Studio Images

More studio images for inspiration....

All images found on tumblr. Please let me know if you have any picture credits.

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Studio Shooting

Yesterday one of the digital capture guys at Greg Kadel's Studio set me up with the software I need to start shooting tethered. That means that I can connect my camera to a computer that will automatically import the images I take onto a specific folder on my computer and I can review the images as I shoot. Everyone shoots tethered in a studio setting and as much as they can on location depending on the circumstances. Because of this I've been thinking a lot about studio shoots and have been brainstorming ones to do in the fall. In the meantime here are some amazing images shot in a studio.

Here is an example of a setup where the photographer is shooting tethered and can see the images come up on the connected computer.

Image by Michael Thompson and taken from here.

Above image:

EDITORIAL: Noble Endeavor (Alexander Mcqueen special)
MODEL: Sasha Pivovarova
PHOTOGRAPHER: David Sims
FASHION EDITOR: Grace Coddington

From Vogue September 2008

Above image by Greg Kadel

All images found on tumblr. If you know any picture credits please let me know.

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Editorial for Numero

This editorial, Escale photographed for Numero Magazine, came out last year for the Fall season and is one shoot that I keep going back to for reference for light, color, location, and mood. I think it is an absolutely beautiful shoot.

Styled by Samuel Francois

Photographed by Horst Diekgerdes

Model - Monika Jagaciak

Images from fashiongonerogue.com

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"First Spring" by Yang Fudong for Prada

Watch the film here

Inspired by the Chinese adage that "the whole year's work depends on a good start in spring." This bold and beautiful film represents an exciting new direction for Prada's visual communication at the start of this decade.

Prada has completely created a dreamworld. I was transported into another time and place through the imagination of Prada. Rather, I felt like I was watching the inspiration for the Prada designs and collection instead of watching a world, a period film, that they created for us because it was so unique. It was a fantasy, a dreamworld, somewhere completely unknown. There were men flying through the air and the filmmakers' beautiful use of contrasting darks and lights (ex. the dark horse and white horse; the two girls on the couch, one in a white dress, one in a black one; the white porcelain skin of the woman against their black dresses and black hair) was just as beautifully crafted as their clothes and print ads.

The two white men were eearily out of place and their shadowed closeups paired next to the woman with the porcelain skin stood out as one of the great moments of the film in terms of composition, emotion, and actors for me (around 6:54 - 7:17). Strangely, the scene after that has men walking on powerlines above the street like they were tightropes and the men flying through the sky brought us back to earth and the "narrative" of the story. I think i prefered the slow and contemplative shots of the single characters (see 8:08 to 8:18) to the crowded and more dreamlike world of multiple people in a strange place where we are looking for a narrative and are given images, characters, and locations but no real story to follow. We find the story in the closeups of the characters and in their clothes when we have a moment to linger on them.

High resolution images taken from here

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The New Fashion Film Movement & Chanel

The New York Times ran an article a little while ago titled Fashionable Shorts: These Movies Have Credits written by Amy Thomas about the short fashion films that companies like Prada, Chanel, Dior and countless others have created as another means of advertising. There are many I love and many that I am disappointed with. These films aim to promote their clothing within a world that fits their specific marketing goal. Films like "First Spring", put out by Prada, is a great example of a film that achieves this while "Remember Me" by Chanel I feel is lacking in advertising umph. I guess today I went a little crazy writing about the Chanel film, but as much as I didn't like it, it made me think the most about the industry, these powerhouse fashion companies, and the marketing strategies they are using in their campaigns.

You can watch the Chanel short film for the Chanel Cruise 2011 line here (youtube) or maybe better quality here (Chanel.com).

I can imagine her doing that first line over and over and over again because the final cut just felt way too contrived. It would have worked great in a print ad but throw film into the mix and it reinforces the stereotype that models shouldn't be actresses. Lagerfeld brings us into the exclusive world we can't get into and brings us onto the red carpet, into the dance club, into the conversations, into the clothes. Whether you like it or not, these films are making the lifestyle accessible. The french models sound a lot less stiff and fake than the english model does with their lines even if the french acting is just as bad. Maybe it's because I can't understand them?

I think I loved the clothes and hated the models because they are part of this world that I am not a part of and never will be.

