When the sky turns black, why do I feel so blue?

My second favorite anime of all time is Tekkon Kinkreet staring the sensational characters Black and White. What I really like about this story is the connection between the two main male characters. The bond they share is the same as ying and yang in a sense. They are children of the street and live by their own rules (see why I like them now). They live like brothers so their bond contains no sexual link, but they're very close, relying on no one else but each other.Black is a particularly interesting character. The more calm and collected of the two, he holds knowledge and strength, blended with a slight hint of insanity. He's the anime worlds Tyler Durden to a certain extent.

Howl of the Monster

We each read into things in our own way, this is the art of aberrant decoding. Something that really interested me was the transformation of Howl from the Studio Ghibli rendition of Howl's Moving Castle. Howl is a decadent and beautiful young man, almost obsessed with his looks. To me he represents a large portion of men today. Men who moisturise, pluck their eyebrows, have the latest hair cuts, carry bags, the list continues.What I find most interesting is how the introduction of the leading female character Sophie drives Howl away from his former beauty and he changes into a monster. Everything is abandoned and his appearance becomes more about his body. No trousers or jackets but feathers and claws. I'm glad I managed to cover this in my last shoot, it means that I'm working towards my goal. I want to explore the rebellion of men, the birth of the monster.

Howl's Moving Castle Sneak

On Tuesday the 24th of November I finally pulled together my Howl's Moving Castle photoshoot. It was a near miss with some models being booked at 11.30pm the night before and others asrriving late. Never mind various people catching swine flu etc. In the end however it came together. He is a small cropped sneak preview of my first trial edit, just trying some things out, but this image (although it may be the only one) really captures what I was trying to communicate.

Creating a monster

On the walk to university today I spotted a new clothing store, one that had the potential to show me something new. Unsuprisingly it didn't though, it was the same old thing you'd expect to see in any shop. At the moment I have an overwhelming boredom with fashion and fashion magazines at the moment. It is so saturated with similar things. Boring fashion shoots, and clothes we've all seen again and again. I can however see something that's starting to show it's face.
Taking fashion into the people's hands everyone has become a fashion icon to some extent. What about all the Tyler Durdens out there though. Everyone who wants to rebel, who feels they are no different to everyone else? There must be a hoard of people who will eventually collect together bringing about a new monster to the fashion world. Something self destructive perhaps.
Are clothes the extent of fashion? Surely it goes beyond that. Maybe in the beginning it didn't but by today's standards we seem to have extended beyond that. There is something hidden within our form, something that perhaps clothes cannot soley express that I hope to bring about. As James st James said (well, at least in the film Party Monster) "If you have a hump, sprinkle a little glitter on it, go dancing!" and let's not forget the narrator from invisible monsters, 'birds ate her face' yet she is prominant and striking.
I admire what Steven Klein did with Brad Pitt, this focus on Tyler Durden, this constrain and representation of the male form in a video format. Steven Klein: "(Brad Pitt) did some of his makeup himself. He wanted to use his body as a landscape. He's not like 'Look at me—don't I look good?' He morphs himself so easily. He's the perfect muse." Tyler Durden is my idol, there is no man I admire more that this fictional character by Chuck Palanuick. He is a marvelous creation, a fearless man built soley for escapism through a revolution in all who are trapped in society. Last time I went out, not to have fun but to earn money for a shoot, but still at a nightclub, I got chatting to one particular guy who sparked interest in me. He commented on me having no eyebrows. He asked why and thought about the cause. He plucked his eyebros into neat shapes, and had metal bases to his teeth. He sought change in his appearance yet was confused by my change. Because he didn't see it as an attractive change it confused him. But I say fuck being attractive! Be who you want, release the monster inside yourself. Self destruction is an art. Who are you trying to impress anyway?

ElliNoire

Almost every time I produce work I'm more happy with the results than the last shoot, I mean that must be a plus because I feel I'm improving. My latest shoot was with my pregnant friend Ellie who wanted some creative shots prior to giving birth. She's passed the crutial stage and will give birth at any time, so now was the best time for the shoot. The bigger the better as they say. I was kind of scared that all the weird things I was making her do and the flashing lights my thrust her into labour. Martyn the studio man would have loved that no doubt!

James Lawrence Slattery

I was very lucky to have such a good shoot with James Lawrence Slattery local club kid and general crazed ball of Androgynous fun. We had a cool idea in mind and it allowed me to try out some new studio techniques that I'm pretty happy with. We styled it together using James's own clothes and we did the make-up together too. Look at the eyebrows I did, they're pretty cool!

A review of the past

So I haven't blogged in a while and a bit has gone on so it's about time that I did an update. I have a website that I'm pretty proud of, it's taken a while but now I have somewhere to showcase my work. It was made by Justin Focus, who is a cool website designer and followed my specification very closely. You can find it at www.flashyourjak.com alternatively if you search 'flash your jak' in www.google.com google will ask 'Did you mean: Flash your Rack?'. I've tried to keep the website pretty sharp and simple. It's very red and white, them being my favorite colour combination, and everything is pretty concise. Take a look let me know what you think :)

Howl's Moving Castle Shoot

I may have directed some of you here so you can learn a bit more about the shoot that I'm putting together. It's a TF shoot taking place on the 9th of Novemeber in Birmingham, in one of the country's finest Jacobean Mansions. It's based on the story of Howl's moving castle, but changed into a fashion fantasy photoshoot. Below are a couple of pictures from the location.I am looking to cast 3 main male models and 2 main female models and 6 secondary Models. For more information on the roles and specific looks of the models contact me via email or MM. The six secondary models that I require will be dressed in black hoods with white masks and hats. They shall also have the top half of their bodies painted black similar to the illustration below.My Email is jakflash@rocketmail.com so message me there for enquiries. I look forwards to hearing from you.

The couple

Onya

Crossing the River

Below is part of the series I previously did on the story of the Gingerbread Man for a university project. It was a fun and hectic shoot, lasting all day and was my first go at set construction. In my mind I had this idea of really false and obvious sets, relating to children's story books. However the project theme of this shoot was sexuality and desire so I thought it was a nice juxtaposition. The models are James Parsley as the Gingerbread Man and Craig Palmer as the Fox.

Exhibitions

Recently I've been to a few exhibitions including 'Obama's people' shot by Nadav Kander at Birmingham Art Gallery. It was a nice series of large prints. I had varried feels about what I felt about the people on face value, which was a good feeling because the shots were so documentational.

I also went to London to see the Simon Foxton exhibition in the photographer's gallery. I'd previously seen his work on the front of Homme so it was cool to see a collective range. I was quite inspired by his scrap books and have gone on to start my own. It's a nice source of inspiration.