Hi everyone!
Well, I'm back in Arizona and its heavy heat and dry air. So far I'm loving it, but it's hard to believe just a day ago, I was almost halfway across the world, eating baguette and talking fashion with my advisor. But I'm glad to be back.
Just before I left, I met with my advisor for our last official meeting to go through my photos and pick the few that had potential. I would be lying if I didn't say it wasn't somewhat painful. I was never a fan of letting other people see my art, and I'm not the best photographer so watching my advisor and model (I wanted her to be as much part of the process as my advisor was) go through my photos and pick ones over the others was confusing and painful. I had no idea what I was suppose to be looking for or what to say, and again I was reminded just how much precision and work it takes for those few-out-of-hundreds fashion photos to be created and printed out for an audience. I do see a change now in the way I look at pictures in a magazine: I look at the background, the clothes, the stance, the expression and imagine the environment behind the the camera (photographer, photographer's assistance, lights, stylists, more assistances, ironing boards, makeup cast, etc) as much as I look at the convenient prettiness of each photo. I think about, wow how long must it have taken to get that picture of a girl running down a sidewalk with a parachute attached to her back, and have it fully open so it's colors nicely contrasted with the background and clothes? (hours, my advisor responded, shaking her head)
We also went through some of my advisor's work. I wanted to get a look at what she had done and figure out, firstly, how much freedom I had with these photos, and secondly, how she decided to tell her "narrative." It was really amazing to see what she had done. She told me stories of happenings behind the scenes of the photos and for me, I could suddenly see everything in each look come to life, like each photo had a real purpose and wasn't another perfectly composed photo of some beautiful person.
While it's true there's that stereotypical idea of fashion people being very...arrogant and picky in the fashion industry, what they create when all the little pieces come together is most definitely art, and I'm just grateful I got to see a glimpse of it.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
week 8-9
Hi everyone!
I have big news, exciting news! I did my photo shoots! It was so much fun, and I'm really happy with the results. I decided to only do four different looks for my project (lack of time) which meant taking all the clothing, accessories, etc. to four different locations. And I did two separate shoots: one at night featuring the Moulin Rouge look, and another during the daytime for my designs from Pompidou, Shakespeare and Company, and Archives Nationales.
The photo shoot for Moulin Rouge was, to say the least, chaotic. It was maybe 60 degrees Fahrenheit with a cold wind, and I had my model wear this thin, short dress and some sandals. I felt so bad having her in the cold, so I tried being as quick as possible. Whenever I wasn't taking pictures, my advisor and I had her wear two sweaters, a long trench coat and wrapped her legs in a blanket. I had already planned out one photo where my model would walk down the crosswalk right in front of the theatre of Moulin Rouge (I got the idea from that famous picture of the Beatles), but that turned out to be a pretty complicated idea because we had to wait for the light to turn green for pedestrians, so each time I had about two minutes of shooting before we had to wait again. And I was backed up into the bike lane right next to the street so cars were driving right next to me the entire time. As if that wasn't enough to worry about, my camera was having trouble shooting with the lack of light. Ah, it was a good first photo shoo,t I think. I ended trying another photo idea I came up with during the shoot, and that was a success, so everything ended well, and within about an hour, which was good for my model.
The second photo shoot was LONG. For the first time since I left for France, I woke up at 8am(so early), packed three full bags (not including lunch) of all three outfits with their appropriate accessories (hats, shoes, jewelry) and made my way to my advisor's apartment to change for the first shoot. I made sure the weather was on our side this time, so by 11 am, we were out, walking to the first location under a bright sun. I started at Shakespeare and company, and it was really great with the blooming flowers on the trees just in front of the store, the soft light and the colorful books. It was pretty easy, so I had high hopes that the rest of the photo shoot would go as smooth as before. But what does sunshine and clear skies in Paris give you? PEOPLE. Everywhere. When we carried all our luggage to Pompidou, the streets were crowded with people. But when we got to the location, it was pretty empty, and I thought, hey maybe it wasn't going to be so bad. But I should have known better! I should have known that ALL national parks were closed on Tuesdays, including Pompidou AND Archives Nationales. Therefore, we didn't have any available bathrooms! My stress levels just shot up. So you know, I tried to stay calm, and we end up doing all the shots, moved to the final location, snuck into a bathroom and finished up at Archives Nationales around 2:30pm.
