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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - The Emperor (SkekSo)

This was technically the first thing I saw when entering the BFI Southbank as its pretty hard to miss, I didn’t photograph it the moment I laid eyes on it because my time slot for exhibition was in about five minutes, so after exploring the world of Thra, I come back to film and photograph this character, another Skeksis called The Emperor or SkekSo. As he name implies, he is the ruler over the other Skeksis and quiet a powerful force too, with this scene he is sitting in his massively elaborate and over the top throne, but unfortunately I couldn’t create a good enough photo with the whole throne, did how ever film it. This was hard photo to edit/touch up, It was really tricky to get the balance of colour just right, I wanted it to be purple, but not too purple to the point of being overwhelming, not photographing it correctly at the time was my mistake, but working really hard on it I think I achieved an awesome outcome, there is a good mixture of purple lighting tones and although The Emperor is in a simple position, at this angle his expressions and pose are just a little bit more interesting, with all these elements such as the coloured lighting and textures present on The Emperor coming together so well, I love how this photo turned out to be such a epic and striking shot I’m really proud of.

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - Aughra

Coming out of the exhibition the experience wasn’t quiet over, in the main hall of the BFI Southbank were two really cool displays of characters from the series, which was actually a nice addition because if you didn’t manage to get tickets for the exhibition, you could at least come and see these attractions. As you walk out of the exhibition by the stairs where you entered, straight ahead is a glass case was the character Aughra, who is, without spoiling too much, like a god in the world of Thra, for this character I wanted to get as close as possible to them because next to Skeksis, Aughra has one of the most detailed faces and I really wanted to capture that with my camera, my lens was almost touching the glass to active this shot and framing it was rather tricky as I tried not to get too much glass reflection, but overall I love the outcome of this photo, thanks to the lighting in the case you can see every detail in her design from every wrinkle to her incredibly varied clothing patterns, its just so cool to be this close to such an creatively crafted character.

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019 

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - A Podling

Approaching the end of the world of Thra section of the exhibition, one of the last photos I took was of this Podling, which are the other race that populates the world of Thra, being more rural compared to Gelfling, I don’t know if this particular character has a name but it was still nice to see this race at the exhibition. Where this Podling was displayed was meant to be in a underground sort of cave like environment, and the exhibition nailed that aesthetic, it looks great, but my favourite aspect about this scene, apart from the Podling of course, is the mixture of coloured lighting, I love how well the strong purple and faint yellow come together to create this strange yet fantastical look, with the Podlings almost surprised expression (as if there seeing a human for the first time) and everything around them, you get that feeling of experiencing or looking into an alien world which is exactly one of the main reasons why people love The Dark Crystal so much.

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019 

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - Brea 

Still moving through the world of Thra, I was able to see the character Brea in full display, who is another Gelfling and main protagonist in the series, just comparatively, her and Deet share a lot of similarities, yet have their slight differences in design, for example their eyes, ears and nose, such great level of detail. I’m not sure why I chose to frame and photograph Brea like this, maybe its something about the stance or look on her face that made me think she was a snobby character thinking that though she was superior to everyone else, that wasn’t really the case in the series but the way this shot turned out makes her feel like such an important character, the spot light is bright on her and I’m looking up at her, which gives the scene a bolder look, this photo pretty much puts Brea on pedestal, to which I think this photo is quiet a fitting frame for her character. 

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019 

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - Deet

Finally entering the world of Thra, which was a fairly accurate recreation of areas in The Dark Crystal, the first attraction was seeing this character called Deet, a Gelfling which are these humanoid cross elf like creatures who our the main protagonist in the series, at the time of taking this photo I had no idea who this characters was, but at the exhibition there was a screen showing a scene with her from the series, my first of her was that she was going to be a shy and cute character. Deet was surrounded by a dense yet varied forest environment that looked pretty cool, which could of been taken from the series’ set, and Deet herself was lit with just the right amount of lighting to make sure that she stood out, but all look like she’s a part of the world/environment, its really nice to she her whole body in a different context, being our world, once again this scene gives me a greater appreciating of the detail in her character design, plus I like how there is a Fizzgig next to her.

