Paul SmithThe Multiple Self-Portrait

Artist Rifles

“The multiple self-portraits emphasise the effect of the military structure on a person's identity as it is subsumed into the unit, to become as it were, brothers in arms.”

http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk

The image of falling soldiers perhaps refers to Robert Capa’s iconic photograph from the Spanish Civil War.

Robert Capa - Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936

Make My Night“Using the snapshot as a stylistic template, Paul employed an almost forensic approach to reproduce the variable quality that machine printing of pictures taken with a standard point and shoot camera generate in the hands of revellers; bleached out faces, over cropped subject matter or the slight blur of the finger over the lens, the hallmarks of an impromptu celebration.”

Harsh flash lighting

Dark Shadows

Off-centre subjects out of focus

The visual language of point and shoot photography

Subject slightly out of focus and over-exposed

Robbie Williams

“In a light-hearted take on Paul's previous work, Robbie was to be his own fantasy football team; plus opposition, management, fans, touts and policemen. Unlike his other projects, Paul had to complete the shoot in three days and the whole project, from initial research to the finished body of work, in three months. A task that would ordinarily take a whole year.”

“Over the last decade Paul Smith has consistently examined the meaning and construction of masculinity, concentrating on the cultural and visual creation of various alpha male identities. He has subjected various forms of heroic behaviour and status to scrutiny.”