered the most time constraints, I feel I obtained the most useable images from five different poses and two very different lighting setups.

Locker Room

After a week off from shooting, Rachael has begun double duty as designer and model. I've chosen one of the locker rooms at the University of Lincoln Sports Centre for the shoot. The next two designs are 'Glam Sports Wear' and I wanted something that will reflect the sports side of the outfit without having the model actively playing a sport. The locker room stood out to me by having not only the model, but others who might be getting ready for their match.

I was lucky to find a football team to volunteer their time to model with Rachael. I wanted the footballers to not even notice Rachael in the environment and welcome her as one of their own even though she stands out from the rest.

Shoot Number Two - Creating Rain

Today was the first time we had the opportunity to have Talking Heads Salon in Lincoln do the hair and makeup for our model Amy.  We will be working with Talking Heads on the remainder of the photo shoots, as well as the fashion show on the night of the gallery opening.

We used the second of Rachael's water themed outfits on an old staircase leading to Yarbourough Road in Lincoln.  We created rain (if we had done this shoot a few months ago, we could have used the real stuff) to give the shoot an exciting and different element rather than a model standing on a some steps.  It also proved a new challenge to me by lighting water and a clear umbrella without getting terrible light reflections.  The shoot went well and learned much after the shoot from the day before which moved the lighting ahead much more rapidly.  After standing in a lake as a light stand, Becca had the chance to play rainmaker today.

The First Shoot of the Summer

Rachael (designer), Gabby (model), Becca (photo assistant) and I traveled to Swinderby for the first shoot of the summer. I was lucky enough to have friends with a lake to use for the first garment. The idea for this shoot was to make the model appear as if she was walking on water. To do this I built a small platform of bricks and pallets in the lake about ten feet out from the shore just under the surface of the water for the model to stand on.

We waited until about 8:00 pm for the sun to start setting and colour to come into the sky. We ran into a couple lighting issues with one bulb blowing out, another fuse frying and another who would only pop every 4 or 5 times so we revamped the lighting situation to a much simpler speedlite setup with Becca becoming a lighting stand in three feet of water.

To get the desired effect and not notice the platform just under the surface, I had to submerge into the water with the camera as close to the water's surface as possible (the Hasselblad was unable to do this so I scrapped it and switched to the Canon 5D Mark II). The low angle put the horizon just between the model's ankles and knees to give us a huge amount of sky in the image.

You're Invited!

New Location

A trip to Burton Waters has brought a new possible location with plenty of boats or marina to choose from.