A change of scene with this week’s Friday Photo.  A fashion image.  I’m a huge fan of fashion photography.  Massive inspirations and influences are the likes of Guy Bourdin, Ellen Von Unwerth, Miles Aldridge and Alex Prager.  When it comes to photography books I tend to glide through photojournalist images, but really linger over the fashion ones.  Fashion can be almost anything.. straight, inventive, beautiful, ugly, surreal, sexy, wildly original, deadpan, crude, basic, sophisticated, balletic, the list goes on.  But for me, the best fashion photography conveys a mood or a fiction and holds a tension inside the frame.  It doesn’t have to explain itself.  It can just exist as an object in itself.  That’s both liberating and difficult.  Liberating because you’re free to do what you want, difficult because you also have to create a image strong enough to hold the viewer’s attention in a fashion saturated world.  And that means finding and staying true to the image’s own internal rules.  This is why I put Grace inside the sofa.  To change it up, to deconstruct the image a little — it wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, I came to the shoot with this already in mind.  A lot of designers can be a little nervous of this.  They want the beauty, the want the dress to look nice.  But I was working with a great team, and there was trust — just about the most important ingredient if you want to create great photography.  And really, we still have all the elements.  All component parts of a straight fashion image.  A beautiful model, strong bold lighting, great makeup, beautiful jewellery, gorgeous dress.  But by changing this one element you get the beauty, but you also get so much more..

Model: Grace Cairns

Styling: Francesca Barnes

MUA: Elbie Bayley

Dress: Belle & Bunty

Image shot for The Fabulous Vintage Bride.. full blog to follow.

Technical details for the photography wonks:

Camera: Canon 5D MKIII

Lens: Canon 24-70mm MKII f2.8

Aperture: f7.1

Shutter speed: 1/160

ISO: 200

Lights used: beauty dish and softbox.  I forget what the settings were on the lights..

The Fabulous Vintage Bride