I move in order to persue myself

miguel angel martinez052


i move in order to pursue myself 05



Understanding Female Poses and GesturesMiguelAngelMartinez



MODELSALEXANDRAARRIAGA ANALIDIAMORAN CLAUDIAMISHELTELLES JOCELYNTELLES

PHOTOGRAPHERMIGUELANGELMARTINEZ


COPYRIGHT 2008 MIGUELANGELMARTINEZ. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

I am a Graphic Design Student with a background in Industrial Product and Furniture Design. All portraits were taken with a Nikon D80 camera and a Tamron 55-200 lens equiped with a wide angle lens at the University of Illinois at Chicago Art and Architecture Building.

I would like to thank Beate Geissler for guiding me through this project, whom has aided in me learning lighting, Digital SLR, and the concept of imagery.


Introduction 012

The Beginning 013

Gesture Project 014

Alexandra Arriaga 020

Claudia Mishel Telles 027

Ana Moran 032

Jocelyn Telles 040


My name is Miguel Angel Martinez and I am a design student of The University of Illinois at Chicago. I primarily study graphic design and its elements, including identity design, colour the-ory, poster design, website design and the like. I also loosely study other fields such as photogra-phy, modern and contemporary architecture, and industrial design, the latter of which includes, but isn’t restricted to, product design, furniture design, clothing design, and innovation design. I have a passion for design and I love to learn all I can about it. I have, on many occasions, taken elec-tives in order to better understand the mechanics of other fields and how they function, including advanced courses in photography.Photography is not an easy field for me. While I have a steady understanding of the basics and can take photographs reasonably well, the art of crafting an image, or telling a story, or simply mak-ing a point through a shoot is still something I have trouble wrapping my head around. While my peers have praised my work on several occasions, the lack of a professional critique has made it difficult for me to ascertain as to my level of proficiency. As it stands, my standard method is incredibly straightforward: I simply find a subject or setting I’m interested in and start shooting. However, little by little, my experiences are beginning to teach

me the difference between shooting pictures and capturing a shoot.Recently I had the opportunity to put together a fashion-type shoot of two individuals, both female; I had the luck of finding two willing models whose only information prior to shooting was that it would, in fact, be a fashion shoot, and that they’d need to pose and adjust accordingly throughout. However, between a new type of camera that I wasn’t used to (and therefore didn’t have time to properly adjust), a complete lack of familiarity with my subjects, and a setting with bad lighting conditions, I was forced to deal with my closest experience to a professional, albeit heavily con-strained, shoot. As a result, the look and feel of the final product came to have an ambiance to it similar to that of low-budget films. As my teacher looked it over, her observations gave me new insights on photography as an art form. I came to learn that women posing in front of the camera for this type of subject will take positions that not only do they believe are—as well most societies—sexy, but would never dream of taking in any other situ-ation. It felt like a paradox, that someone would arrange their body in ways too provocative for public eyes but acceptable for a device that would capture the image forever. This prompted me to ponder the very essence of gestures in human behavior, along with the influence inherent in the cameraman. In the case of the latter, I also wanted to understand the factors that lead to it.

Introduction


I began to study, through photography, the level of influence a photographer holds over the behavior of the model. As such, two scenarios were formed. In one, I chose open outdoor areas and my directions were very vocal. While not di-rectly telling the models how to pose, I explained that the model had a choice in theme; she could choose from enjoying a personal holiday or giving the impression of a “beautiful corpse”. Armed with knowledge of the effect she had the present to the camera, the models promptly adjusted them-selves to present the theme they had in mind. In most of these cases, the models decided to at-tempt to tackle both themes. On occasion, if the model wasn’t sure where to go from her previous pose, I’d offer general suggestions, such as ask-ing her to sit, crouch, bend, and so on. From this the models would always quickly and easily work throughout the shoot.As a contrast to this method, I decided to choose smaller, friendlier, enclosed locations. Simultane-ously, the only two people involved in the shoot in these smaller rooms would be the model and I. At this point I’d gained a level of friendship and famil-iarity with the models, and the area provided for a relaxed feeling of intimacy. However, my direction was minimalist and my demeanor was cold and

A couple of factors I had not taken into complete account were the fact that I had learned how to use my camera more efficiently, I became more ac-quainted with my models, and I used both an outdoor and indoor environment, but only one per study—one was with heavy influence and the other with light. This created a dif-ferent mood and setting as one was private and the other public.

distant throughout the shoot. Even with identical information about what she needed to do, even with the comfortable surroundings, the emotion-ally devoid atmosphere left the models substan-tially unsettled, and that feeling transferred directly to the film. Perhaps fittingly given the latter theme, the girls bared all the warmness and character of dead fish in front of the camera.


