Fourth Project

Steven Meisel Essay

Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel was born in 1954 in New York City, New York. He grew up photographing models on the streets of New York City, which led him to the High School of Art and Design. Although he went to art schools, he would always be one step of ahead of the game by analyzing models of different modeling agencies. He never completed his degree in Fashion Illustration at the Parson School of Design because he thought that the major was too “boring”. Right after he quit school he began illustrating for Halston, which is where Women’s Wear Daily noticed him. This is where he first started styling his own models and teaching himself photography. At Women’s Wear Daily, Seventeen Magazine noticed him followed by SOHO Weekly News, SELF, and Mademoiselle. Finally, in 1992, he hit it big time and was the first professional photographer to sign with Anna Wintour for Vogue. At Vogue he was able to style his own models for the French, Italian, and New York collections. This was the only freedom he had at Vogue; the major negative for him was that he had to do what he was told and not deviate.

Meisel is known for discovering girls and making them famous models. He doesn’t use the typical American girl; he uses girls from different ethnicities and backgrounds. These models look different because they are elite, statuesque, elegant, and elongated. They represent the exclusive collections of clothing very well. Among these collections are Versace, Prada, Dior, Dolce and Gabbana, Barney’s and Balenciaga. He manages to receive a seven-figure income from merely shooting these advertising campaigns.

            Meisel is known as a very controversial photographer for some of his more risky campaigns. His ad for Calvin Klein received a lot of criticism because it was too racy because all of the models only were wearing Calvin Klein jeans and nothing else or simply wearing underwear. He was also critiqued for the Sophie Dahl Opium ad campaign because she is completely naked. Because Meisel was unique he was able to get other photographers noticed such as Pat McGrath and Orlando Pita. Through his extremeness of his shots, he manages to cause a controversy that gets everyone’s attention, buyers and consumers. He has made a name for himself that no one will ever forget, because he knows the fashion industry better than anyone else.

Third Project

Second Project

Exercise One Description            

In exercise one we were all asked to construct a seat out of a four-foot by four-foot sheet of cardboard to withhold the weight of our body. We were not allowed to detach any pieces or to use any type of adhesives. The only thing that was allowed was that we could use a ruler and a box cutter. Grain wasn’t really a concern just yet because we had only started talking about it; little did I know that the grain would be everything for the chair to withhold a human being. I simply started off by sectioning off my cardboard in nine square sections to make it into a simple cube. The cardboard wasn’t cut exactly so I ran into the problem of some edges longer than others. When I folded up my “cube” that I had constructed earlier out of a magazine I had a hard time keeping it together. To fix this I tabbed a couple sections so that it would stay tightly together. The grains were going many different directions so when I first sat on it, it sank a little in the middle. I knew that I had made too many folds on the sides and to improve it I would need a supportive structure in the middle of the box. This was something I took in consideration for what was going to be our next exercise.

Exercise Two Description

For exercise two we were told to make a chair out of any amount of cardboard that we wanted, still no fasteners, but it definitely had to hold a person. Not only was it supposed to hold a person, the chair was also to be based off of a relationship that you had with one other person. After writing an essay about duality, which was about my dad, I was able to visualize what might chair might look like as well as represent. Duality is the quality of two parts and the relationship between them. The first sketches were very descriptive but once I had the piece of cardboard in my hands I knew that it probably would not stand a chance so I altered my idea. By altering my idea this gave my chair more strength and support and different ways for me to cut slats into it. I got lucky that my chair just needed to be refined and did not need to be completely redone like some others. By cutting the extra slats in my chair I was able to gain sturdiness and support because I made sure that every single piece was standing within the grain.

Final Chair

One point perspective Drawings

Final Perspective Drawing

Project Summary

During this project I learned that just because you draw something or try a model with paper, doesn’t always mean that it is going to be successful. In order to be successful, it is necessary to try different techniques. The cardboard was difficult because it is very sturdy but if you mess up and bend it a certain way then you would have to start all over on that certain piece. Cutting perfect measurements was also difficult because if the measurements were off by even a little, the cardboard would be stressed in that certain slat. If I could do anything differently I would add more slats, closer together so that my chair could hold a person bigger than myself. This would take a lot of patience as well as a few more blades. I had a very hard time drawing my chair in two-point perspective because it is very complicated. Throughout drawing these I saw myself improve so I can now draw in this way successfully. This project taught me great patience and the importance of measurements; I’m glad that I was able to overcome these difficulties to make this chair.