First year Michal Urbansky shoots the Portrait brief for the Introduction to Editorial and Advertising module.
8th February 2021
For the Portrait Brief in this module, we were asked to shoot two portraits for a magazine. I have chose i-D Magazine because I wanted to create something creative and rebellious that would fit with the style of i-D Magazine. I love sports and I wanted to relate this brief to a specific sport and I was able to work with former professional cyclist – Marten Joeaar.
Inspiration for the vertical portrait came from from 2017 i-D’s cover with Kendrick Lamar. I loved the simplicity and the power of the image, and to keep the visual narrative with the second portrait, I asked the model to wear a red T-shirt.
I wanted to capture action and movement in the double page spread portrait. As Marten used to be a professional cyclist, I directed him to try to a stunt at the moment he will be in front of the light. The idea to use Portable Lighting Kits in this photo came from Matthew Murray during Formative Feedback, but the final inspiration I took from JB Liautard’s work. Marten also told me that he stopped racing because of asthma, so I created this quote;
‘Make the final portrait even more powerful.’
Overall, working on this brief was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work, so it’s rewarding to see that it was all worth it.