Gant Rugger

This past weekend one of my great friends introduced me to the clothing company Gant Rugger. They just came out with their promotional advertising campaign video for their Fall/Winter 2010 collection. 

Gant Rugger Fall/Winter 2010 from Gant Rugger on Vimeo.

The video and the advertising campaign was shot by one of my favorite photographers, Guy Aroch and stars Jacques Naude, Reid Prebenda, and musician John Thornley. This past weekend I was in NYC at the PDN Photoplus expo and was able to hear some of my favorite photographers speak about their work and Guy Aroch was one of them. It was so amazing to be able to hear one of my favorite photographers speak and I think I was more star struck than if I had seen an actual movie star or celebrity. I think his images are so natural; his models never seem posed and his coloring and post production effects (like light leaks and softening) give his images a uniform feel that is specifically and identifiably his own. Here is one of the first posts I wrote about him - Click Here. 

The music in the video, by U.S. Royalty (you can download the song on their website by clicking the download link from this website), sets the mood so perfectly for a road trip and adds a perfect sense of nostalgia. In addition to being perfectly styled, the models bring their own unique sense of fun and personality to the way in which they wear and present the clothes, which is ultimately what the film is trying to promote. Gant Rugger has expertly marketed their brand by giving us a clear insight into how we should perceive their clothes, their images, and ultimately, their entire brand by evoking such a clear style and emotion through the media and clothes they put out. 

Check out their website. 

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Audrey Hepburn on Lookbook

I try to check lookbook.nu almost every day because there are so many incredible images and ideas for shoots that are being circulated through the site. There is always something new every time I go back. I came across this first image a couple days ago and I loved the shot on the right. I think the images are paired nicely for the nature of the site, although the one on the right stands out. She also reminded me of Audrey Hepburn.

Here is the link to the page of the woman in this first image:

http://lookbook.nu/user/17501-Lisa-M

Also check out this awesome post about one of my favorite photographers Guy Aroch:

http://cyanatrendland.com/2009/11/10/guy-aroch-photography/

Listening to: Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble

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lookbook

For anyone who is interested in fashion, I would highly recommend checking out this site:

http://lookbook.nu/

The site calls itself "an international social experiment in style."

I think the site has built up a very good reputation so a lot of the looks and outfits that are posted by members of the site are contemporary and innovative and reflect trends of the moment. Its a great place to find inspiration for your own style or just look at how other fashion enthusiasts put together outfits. Some of the pictures are great for the photography as well as the fashion. Some of the pictures have given me great ideas for how to photograph a certain look and focus on the clothes. Its gotten me thinking how I would photograph a certain style of outfit to highlight certain aspects.

For example this first outfit is created around the brooch and the shots clearly feature it as a focus. Therefore the culture of the outfit and the motivation of the look is captured within these images which makes it a great advertising shot for the brooch and the clothes. There is a consistency throughout the three images which sells the style. While these three images might not be the most incredible images in the history of photography they do very successfully sell her "style" which is the point of her uploading this image, to get the viewers of the site to vote for her picture and her outfit.

The people who upload to this website aren't marketing advertising campaigns for major clothing companies, but they are marketing their outfits to the viewers of the site so that their "profiles" can be checked out. This means that the way in which they present their clothes is extremely important. It is interesting to see how each person markets their style. Here are some other pictures I really like:

This image was taken by one of my favorite photographers Guy Aroch:

This image below is from lookbook. I saw the picture on lookbook and I immediately thought of the picture by Aroch. I love making visual connections between pictures that I have encountered in very different places.

Listening to: The Death of Me by City and Colour

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Light Leaks

One of the things that every artist tries to develop is their own style. Its great to come across a photographer who has a definitive style in their work that is easily identifiable and sets them apart from other photographers. I came across the photographer Guy Aroch when I was working at Trunk Archive this past summer because I kept coming across his pictures in the images I had to go through and his images were always very easy to recognize.

His light is extremely soft and many times taken in the setting sun. One of my favorite things about his images is that they seem to be of secret moments and and Aroch takes the viewer and brings them into the viewpoint of say, a lover. The moments he captures seem to be between two people and are intimate little snapshots of a spontaneous moment. In a lot of his images he creates the effect of a light leak in the same way that shooting with a Holga camera might produce light leaks. This is one of my favorite effects and I would love to try and use it more in portraiture and advertising. It would be interesting to see in Aroch's work just how much of that light leak 'effect' is created in post production.

http://julianmeijer.com/photographers/aroch/17

^The picture of the model in the blue outfit in the hallway is one of my favorite pictures from this batch.

http://www.trunkarchive.com/?fpm=l

Listening to: Black and Gold by Sam Sparro

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