CHLOÉ

CORNWALL, UK, 2025

As an artist, I read biographies of the greats daily. The influence of the infamous Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol on my portraiture cannot be overstated. Mapplethorpe's spotlight portrait of Andy Warhol is one of my favourite portraits. I took direct inspiration from it. 

The more biographies I read, the more Picasso's "Good artists copy, great artists steal" maxim is evident in all my heroes' careers. Humans are mimetic. We copy others. Steal their ideas. Take people's best ideas. Apply it to our lives. Streamline it into our routine. It's how we learn. 

Austin Kleon emphasises in his book "Steal like an Artist" that we can't copy perfectly. We steal something, try to do it ourselves, but fail. We end up with a similar but non-identical version. Unique work is created. 

For this print, that's what happened. I attempted Mapplethorpe's spotlight shot of Warhol. I ended up with my own halo effect.  

The struggle to recreate the spotlight effect was to get the light around Chloé's head without it spilling out. We attached a snoot to the strobe. Placed the strobe close to Chloé's head without it being in the shot. Adjusted the camera and strobe intensity. Resulting in this shot. 

To make the halo effect, I blacked the background behind the subject's head, leaving only a trace of white. This took hours of refining and reediting until I was satisfied. Making a bold print that jumps out of the frame. 

I'd like to thank my partner Chloé for helping with the shoot and for modelling. A huge thanks goes to all the aforementioned artists who've helped to shape my career so far. Learn from the greats who came before you. 

"LEARN FROM THE GREATS WHO CAME BEFORE YOU. 

–JACOB J. WATSON-HOWLAND

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