Theatre Publicity Stills - Art For Arts Sake - Sydney

Last year I was commissioned by playwright and actor Sage Godrei to produce the publicity stills for her theatre piece Art For Arts Sake. Although I missed the production as I was overseas at the time I enjoyed being present for this rehearsal and then lighting and directing these shots. I often think of fashion photography as a kind of theatre, I think the two forms may be more closely related than people realise.

Book Me..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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An Age Positive Modelling Portfolio on Location - Sydney, Australia.

What is the difference between a portrait and a portfolio photoshoot? For me in many ways I proceed in much the same manner. Good light, a comfortable space to work, a relaxed atmosphere, these things are the same for both. The real difference is in the intended use for the pictures; and that makes for all the difference in the world. Where a personal portrait is to be viewed by you, friends and family, a commercial portfolio shoot on the other hand is meant to be viewed by a critical audience, casting and art directors, agents; people who are looking for an archetype for their products advertisement or video. That's quite a different audience!

I was very happy when Wendy (who is the wife of a friend) made contact about commissioning me to create a new portfolio for her. Wendy had modelled in her younger days and was going to give it a shot again and see how it goes. And basically that is the right idea; you just need to jump in and give it a go! So we spent the afternoon finding soft light in the shady parts of Nielsen Park to make this beautiful and engaging series of portfolio photographs.

Wendy left this lovely review of out photoshoot on my Facebook page here - "The Photo shoot at Nielsen Park with Kent was great fun. The location was very nostalgic for me - I learned to swim there as a child and have continued to go back over the years. Having photos taken there brought back lovely memories for me and I felt at home right away. Kent's style is relaxed and engaging and he a fantastic and dedicated photographer so I knew I was going to get an excellent portfolio. I'm really happy with the photos - they are beautifully shot in soft light, very flattering for a 60 something aspiring model! Great work Kent."

Considering creating your own age positive portfolio, please don't hesitate to contact me.

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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Portraits and Fashion Photography Sydney!

I have just spent most of today making a few changes and upgrades to my web site. The first was to put all the portraits I have been taking against the fibro wall into the portrait section of the site all on their own page. So now with these shots of Paul I have 10 portraits in the wall series Here.





Its great to have somewhere very close at hand that allows me to make a series of portraits like these; many more yet to come.

I also managed to get up a page of the New Beauty Photography shot at the studio in Balmain.


And although its been blogged in full here, In The night A Lonely Hunter can now be seen as a horizontal scrolling story. I think the left to right format almost always looks better.



Click the links to view the new pages. Cheers, Kent.

Fashion Photography Sydney

Fashion Photography Sydney; or anywhere else you may have in mind.

My new web site is now up on-line. Its a complete redesign with horizontal scrolling pages that finally allows me to show the work the way it was shot-to-be-seen. I am quite excited by the result and some of the stories (the individual stories are now viewable on single pages) that perhaps left some scratching their heads thinking "what the...?" now make visual sense in the way they were intended to.

Fashion Photography Sydney.


Fashion Photography.

Beauty and Fashion, Beauty  Photography Gallery.


New Personal Work Gallery.

Portrait Photography Gallery.

Kent Johnson Photography 0433 706 863

Fashion & Portraits.

Is there a Fashion Photographer worth their salt who does not do a pretty good line in Portrait Photography too? I think not, fashion, people and portraits do have a lot in common even though the purpose of fashion pictures is quite different to portraiture. I think the common denominator is understanding your subject and getting to the core of the matter at hand be it the sitters personality or the form of a gorgeous dress or gown.



I met the artist Elodie Silberstein at an opening a few months ago and then attended the opening of her show ‘Mothers Day’ at Mori Gallery a few weeks later. I had no idea what the show was going to be about or what form it would take so you can imagine my surprise when I found it was an instillation piece; a massive space full of pink light, shoes arranged on shelves along one wall, a beautiful ‘model’ writhing (ever so slowly) in the middle of the floor in ‘mothers shoes’ and in very large type on another wall, a letter to a mother, quite some time deceased! Well it wasn’t Silence of the Lambs but it was a little disturbing and exciting at the same time. And those shoes! Beautiful shoes all lined up, and that pair strapped to the model/hostage, well you get the idea.

Fast forward to Now; Elodie has come to the studio for me to take her portrait before a trip to France & the UK to see Galleries about her work. Elodie was a little nervous about having her portrait done but quite likes my work and had put her trust in me. I wanted the portrait to reflect her use of space and to somehow reflect her artistic interest in shoes; all bundled up into one shot.



We agreed that B&W would be nice and I started shooting with bits of studio equipment in shot, chatting about space and shoes and motivation for making art. After getting the shots out of the camera and looking through them on the computer we both felt we had some pretty good pictures and were pretty happy. But I thought maybe we should take just a few more frames; just to be sure.

I found Elodie a stool and then gave her the copy of Vogue Italia with the beautiful Ferragamo gatefold brochure spilling out of it that we had been admiring before the shoot; “Here, why not just hold this, we love these shoes!”



I think the last shots turned out the best. After looking through the first set we could see that we had some lovely shots and Elodie could see that the portraits were just what she wanted, so now we were much more relaxed and trusting and the final pictures bring out all of that as well.



You can see more of Elodie’s work on her website here, and you can also see more of my portrait photography here. Click the images to see them by themselves.

Portraits and Headshots

What is the difference between a Portrait and a Headshot? Who gets a headshot and who gets a portrait? Is it just actors and models who get headshots? Should the shot be in classic black and white; colour; studio or location?

“If I want to look like a model or an actor can I get a headshot instead of a portrait too?”

Of course you can! A headshot is still a portrait but it’s usually a portrait photograph taken for a very specific purpose. For an model, actor or performer it’s a selling tool for their agent, just like actors models have composite, or ‘comp cards’ too. The comp card shows what someone looks like in a well lit and often in a fairly natural way. Actors may only have one shot on their card while models will have quite a few. The models comp will have their main headshot on the front and a collection of different shots on the back highlighting their different looks.



Of course Models are beautiful and Actors are handsome (or something like that); a good headshot or portrait should bring out your beauty or your handsomeness too. I have found very few subjects who did not look great in a well executed portrait or headshot. It seems to be all about making sure you are relaxed in front of the camera. As a photographer it seems I am lucky enough to possess the skills required to get most people quite relaxed and happy about being photographed most of the time.




Its quite exciting and rewarding when having done a portrait the sitter is presented with an image that matches their inner vision of themselves. Its not about turning someone into someone else its all about bring out their best. People photography is far more than camera technique it is also about how you work with people, the psychology of the shoot! In our myspace facebook world everyone wants to know what you look like so why not look as glamorous as a Model an Actor or even a little Rock and Roll. Why not look like a Star in shots that truly bring out your best.