Miguel Martinez, head turned to the left; hands hanging be-hind body; legs split evenly with left knee bent inward and right knee straight; torso twisted slightly to the left, Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 3"x8"

Miguel Martinez, head straight; left hand behind body and right hand hanging; legs split unevenly with left knee straight and right knee bent inward; torso twisted slightly to the right, Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 3"x8"


Miguel Martinez, head straight; hands holding two parts of hair; legs split evenly with left knee facing inward and right knee facing forward; torso and hips shifted to the right, Ges-tures 2008, digital photograph, 4"x8"

Miguel Martinez, head straight; right hand on side of hip, same for left hand; legs split unevenly with left knee facing outward and right knee facing forward, Gestures 2008, digi-tal photograph, 4"x8"


Miguel Martinez, head tilted; right hand on neck and left hand on hip; legs split evenly with knees facing inward, Gestures

2008, digital photograph, 4"x8"

Miguel Martinez, head tilted; right hand on thigh and left hand on chin; legs split evenly with knees facing inward,

Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 4.5"x7.75"


Miguel Martinez, head slightly turned left; right hand open on side of hip and left hand on thigh; legs split unevenly with knees facing outward, Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 3.25"x8"

Miguel Martinez, head straight; right hand on side of hip and left hand hanging; legs split unevenly with knees facing out-ward, Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 4"x8"


Miguel Martinez, head angled; right hand on nape of neck and left hand on front of thigh; legs split evenly with knees facing outward, Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 3.5"x8"

Miguel Martinez, head angled; right hand on side of neck and left hand tangled in hair; hips angled out with legs split unevenly and knees facing inward, Gestures 2008, digital photograph, 4.5"x8"




Alexandra Arriaga, or Lexi as she liked to be called, was very comfortable in front of the camera, but had a hard time understanding what it meant to be sexy. She would adjust her-self in an awkward position that made her look uncomfortable. But overtime she became, I believe, more comfortable with me watching her move and thus began to create more dynamic poses, and some very delicate positions consid-ering her situation.

The first model I was able to photo-graph in the second level of my study was Alex-andra Arriaga. I had not had contact with her in over 3 years, but I had also only met once before, through a friend. Are relationship is very loose. We had a common social network of friends and as well as online societies such as Myspace and Facebook.This network and friendship situation created an almost “blank slate” of comfort and understand-ing between us. Our photography session was the only thing that would create any further interest between us. This was an almost perfect situation, as I would have no prior influence on her actions. Though I already knew this could cause her to close up and not react as I would like her to. At first she had difficult time becoming comfortable in front of me as I shot photos of her. And I believe she had an even greater difficulty understanding how to become “sexy” because of it. I believe she was tying to capture the essence of sexiness in the same manner that models do, not as natural women do. Which is what I wished she would do, but, because of a lack of prior training or acting, some of her forms were choppy and irregular.


Miguel Angel Martinez, head straight angled back; right arm bent, with right hand curled on top of hip and left hand slightly curled resting on hip; legs split evenly with right knee facing outward and left knee facing forward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head angled down looking up; right arm crossed over hip, with right hand curled resting on hip and left arm straight with hand slightly curled ninety degrees; Torso twisted thirty degrees right; legs split unevenly with right knee facing forward and left knee facing outward and hips angled slightly up toward the right leg, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head straight and slightly angled downward; both arms extended outward and toward the back, with hands spread open; legs together with right knee bent at an acute angled and right foot lifted upward facing inward; right knee resting over the left knee facing, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head straight angled upward; right arm bent, with right hand bent at ninety degrees with figures gripping; left arm bent with left hand across left breast and fingers curled over; legs split unevenly with right knee facing leftward held straight; Left knee is bent with left leg facing outward; torso and legs twisted leftward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head straight; both arms extended out and downward and hands gripping; legs split unevenly with right knee bent slightly facing forward, left knee turned ninety degrees left and facing outward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”