With photo shoots it is easy for me to love that world of the model and the rich and famous because an entire lifestyle doesn't really come alive for me in photographs. That isn't to say that they aren't portrayed or depicted, but it is a completely different thing to fill in the blanks with your imagination of how their lifestyle is and actually see it being played out in a film. When I see a film like this I see the "characters" and I know that the lives that the models lead (in real life) really isn't much different from the characters they are playing. They seem spoiled and priviledged and there is nothing that makes me like them as people or characters.

Karl Lagerfeld's special guest appearance at the end of film was very interesting. Not only did he write and direct the film but he was also in it, which isn't surprising considering that he is a part of the very world that he "recreated" for his film. It was almost like this detail was emphasizing an overarching theme of entitlement in both the lives of the "characters" and themselves as entitled people in real life.

The introduction of the older man in the club was the only thing (besides the clothes and beautiful location) that interested me about this film. I feel like they could have made an entire film directly about him and I finished the film only caring or being interested in his character. As an older man he has had so many memories of a time that this younger generation is looking back to celebrate by way of listening to older music and having 70's themed parties. He is the only one who was actually alive at these times and his nostalgia and "rememberance" (main idea behind the title?) of thsese times is so much different than this younger generation and how they imagine life at that time to be. I feel like that deeper message could resonate throughout any viewer of this particular fashion campaign, however many people dont take the time to really think about it, and to be fair, the only reason I am is beause I wanted to write a blog post on the larger subject of film fashion campaigns.

I think that as the short film for an advertising purpose becomes more popular and definitely more accessible, these companies like Prada and Chanel are opening themselves up to the masses and are, in a way, becoming less exclusive. Their clothing prices are exclusive (obviously kept high because they wouldn't be anything special or unique if they weren't) but their ideas are not. Are these companies going to keep making the world that their clothes live in exclusive? Are these campagins really meant for the average consumer like myself who can't really afford to buy much, if anything, at these designer stores? The answer is no. This new medium certainly makes it possible for me, for anyone, to watch these videos but they certainly have the potential to affect the class gap between the average viewer and the average consumer. It seems as if the average consumer of the advertisements are people who aren't the average consumer of the product. People like myself are going to watch these videos and hate them because they present a shallow and priviledged world that I can neither identify with nor be a part of. Then again, when has Chanel ever marketed to the demographic that I am a part of?

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A Modern Retelling

Making a connection everyday.

Robert Capa

Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death

Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936

Top image found on tumblr.

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Fashiongonerogue and Trunk Archive

Fashiongonerogue.com is currently on a hiatus because of a letter sent by Trunk Archive regarding copyright infringement. I think that this issue IS NOT as big a deal as people think. Joanna, the one in charge of fashiongonerogue, used an image by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin of Lily Donaldson in the logo for the site that appeared at the top of the page. Trunk Archive is one of the most influential and powerful syndication companies in the world and represents the very best fashion and commercial photographers in the industry. They would not go ahead and write this letter if nothing were wrong. In other words...they know what they are doing. They are the ones who have contacted fashiongonerogue because they represent Lamsweerde and Matadin. The problem was not with the blog itself in any way, shape or form. Blogging images as long as you give proper credit is perfectly alright (like what I do along with about a billion other people), but the real issue was the logo.

That is the real issue.

People think that commenting is a great thing and there have been a lot of comments on the site to rally support for the website against Trunk Archive. I don't think that the matter is an issue to be debated since Joanna was clearly wrong in her use of using the image on her logo to promote her site. Joanna was fined $2,000 for her blatant copyright infringement of the logo. I think that someone who wants to open up access to the fashion and commercial photography industry should have been more aware of the logo especially when her website is so popular. It wasn't just a small fan site, so many people in the industry and just fans in general went to that website as a resource.

What really gets annoying is when people comment about an issue they don't fully understand. The internet is a wonderful thing but in an era when people are used to skimming and things happening at lightning speed, people (and bloggers) really need to slow down and understand the full issue before they comment on it. Some people wanted Joanna to publish the name of the person who wrote the letter. In regards to publishing the name of the person who wrote the email, I think that would be completely unprofessional since the person writing it is representing a company and a corporate decision, it clearly couldn't have been one person alone responsible for the decision.

Please comment. What do you think about this issue?

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