Creating the Editorial Story - White Lights And Dark Knights

I'm glad I keep a selection of images from photoshoots I like from over the years in a, Fashion, Editorial, Modelling all-in-one general folder on my computer, so that every now and again; I come across images that I know have never been made public. I also like that I have blog posts that were made at or near the time I did some of those photoshoots as they often contain snippets of information about the work that I have long since forgotten. And yet these details were an important part of why a final picture ended up looking the way it does today. The White Lights and Dark Knights editorial is a perfect example of this. I shot three fashion stories and several portraits for issue 3 of Le Magazine. One story was a collage collaboration with a photo artist. Then there was a more straight forward studio shoot; which regardless of how good it looked I ended up spending a lot of time in post finessing to bring out it's more ethereal qualities. Then there was this story White Light.. which; after we had shot the pictures, changed direction almost entirely!!! Now this is something that never usually happens.

We had worked quite intensively on all the shoot concepts and planning; the how, what, where, when. This one was initially conceived as a shoot that could use patterns either projected or dropped in using Photoshop. We decided Photoshopping the pattern in after would be the simplest approach but; for reasons I can no longer recall the pattern concept went right out the window. (Was it a Florence Broadhurst concept that ran into a rights issue?) Clearly there was something about what had been planned in the vintage aspect to the styling, that started me thinking about the Russian Constructivists. Their use of geometric shapes and primary colours as a possible alternative to the  type of pattern idea we had started with. So the concept that we ended up with started out with me proposing a series like the red square and oblique lines image that I prepared above. But this did not seem to hit the mark for the magazine so we moved on... continued below.

Whilst doing my research on the Constructivists I started falling in love with the period portraits of the artists that I was seeing (now there's a recurring theme in my photography..) Shots of the pavilions they had built for exhibitions and the posters they produced for their shows. By this time we had already shot the images with model Sammy Raine against a basic white background and, thinking Constructivistly I dug out some night shots of the super structure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge that I had taken years earlier with my trusty Canon Pro1 top of the line Point-and-Shoot.. back in 2006!

This concept was given the go ahead and then it was just down to me doing the most complex image compositing I had ever done. On the plus side, being inspired by Russian Constructivism collage works by El Lissitzky and ‎Alexander Rodchenko meant that the pictures should not be perfectly rendered into the background. The original opening page is above, below are the original images without magazine text along with some of the pictures as they were made before becoming part of the collage images.

Sammie and I having a Monroe Moment..

Outtake from original series.

My concept and working title for the opening of the story.

The vintage inspired garments from Mrs Press combined with the slightly crazy Vivien Westwood shoes, the old stole from Coco Collectables. It all works perfectly against Sydney’s largest Art Deco structure the Sydney Harbour Bridge! After lifting model Sammy off the white background (so to speak) and dropping her over the night bridge scenes , post processing was mostly about blending B&W layers to deliver our Constructivist; now a little bit Film Noir feeling final images. I'd like to think that all the artists from whom I found my inspiration would be happy with the way the final images turned out. Even lovely Florence the unseen idea that got us started; was known to like women and design a little on the edge.

Model, Sammy Raine
Styling, Rhiannon Bulley
Hair & Make Up, Lisa Sciberras

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Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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Let's Make Photography Great Again!

One of the key things that has changed with photographing since the introduction of digital-photography that has taken hold - is the ease of getting an image out-of the camera. People with an 'eye' can look at their on-trend mood-board and copy a shot. Or at least try to copy a shot and still get some kind of facsimile. This ease of "you press the button the camera does the rest" you just didn't see how far did you KODAK; has lead to a lot more people making pictures. Or perhaps to split hairs - taking pictures - as the end product, the picture is immediately visible.

But this mood-board - copyist approach to photography has left out a very important part of what makes a picture work in the first place.

The IDEA!

The idea that becomes the concept that needs thinking about. Then the right collection of people and fashion brought together to pull it off. And mostly that idea can ONLY be fully realised because you have brought the right team together - it, the picture becomes a gestalt - where the image itself becomes greater than the sum of all the skills of all the individuals who have put it together. Think of those ICONIC images! Yes we mostly think of the photographers eye and timing - but.. and especially with fashion. What if the stylists choice of outfit was changed, the model, the make-up artist, the hair? Even the assistants are part of a well orchestrated machine of thought and ideas and actions. Swap out this or that and you will not have that same picture.

ICONIC images! The likes of which have never been seen before. Pictures a generation remembers and keeps remembering!!!

This is something that is I think essentially impossible to achieve with the 'new regime' of mood-board as starting point - facsimile the final position. These pictures will have no soul. And there are luscious, strange ironies when it comes to fashion photography done in a way that begins with an idea that becomes a concept brought to life. Even though a fashion picture is a real-photo, fashion should always be a fantasy which is something that is not quite real at all. When that fashion picture is based on an original idea and well made with a great team. That fashion picture, that fantasy holds something unique inside that is real: and that's something that a copy of a fantasy can never have.

And you know what. I think most people just don't care, have forgotten that great pictures can still be made. Have become so; so used to the quick flick of instagram and copy-copy-copy - as an original idea - they have forgotten that great images can be made and they go beyond, far beyond their initial purpose of creation - and go on being remembered. For a very long time. Come on, I haven't given up; let's kick some goals, let's take our time back; our ideas back; let's get it together and let's make photography great again!

More of my thoughts on photography here -

Mood Boards; that White-Gold Blue-Black Dress Mood boards, you are probably doing it wrong.

The Stove might be Terrific but it won't deliver Fantastic Pictures. Why it's the photographer not the camera.

Why this Photographer Closed his Instagram Accounts All still valid though I do have one again..

Want to see some ICONIC Fashion Photos? Here's Goggles take - Iconic Fashion Photographs

Telling Stories in Pictures all over the world..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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