We officially ended the shoot by having a picnic in a nearby park, which was really nice. Then both my advisor and my model had to go to work, so I brought everything back to my apartment, fell into bed and went to sleep... :)
So overall, it was super eventful and fun, and the photos I got out of the shoots, are, to me, really nice. I put all my energy into these outfits, and the photos, I hope people see it! It's nothing like the professional advertisements in a magazine, but it's so amazing to see what I can do.
The next thing to do is go through the photos and pick my final pieces for the project. Then I need edit them and maybe write a small piece to along side the final photos.
So my project is close to finished, and I'm leaving in about a week back to the hot and dry desert of Tucson, I really can't wait! see everyone soon!
I have big news, exciting news! I did my photo shoots! It was so much fun, and I'm really happy with the results. I decided to only do four different looks for my project (lack of time) which meant taking all the clothing, accessories, etc. to four different locations. And I did two separate shoots: one at night featuring the Moulin Rouge look, and another during the daytime for my designs from Pompidou, Shakespeare and Company, and Archives Nationales.
The photo shoot for Moulin Rouge was, to say the least, chaotic. It was maybe 60 degrees Fahrenheit with a cold wind, and I had my model wear this thin, short dress and some sandals. I felt so bad having her in the cold, so I tried being as quick as possible. Whenever I wasn't taking pictures, my advisor and I had her wear two sweaters, a long trench coat and wrapped her legs in a blanket. I had already planned out one photo where my model would walk down the crosswalk right in front of the theatre of Moulin Rouge (I got the idea from that famous picture of the Beatles), but that turned out to be a pretty complicated idea because we had to wait for the light to turn green for pedestrians, so each time I had about two minutes of shooting before we had to wait again. And I was backed up into the bike lane right next to the street so cars were driving right next to me the entire time. As if that wasn't enough to worry about, my camera was having trouble shooting with the lack of light. Ah, it was a good first photo shoo,t I think. I ended trying another photo idea I came up with during the shoot, and that was a success, so everything ended well, and within about an hour, which was good for my model.
The second photo shoot was LONG. For the first time since I left for France, I woke up at 8am(so early), packed three full bags (not including lunch) of all three outfits with their appropriate accessories (hats, shoes, jewelry) and made my way to my advisor's apartment to change for the first shoot. I made sure the weather was on our side this time, so by 11 am, we were out, walking to the first location under a bright sun. I started at Shakespeare and company, and it was really great with the blooming flowers on the trees just in front of the store, the soft light and the colorful books. It was pretty easy, so I had high hopes that the rest of the photo shoot would go as smooth as before. But what does sunshine and clear skies in Paris give you? PEOPLE. Everywhere. When we carried all our luggage to Pompidou, the streets were crowded with people. But when we got to the location, it was pretty empty, and I thought, hey maybe it wasn't going to be so bad. But I should have known better! I should have known that ALL national parks were closed on Tuesdays, including Pompidou AND Archives Nationales. Therefore, we didn't have any available bathrooms! My stress levels just shot up. So you know, I tried to stay calm, and we end up doing all the shots, moved to the final location, snuck into a bathroom and finished up at Archives Nationales around 2:30pm.
We officially ended the shoot by having a picnic in a nearby park, which was really nice. Then both my advisor and my model had to go to work, so I brought everything back to my apartment, fell into bed and went to sleep... :)
So overall, it was super eventful and fun, and the photos I got out of the shoots, are, to me, really nice. I put all my energy into these outfits, and the photos, I hope people see it! It's nothing like the professional advertisements in a magazine, but it's so amazing to see what I can do.
The next thing to do is go through the photos and pick my final pieces for the project. Then I need edit them and maybe write a small piece to along side the final photos.
So my project is close to finished, and I'm leaving in about a week back to the hot and dry desert of Tucson, I really can't wait! see everyone soon!
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