Where does inspiration come from? It's always going to be a combination of different things working together, hopefully at the right time and in the right place. The inspiration for these images hit me on shot three of our hotel room fashion photoshoot. I'd done shot one with Micaela sitting on the bed, then standing at the corner of the bed. Shot two in the window with the sheer drapes and some hints of neon outside. The location is a hip, 'Retro' hotel in Sydney. I had been shooting with a soft room-light feel on looks one and two but then I wanted something different. I wanted to turn up the energy level too. Make a little noise, start a little party. I began with our model Micaela lying on the bed, arms out so we could get the circles of the vast beautiful bell sleeves, me standing on, the very soft and unstable bed looking down, which made things tricky for balance. I had also changed to on-camera flash. Photography at it's most basic, really. I was thinking reportage, paparazzi photography, pictures that are immediate. and then I decided to get our model who as it happens is first and foremost a dancer, standing up on the bed, against the bedhead and the wall and to dance.
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The idea for the dance springs from my obsession with a Wolfmother video clip, a 2011 heavy rock cover version of the light rock, Phil Colins song Easy Lover from the early1980s. A hit duet for Philip Bailey, & Phil Collins. But it's not just the song, it's the Wolfmother video clip, filmed in gritty black and white in (my old stomping ground) Brisbane of all places! It's part set in a home music studio and partly driving around Brisbane at night, through the night club and red light district, working hard at looking edgy and succeeding. Mostly its a homage to Phil Colins and to the idea of rock superstardom. At the two minute mark there's a girlfriends of the rock stars scene in the home studio, one of the girlfriends doing a 'sexy' dance with one of the band members, then a clip of two of the girls dancing in a provocative manner, and it's this dance, this with the band, girlfriend, groupie, whatever, that emerged for me as the inspiration for this shot. Though it's not exactly a new idea, this rock and roll theme. RUSH Magazine have been trading on the idea of the Rolling Stones, their girlfriend's and the Rock & Roll life, the 1970s hedonism of Exile On Main Street for decades now!
One more person for some inspiration. Stevie Nicks. The 1970s Fleetwood Mack, Rumours, Stevie Nicks. Of whom I could see a little of in Micaela's swept back golden blonde hair and these flowing sleeves, which are just so Stevie Nicks - which I then made the most of with her dancing in place on the bed. So that's it. That's how the inspiration arrived and these pictures are where the inspiration took me. What I've done with this selection is to bring the pictures completely in line with the 1970s rock narrative by editing them, as if they were shot with a basic camera, maybe by one of the guys in the band, in the hotel after a gig. Basic equipment, the pictures developed at a mini lab, then discovered in a draw many years later. Check out the Wolfmother clip after the shots. As always, need pictures, just let me know.
Designer - Gemma Pope, the range - Viena
Model-Dancer - Micaela Sacco-Tranter
.jpg "Screenshot of thumbnails of unedited Proof Shots from a fitness photoshoot in a Dropbox folder. Kent Johnson Photography")
.jpg "Screenshot of thumbnails of edited pictures from a fitness photoshoot in a Dropbox folder. Kent Johnson Photography")
