C.P.S. Winter 2021
Peter Berra
Guest Speaker Review
Student Name: Elizabeth Huppe
Name of the speaker:
Jocelyn Michel is the name of the speaker.
- How you describe this person? (ie…spontaneous, intuitive, engaging, researched, dark, moody…)
I would describe Jocelyn as a spontaneous, engaging, funny, talented, and energetic person. He seems very spontaneous and energetic from the stories he told us. He always comes up with ideas as he shoots on set and he is known in the industry for his energy. He was engaging as he was presenting because he prepared a presentation with images and he knew what he wanted to talk about. Furthermore, he was funny so it was even nicer to hear about his journey. It was also interesting if, like me, you like industrial photography.
- Describe a moment in his presentation that stood out for you and explain why?
In my opinion, the whole presentation was amazing. But the moment that stood out for me was the moment when he told us to get out there and to get over the fear of failing. It is okay to be afraid to fail, but we need to keep in mind that it is important to keep trying. The worst thing that can happen is the following: Someone will tell you no or you will try, and the pictures won’t end up as you wanted them to, but you will learn from It and that’s what matters.
- What is the genre/discipline that is associated with his style of photography (advertising, documentary, news)?
His genre of photography is associated with advertising.
- Was he engaging and why?
The photographer was very engaging during his presentation because like I mentioned earlier, he had a visual presentation with his pictures to show us as he was speaking, he made a lot of jokes and he asked us questions. He also took the time to answer everyone’s questions, which was nice and instructive.
- How would you recommend this person’s work to someone who knows little about him?
To recommend Jocelyn Michel’s work to someone who knows little about him, I would start by showing them his website and mention his energy. He projects this feeling of security somehow, even if you do not know him, you trust him. He Is also very confident and when things do not work out the way he wants, he makes it work. He Is also creative.
- Has he changed your understanding about this type of photography?
No, he did not change my overall understanding of this type of photography because I know another photographer in the industry (Amine Frigui). But he did change my point of view on a few elements in advertising photography. I learned how confidence can bring you further than we might think because being confident and believing in yourself makes other people look at you the same way. You project it without realizing it. When you have a plan, people want to hear it and it secures them. Furthermore, this photographer told us how hard it is to become an advertising photographer these days because of the amount of photographer there is and the lack of huge magazine distributions in the city. I had an idea of hard it can be, but now I know for a fact that it will not be easy. It makes me want to work even more.
- Do you think his character or personality had anything to do with his success?
I am one hundred percent sure his character and his personality had something to do with his success. A commercial portrait photographer NEEDS to be social, energetic and creative to be noticed in the bath of photographers out there.
As he said in the presentation, another photographer could be better than you are but have a reputation for being very quiet and reserved, the clients will pick you, even if they like your work a little bit less, they know you are fun to work with. His energy, his creative thinking, and his talent of course took him as far as he is now.
- In about 300 to 500 words, select and talk about a photo that stands out for you. Make sure to list elements that may contribute to a deeper understanding about his process in photography, or a deeper understanding about photography in general. As well as describe other elements, such as what is it about this photo that attracts your attention? Perhaps it reminds you of another photo by someone else….
All the images taken by M. Jocelyn Michel were interesting and nice to look at because he can make people comfortable in front of the camera and it shows through his pictures. Without this skill, he would not be able to capture the emotions and the funny faces of his models. He would basically have a lot more trouble shooting so many crazy projects in the studio.
The picture that attracted my attention the most is the picture underneath this paragraph of Michel Louvain with sunglasses on.
To begin with, the lighting of this image is amazing. We can see the reflection of the key light (big round softboxes) in the sunglasses M. Louvain is wearing and it is lighting his face perfectly as well. Furthermore, the backlight is perfectly positioned, and it is not bleeding on his face, it is contouring his body in a very specific and beautiful way. I also like this picture because of the colors used. M. Jocelyn Michel chose complementary colors such as blue and yellow for this picture and they worked well together, they make the image vibrant fresh looking which was one of the goals of this photograph. The orange sunglasses are interesting too because they blend perfectly in the image, they are not too different to steal the show, but they are not too close from the background color to be unnoticed.
I also liked the composition and the posing in this image. In my opinion, the composition is great because there is not too much negative space around the subject, and it is not cropped on his arms either, it leaves him space, he does not look trapped. The pose of M. Louvain is very nice too, he was fixing his tie, so it looks very natural because of the movement, clean and nice at the same time.
Another reason why this image attracted my attention more than the other ones is because of the process behind this picture, how hard it was to get M. Louvain to wear sunglasses on a set for a magazine picture. He is not usually a man who wears sunglasses so seeing him wearing some is unusual yet very interesting. It makes him look younger than he is.
In conclusion, I was attracted to this photograph more than the others because of the lighting, the choice of colors, the composition, the pose, the process to achieve this image, and the originality.
![](https://elizabethhuppe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Capture.jpg)
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