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019 

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - The Chamberlain (SkekSil) 

Before entering the “World of Thra” section of the exhibition, I come across a recognisable character sitting at a large table in a familiar setting, this character is The Chamberlain or SkekSil, he is a creature known as a Skeksis which are these horrible and creepy vulture/bird like characters that are the main villains of The Dark Crystal. The way Chamberlain was set up here was fantastic, he was lit bright enough with a slight purple hue, and although you can’t see the big dinner table, (I filmed it in my video) its decorated with such strange and colourful foods that make this photo overall very vibrate and striking, plus its always great to see the amazing amount detail thats gone into Chamberlain face and clothing up close.

P.S You can actually stand next to Chamberlain in order to take a photo with him, I did, I might upload that photo. 

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - Brea’s Head

Continuing down the walkway of the exhibition filming as much as I could and right next to the little creature with the radio control in my previous photo, was this other glass case that had the mould model for the Gelfling character Brea. At the time I had no idea who this character was, but right next to the model was a photo of Brea in “Age of Resistance” (the one with long white hair) which acted as a handy before and after comparison, the model itself was very well lit which help show of the details in her facial structure, which looked incredibly well crafted and a bit creepy because if you ignore the big ears (which themselves are well sculpted and because of the light hitting them creates a nice shaded effect showing even more anatomy structure and level of crafting technique) the face resembles a human face a little.  

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019

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Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, BFI Exhibition - “Pluffm”

It was a really hot day in London as me and a friend headed up to London’s BFI Southbank for the limited but free “Into Thra | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” exhibition that was taking place over the next free weeks, walking up to where the exhibition begin, one of the first practical  sights on display was this little creature, now it should be stated that at the time I took this photo (and others to follow) ‘Age of Resistance’ hadn’t released on Netflix yet, so I had no idea what this creature was, but I loved the way in which it was displayed here, in this tall glass case, brightly lit like a trophy, you could get real close to it to see the hand craft man ship of him, as well as the radio control that animated him, its a nice insight to see the technology they were using on the series, and as personal like, I like how the wires are just laying there, it tells me that a real person created this to be functional and not necessarily neat.

P.S I’ve since watched the whole series but won’t be spoiling the story in my photos.

Originally Taken on the 27th of August 2019

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This is MANGA – the Art of URASAWA NAOKI - Drawings by Urasawa Naoki 

Here are just a few photos of drawing on the glass of the exhibition cube done by Urasawa Naoki, which I believe were drawn with some kind of black permanent marker, they were tricky photos to set up and frame, but luckily there was always something white behind the glass to act as a bit of background for the illustrations.

Originally Taken on the 27th of July 2019

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This is MANGA – the Art of URASAWA NAOKI - Key Visual for the Exhibition

Urasawa Naoki drew this original piece of artwork which features a large cast of characters from many of his manga’s, which was essentially the key visual for this exhibition, its a fantastic illustration that showcases Naoki’s artistry in creativity and a variety between each character, no one character looks the same and each has a real sense of personality, although you could say its a simple collection of drawn characters, its such an interesting piece that has you staring at it which the reasons I just mentioned.

Quick mention, this is a photo of this illustration that was on display in the exhibition, which has been cropped from a larger photo I took at the time, I touched up the colure and lighting in order to be as faithful as possible so it looks exactly like the original illustration.

Originally Taken on the 27th of July 2019

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This is MANGA – the Art of URASAWA NAOKI - A Spread of Manga Pages

Although you could simply pick up a copy of any one of Urasawa Naoki’s manga stories and marvel at the detail and artistry of his illustration, at the exhibition there were pieces of paper with his art printed on them, just laying around in a sort of collage/organised mess on top of small platforms, this was a pretty genius idea as not only were you able to look down at the art and really appreciate Naoki’s art now that it was presented in a slightly larger formate, but it gave you a nice tastes of all his varied works. For this shot I took it at a odd angle for copyright reasons and to give the scene a slanted look, as if its my point of view looking at the art work, the spread of pages were lit well, but I increased the light just a bit and brought out the colures more, so that you could see how Urasawa Naoki uses water paint for his art.