Claudia Telles is a model I have known just recently and we have become closer through out-of-school social interaction, such as dancing and dining. She is very comfortable around me and I believe she is slightly “turned on” by the idea of me voyeuring her, through the lens of a camera as she adjust her body’s positioning. This is the second time I was able to photograph her, and though she is quite comfortable around me, I believe, though it attracts her, she may still not be used to being the only figure in front of the camera. Because of this I sometimes wonder whether to be there in person when I shoot the photos, or simply hide behind a wall and shoot from there. I understand one is a bit more intrusive than the other, and I will most likely get a different reaction. This model was one of the few in which I assisted, lightly, in the choosing in which poses to do. The first time I shot with her, she was with her sis-ter, and I believe because of this situation, she was not intimidated by me, and as well more comfort-able and at ease with me being there. At that time she was creating more and more endearing and as well “revealing” poses. She seemed more wor-ried about what she was actually doing, as well more concentrated, the second time around. After a while, though, I decided to raise the music I had playing in the background, to get her and myself more comfortable in shooting, I felt maybe I was unconsciously creating tension between us. I also think I may have possibly interfered with the outcome of her moves, not only by my stance as

I photographed, but as well my facial gestures. This could have easily caused her to create sexier looks as she would have believed I was becoming “excited” by what she was doing, or constricted if by chance I was doing something unfavorable, or nothing at all. I only bring this up because she would at times smile, bite her lip and even gig-gle when I perceived myself doing such actions. I would ask her why she was reacting the way she was and she would simply brush it off as if it had nothing to do with what I was doing, wasn’t doing anything at all or she didn’t know the reason as to why. All in all, she was able to bring forth some very interesting results that I believe helped me to photograph later models.

Claudia Mishel Telles has no model ing experience, and though she took a little longer to get comfortable—strange as I’ve known her for quite some time now, and taken pictures of her before—she was fi-nally able to release whatever tension she had and appear glamorous. After she was able to get comfortable her poses seemed to become more sophisticated, especially with her becoming aware of her own facial expressions and limb adjustments.


Miguel Angel Martinez, head turned to right shoulder; right arm straight with hand laying on right hip, left arm crossed over breasts; legs split evenly with right leg straight facing forward and left leg facing outward; torso turned completely to the left with back in view and right obliques facing front, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, eyes closed; lips open; head ninety degrees leftward; right arm straight twisted inward with hand spread open on base of leg; left arm bent with hand on hip; legs split unevenly with right leg bent facing outward, left leg slightly bent facing forward; torse bent forward slightly and gluted pushed backward slightly, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head straight forward; arms bent out-ward with a slight angle at the shoulder line; hands on base of waist; legs split evenly with right knee straight and right foot slightly facing inward; Left knee slightly facing outward and bent, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head titled rightward and backward; right arm bent slightly with hand flat on right glute, left arm bent with hand open on thigh; legs split unevenly with left leg straight out leftward, right leg straight facing forward; torso angled at hips rightward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head angled slighty right; shoulders angled; right arm bent with hand on thigh, left arm straight with hand on thigh; legs kneeling, legs split evenly, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”




her choose the upcoming positions she would then perform. I said seduction and innocence, whether they were to be combined or separated was up to her. I believe she understood clearly and quickly because she decided to separate the terms. Her innocence was ok, but her seduction was definitely taking my breathe away. I believe she was truly trying to seduce me into whatever world she was in. This created a bit of tension and definitely gave me the impression we were getting more intimate with each other, like couples do, but possibly on a part profession part social level, like that of a student and their teacher.

Analidia Moran was a very experienced model. Though she has no professional ex-perience on her record, she was able to adjust to my style and mood, as well as create a comfort zone for both of us without any cost. She seems very natural in front of the cam-era and “at home” in front of the camera.

Ana Lidia, or Analidia as she spells it, was a very easy model to work with. Prior to the shoot I had no idea who she was except that she was currently taking a class I had once taken, Japa-nese 101. This also meant that she had no idea who I was, or how I would be when she met me; If I had a complimentary personality to hers, or if I was a jack ass. This photoshoot would begin blank, with no history between us to influence her actions at all. When she came in to the studio, she was as comfortable as if we had known each other forever. It was quite an ease to photograph her, as she did everything I needed, without any added assistance from me, throughout the whole shoot. She would flow smoothly from one position to the next. She, as far as I know, has had no pre-professional experience, but told me that she once had to become the model for a school project in which all the existing models had to drop. This could easily have been the key to her understand-ing modeling in front of camera, or even gestures for future photographs. It’s was simply amazing how easily she portrayed sexy to me, with having so little experience.Considering there was no time needed to get comfortable and I didn’t have to say much as to what I was doing, I was able to capture her for a time that was a lot longer than expected. Usually the longer the sessions the more photos I have to sort through, which with her easy flowing ways made it quite difficult to choose between. At one point during the photoshoot she asked for some-thing else: a word, a phrase, something to help


