Exploring footwear. An investigation into aesthetic, cultural and artistic influences on shoe design.
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Shoes: silver glitter platform sandals by Stilletto, 2003. Hosiery: none. Photography: Digital photography: Nikon D200 camera and AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55 lens, various exposures and apertures, halogen floods; Photoshop post-production (levels adjustment, bleach bypass simulation, grain simulation, black and white conversion, softening, cropping, background cloning/tweaking, rotating/flipping).. See the full photo-set at Gallery 2028
5 February 2008: Set 2028 - see gallery 3 - a close-focus balck and white shoot of silver platform sandals with slinky snakeskin trousers.
Shoes: green slingbacks by Irregular Choice, 2007. Hosiery: Charnos boudoir sheer backseam stockings: 10 denier, natural shade. Photography: Digital photography: Nikon D200 camera and AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55 lens, various exposures and apertures, halogen floods; Photoshop post-production (levels adjustment, bleach bypass simulation, softening, cropping, background cloning/tweaking, rotating/flipping). See the full photo-set at Gallery 2027
23 November 2007: Gallery 2027 - see gallery 3. Green slingbacks by my favourite desiger-manufacturer, Irregular Choice. These shoes are styled for a wider fitting foot and give a delicious curved profile to the arch and heel. As with most Irregular Choice of this vintage, the sole has a wonderful line art and pattern graphic, in this case a fairy. The stockings in this shoot are luxurious Charnos boudoir series, endorsed by Jerry hall, having a backseam, and comprising 90% nylon for a vintage look and feel. For this photo-shoot I have used lots of halogen light to give a soft look and colour cast and have used multiple flash to give saturation light coverage and burn out the backdrop. I have put a 1024 x 768 blowup from this shoot on my Downloads page.
Artist's statement
The site was designed in a collaborative partnership with Alan Walker, who also helps me with digital photography and image post-production. It was constructed using a navigation system posted on the www by the excellent Maxdesign with slight modifications and I try to conform to as many accessibility standards as possible without compromising aesthetics.
Silky gothic style sandal: XOXO 2005. Hosiery: Bitter chocolate shade Havana heel seamed stockings by Touchable. Photography: digital photography with twin head external flash, multiple slave flash units and multiple halogen lighting; some Photoshop post-production (levels, unsharp mask, colour balance tweak to remove a slight magenta cast.
I am, over my course of study going to try and uncover the secret language of the shoe. What other piece of clothing on public view exerts such power, and think how that power has been turned back on itself of late in the inversion of fetishwear to high street fashion, courtesy of Madonna New Romantics and Goths. Feminists might argue this as disempowering oppressive iconography; fashion pundits as just another cynical raid by post modern eclecticists. Whatever; shoes are here to stay, and are getting ever bolder. I intend to explore both the mundane everyday and the extremes via artistic expression and academic discourse. It will be for you to judge whether my efforts are a success!
Copyright and ownership
All images and texts (unless otherwise stated) © Susan Graves 2000 - 2008