Originally Taken on the 27th of July 2019

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This is MANGA – the Art of URASAWA NAOKI - A Poster from Yawara

Along one side of the exhibition cube was a really large poster of a scene from the manga Yawara, about a high school girl who trains to become a judo master, the image its self is fantastic, showcasing speed, strength and scale in a single shot as main character Yawara Inokuma flips a man over herself. I chose to photograph this poster for for a few reasons, the first is that its awesome, and secondly that there is a wall very close to where I was standing, capturing a full front on shot was not possible, so I decided to place myself to the side and take the shot for a more interesting angle that also includes a lot more of the exhibition in the background, and I think this shot turned out great, I have a mixture of exhibition and outside lighting, plus there is a lot of line framing in this shot which gives it a cool look.

Originally Taken on the 27th of July 2019

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This is MANGA – the Art of URASAWA NAOKI - Friend, From 20th Century Boys

Quiet possibly the most recognisable visual from Urasawa Naoki’s manga 20th Century Boys, is the character known as Friend. I haven’t read the manga (yet but plan to) but I was well aware of this character, and it was great to see him at the exhibition. His design is so simple yet effective, its juts a man in a suit, white gloves and masks over his head with a creep symbol, its a powerful figure and they recreated him using a mannequin perfectly, I love the pose he’s in, very commanding, and he’s lit with just enough light to really grab your attention, plus he was also on a small platform, you can’t see it in this shot but he towers over you.

Originally Taken on the 27th of July 2019

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This is MANGA – the Art of URASAWA NAOKI - Exhibition Cube 

At the Japan House in London from the 5th June to 28 July 2019, it was hosting an exhibition on the manga artist Urasawa Naoki, know for such works as Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto. Me and a friend had arrived to see the exhibition a day before it ended, stepping into the Japan House and immediately looking to the left we saw this brightly lit glass cube with the name of the exhibition proudly presented on the glass, obviously we knew we were in the right place, the way this exhibition had been presented was so unique and clean, before even looking inside I had to photographer this sight to show the scale and simplicity of this mimi exhibition, the varied lighting from outside, to the exhibition space, to Japan House creates this almost light to dark colour  shade, which really makes the photo and the exhibition look grand.

Originally Taken on the 27th of July 2019

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“Manga” Exhibition, The British Museum - A Collection of Edited Photos 

Here are just a few extra photos I took at the exhibition that I alterated (cropped and edited the lighting greatly) in specific ways to basically make them into better presentable and cleaner photos. 

What the photos are...

A character from Princess Jellyfish

Mimi The White Rabbit (Manga Exhibition Mascot)

Display of a book shop/manga section in Japan

Originally Taken on the 28th of May 2019

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“Manga” Exhibition, The British Museum - Mimi The White Rabbit

Before leaving The British Museum, I took this photo as one of my last shots in the museum main hall, all around the Manga exhibition and museum where images and cut outs of this white rabbit called Mimi, she was the mascot for the Manga exhibition, and is the manga counter part of the White Rabbit from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” she’s a cute character and I loved how you where able to see the pencil markings of how she was drawn, this is a fun photo I framed with her and the poster from the exhibition in the background which I think turned out great, as I have both key images from the exhibition in one photo.

Originally Taken on the 28th of May 2019

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“Manga” Exhibition, The British Museum - Parallel Alice’s

Still at the entrance of the exhibition, there were eye catching displays worth photographing, these two large cut outs of Alice illustrated by John Tenniel and this anime/manga interpretation of Alice, side by side there are clear similarities yet there so different from each other, for example the John Tenniel Alice is very still, mysterious and somewhat simple, where the manga Alice has literal movement, very posed and busy, (I mean put simply, one is standing still while one is in mid air floating) both are lit with great spot lighting which draws your attention to them, and really allows you see detail in there illustrated design and showcase colours used. The meaning and importance behind these two cut outs is to show a sort of parallel between manga’s inception in the 1800s, and the illustrations in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which released in 1865, so they came into existed close enough at the same time, and were responsible for creating an impact through style, imagination, and how much they inspired, also I believe part of theming was that manga or this exhibition was like being transported to a another world or wonderland.

Originally Taken on the 28th of May 2019