Miguel Angel Martinez, head titled to the right; Left arm lifted and bent over head, hands spread open, right arm hung next to thigh; legs split evenly with knees slightly inward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head tilted over one soulder and slight backward; left arm hung by the thigh, right arm bent and raised with hand in hair; legs split evenly with left knee bent inward with right leg straight, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head slightly lifted up; right arm straight on standing object, left arm bent with hand clasp-ing hair; legs split evenly with left hips angled outward, torso bent at hips left/outward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head straight; left arm bent evenly with hand on head, right arm bent with hand on shoulder; legs split evenly with left knee bent inward and right leg less inward; torse bent slightly at hip, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, sitting; left oblique facing front; head straight; arms up and bent with hands supporting head; legs extended outward with no split and right leg resting over left, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, lying; head tilted upward; right arm bent with hand rested on hip, left arm exended with hand muscles calm; torso rested on left obliques; right leg bent and rested over extended left leg, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head tilted up and leftward; arms evenly behind back resting on surface; legs split evenly fac-ing inward, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”




Jocelyn is the Claudia’s sister, unlike Claudia though Jocelyn has a strong background in modeling and acting. The first time I had met her had been before I had become immersed in photography and began creating photographic idea, but I have been photographing her since then. She has helped me create stunning photos and pull off very complicated ideas and concepts. Her comfort level with me is probably the highest of all the models and even though her first initial photoshoot with me looked poorly staged, it had nothing to do with her comfort around me or the camera. The second time around, or more like the 8th time as she was the model of many of my projects, she started to come up with cleaner and more modelesque positions. Though this “8th“ time around she wasn’t allowed to have her sis-ter around —which when she did created a clear dialogue between them as they both directed and encouraged each other.Jocelyn, being a very experience model, has given me the results of photographing a person who knows what to do, how and when to do it. She flowed from every position so perfectly that if I had stopped shooting just for a second I’d miss some-thing spectacular. She was seducing me without me asking. She was moving in ways I had not asked, or expected. She was becoming the pho-toshoot and I was simply a spectator to the cause. Jocelyn was modeling. Which means that her re-sults should have been very different to everyone else. But as it shows, her movements were very close to that of Analidia which created a very dif-

ferent situation for me. It showed me that models with experience churn out different poses, more “fashion magazine” type poses, then those who don’t. This caused me to question if the photog-rapher has any influence on the matter at all. Two separate models taking photos with me, one hav-ing high experience, Jocelyn, the other with low, Analidia, in the same room, under the same light-ing conditions, except one had known and photo-graphed with me many times before and the other I had only met the day of the shoot. I cannot say I have completely answered this question, or even gotten close as to whether the photographer does or not have complete influence and control on a photoshoot, but I have found out that models do create positions and poses in front of a camera in a manner they would not otherwise do under any other circumstance.

Jocelyn Telles is an experi-enced model. Her movements and positions are very natural and fluid. She has a strong understanding up how to move and be in front of a camera. I was very taken by her movements, which cre-ated a very interesting intimacy between us. Though I don’t believe she personally shared it, I know I did through the eye of the camera.


Miguel Angel Martinez, head lifted leftward; left arm bend and lighted with hand in hair, right arm bent outward with hand resting in air; legs split unevenly with left foot anchored forward and right legs lightly bent. I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head angled slightly right; shoulders angled; right arm bent with hand on thigh, left arm straight with hand on thigh; Legs kneeling, legs split evenly, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, head angled leftward; right arm bent upward with hand in hair, left arm straight around back; Legs split unevenly with left foot anchored forward and right leg straight, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, Left tilted up and backward; arms straight back with hands gripping hip; Legs split unevenly with left foot anchored leftward and right leg straight, I move in order to pursue myself 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


Miguel Angel Martinez, angle upward; head slightly down-ward with eyes facing downward; left arm straight and for-ward with hand gripping handbag, right arm straight behind body; legs split evenly facing inward; torso straight with hips tilted upward and rightward, I move in order to pursue my-self 2008, Digital development, 7"x2”


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I move in order to persue myself