Photography inspiration for digipak

The photography and mise-en-scene on the album artwork is one of the most important aspects for an artist, as it's what consumers see first and will catch their attention, whilst setting up the artists identity. It also shows what the artist is in terms of genre, importance in the music industry and popularity. Therefore, taking a look at various mainstream artists albums and digipaks, I would like to take the "bold" and slightly mainstream look, although try to make my look a little more edgier as my genre is rock, which I will do through mise-en-scene such as costume, setting and make-up. I have researched a few artists I like, and ones that represent a similar image or audience to mine which I want to certain aspects from.

This photoshoot of Porcelain Black inspires me in terms of how it manages to reflect rock vs the 50s era through eclectic borrowing, due to certain aspects of the mise-en-scene such as hair and make-up, which is very pin up (according to the heavy short fringe from that era). In terms of posture and image Porcelain Black shows a huge statement in terms of what she represents, which judging from this image is quite rock and roll, independant, confident and fierce. For example, the mise-en-scene in this photo reflects that certain image of her, through her tattoos being on display, the heels and make-up which all suggest she is very focused on her image and shows that she's not another mainstream artist who follows the conventional "pop" genre trends. Although, "different" does seems to be what the general public tend to find more interesting, and a lot more stars have taken that turn with their style, for example Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. 

I wouldn't want to use the same clothing as Porcelain Black in these photos as I think for an album cover it could be too over the top and indicates too much of a sexual image for my artist, which would be for a much more specific and higher targeted audience, which is not what I am looking to achieve. Although I would definitely want to take aspects from it such as the pose, the setting and parts of the mise-en-scene such as clothing, like her heels as I want to keep the femininity in there but still keep the fierce rock aspect that Porcelain Black seems to maintain in this image. As I think this photograph is too much for an aspect such as the digipak cover, I think it would be very useful for the opening panels inside as it is quite eye catching and looks quite conventional to the photography used in other artists albums I have researched, also I would very much like to take the long shot that has been used, as I think it captures the artist well aswell as being conventional to digipak photography for the inside panels. Although, when experimenting with my photography and digipak I may find a change in what I would like to do with photos like the ones from above, as I have to take into account that my poster which advertises this album will have to contain the image from my album cover, therefore my photo will have to be quite versatile and suitable in that sense too, due to where it will be displayed and who will see it.

Another change that I would possibly like to make to the photos is the colour, I personally think the black and white might be too gothic on top of the mise-en-scene I want to use, as well as ontop of my digipak cover idea (below) which involves a skull. Although, when editing I may see it differently and change.

This image is taken from the same artists (Porcelain Black) single, in which the image of her is shown through the transparent lettering on the cover. I really liked this idea because I think it's both clear who the artist is and what her style is about due to the mise-en-scene that we are able to see through the lettering (such as the extreme make-up and lepoard print), as well as being able to read the text clearly enough. It's a very simple approach to a cover and although it is probably more ideal for a single to use this idea instead of a digipak, I think I would still like to experiment with this idea as it definitely caught my attention.

It is clear that this image is a hyperreal version of Marilyn Monroe as she is/was a very recognisable icon in the 50's, due to her signiture features such as her hair, make-up and beauty mark on her upper lip. I found this image on the website Tumblr and recognise that the image is very famous in terms of popularity for tattoos.

                                                      I liked the idea of having half of the face normal whilst having half like a skull. Taking my album cover into consideration, I would like to keep my album cover simple in terms of shots, and therefore would like to use a close-up of the performers face as it enables the artists target audience to recognise her clearly whilst also enabling them to clearly interperate what the artist represents in terms of individuality and meaning. Taking inspiration from this idea would create an edgy look for my artist whilst also targetting a broader mainstream audience than my band originally do, (as at the moment a rejection to mainstream values in society seems to becoming a more mainstream approach). I plan to experiement with this idea and take the half normal face and half skull, or half natural and half the opposite. Doing this will enable my target audience to recognise the artist clearly due to the clear close-up shot, whilst also again, creating the sense of individuality that I think is very important for an artist. Furthermore, due to the choice of album name I have chosen "wounds", I think it creates a message in terms of how people percieve the photography on the digipak.

Although, I have taken into consideration that attempting to achieve this effect by using a human face, may be quite difficult and will either include being able to edit the skull and morph it into my performers photograph perfectly enough to be successful, or using make-up (which I have seen been done before).

The picture on the right reflects the above idea which I wanted to use, which is called sugar skull art. I thought that this would straight away catch attention due to the unrealistic look half the face has. Also, reflecting my artist through splitting the face into two by make-up could have connotations of torn emotions, two faced and more perceptions, which relates to my chosen song which talks about feelings. It also shows my artist as an individual and reflects her style, which is rock/grunge which some may say have a gothic edge. Although, when doing the make-up/facepaint I will take into account that I don't want my artist to look too harsh and gothic, as I still want her to be feminine in a dominant individualistic way.

Although, if my initial idea doesn't work for some reason I still can take concepts from the idea and experiment with those, involving a simple close-up shot again, and the ways I could approach splitting the face into two equally, by editing the face in inverted black and white contrast (like the picture on the left), which is an edit used in my music video a lot, due to the alternative/rock/post-grunge genre. Although, whether it works as well as the photo above, with an actual photograph of a person depends whether it will have a be successful or not for an album cover. Furthermore, I think taking one of these ideas where the face will be split into two, will create quite a statement for my artist and result in being a memorable front cover as I'm aware that it's conventional that the front cover has to catch the most attention, due to the audience seeing it first.

More inspiration

 I have also taken a look at different sugar skull patterns which is shown below in the templates (as some patterns have various meanings), as I think it's important the face paint/make-up is done well or the cover will fail in terms of how it is supposed to be percieved by the audiences.(Taken from photographs found on Google, Flickr and sketches I have found on various websites such as Tumblr.)

Template of a regular sugar skull pattern, which gives me a brief outline of the patterns involved.

A sketch which shows two sides in a very realistic way. I really liked the patterns on the right hand side of the face and intend to experiment with them.

This photograph is good in term of displaying one side of a sugar skulls face, as well as clearly showing the bold patterns involved, giving me more familiarity with how I intend to do the face paint.