Fashion Event

Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.

Bert Hardy

I certainly do see beauty in much of the world around me. One needs to absolutely pause sometimes and take the time to listen and look carefully at your environment to fully appreciate the beauty that is out there. We are so totally caught up in our busy lives with heavy work schedules; social media obsession, 24-hour news and so much more, which has consumed our attention. We are hardly ever living in the moment but somewhat so removed.

But of course there is beauty all around us and it can be found in the most unlikely of places. I have talked in past blogs about my old photography students from when I used to teach. I discussed how it was a farmer who displayed the most unique vision and wonderful eye. Seeing the world and light so well and having simply a keen eye for capturing the beauty of the natural landscape around him. I feel that the fact he spent so much time out in the countryside, had helped him hone his senses and he noticed subtle changes and saw the world differently to those so totally caught up in life in front of a computer or I-phone screen. His photographs were not snapshots but studied observations of moments in nature. He was not just looking but seeing and reacting and representing his environment.

Imagination is a useful tool to any photographer. In previous blogs I have talked about how we often shoot our subjects in a very similar way to other image makers. There are accepted ways of shooting all manner of subjects from cars to landscapes to still life to portraits. We bring to the execution of that subject already accepted and learned approaches. We shoot it as such because we have seen similar subjects shot the same way. It may be the choice of lens, angle, pose and so forth. Essentially we are shooting what we know works and have been seen and agreed upon is a good photograph. The image in our minds eye is partly based upon pictures that we have seen from previous examples and one goes about recreating that. But of course one needs to be original and creative and essentially break free from such already learned approaches and see subjects with a totally fresh eye. Building your sensory experiences in life will help you to build more material that your imagination can then work with. The longer you can sit and observe your subject and environment the better. Allowing yourself to truly observe and linger on all the detail gives you inspiration and ideas to best represent that subject in a new and unique way. Any person spending way too long caught up in other distractions is completely deprived of sensory experiences.

I have been told I have a good imagination and this is expressed through humour or story telling perhaps. But I’m not so sure I manage to channel this quality into my photography. Perhaps my photography successes may depend more on timing, patience, and working well with people, experience and an inherent talent and understanding of light and composition. And of course some luck along the way. But I am not really convinced that I shoot anything truly original and anything that shows evidence of a great imagination. I do believe I ‘see’ well and am very inquisitive. I walk into a room and spend a lot of time studying and looking at things around me and often in great detail. I wander around outside and am constantly talking about the light, how its changing and its qualities. Quite normal for me to suddenly stop and declare ‘Wow look at the light!’ I am also obsessed with people watching and take a keen interest in people and their lives and generally enjoy hearing people’s stories. But again, I fear my photography is not necessarily highly original.

But of course it’s not absolutely essential that every image we encounter needs to be utterly ground breaking in its originality. A peek at Instagram will reveal millions of people all loving images that kind of look like many other images of a similar subject. People feel comfortable and happy seeing certain images that have been accepted as classic. Images of moving objects such as race cars or a galloping horse may often be shot in such a way that they best depict the sensation of speed and thus often look similar. It may be a panned shot or include a hint of blur to emphasise rapid motion. Any wedding photographer will have be under strict orders from their bride to make sure they capture the all important moments in a certain classic and accepted manner. How different can a shot of the happy couple cutting a wedding cake be? Wedding photography is a perfect example of finding trends in image making that are copied to death. Some are painfully predictable and somewhat contrived in my opinion. Bur then oddly I find myself taking the very same picture I have seen many other wedding photographers take and I love the fact that I have achieved that shot. Its part of the wedding photography tick box process. As I write that I cringe to even admit that. But then I know that the bride and groom have asked for those shots and its what they want and expect to see. They long to replicate the wedding images of their parents and even their grandparents.

The following is a good example of a wedding shot that is repeated the world over and gets shot by so many wedding photographers. But I confess I love this shot, often shoot it and am well and truly shamelessly caught up in the trend.

I am also aware that I have had wedding clients tell me that friends were so desperately disappointed in their wedding photographer. They had booked some trendy art photographer who then completely failed to capture key moments and the much loved expected images because the photographer was so hard at work trying to be very quirky and edgy. The couple sadly ended up with a limited number of vague images and he/she failed to shoot the essential moments and key guests. The photographer has spent half an hour arranging some still life and shooting it on Polaroid with an old-fashioned 18th century camera and plans to be clever in postproduction later. My suggestion is not to discredit the talent and imagination of such an art photographer. Their approach actually sounds like a fun, valid and creative one for sure. But it would be wiser to book two photographers and essentially get the best from both. Making sure the key moments are still captured, as you would wish.

I recall one of the first commissions for Tatler Magazine was to photograph a very smart society wedding (What else for Tatler right?) in the midlands. It was a very well respected, titled family in an even more famous country castle that was used regularly for film shoots. I can’t say the family name here as it wouldn’t be right. I remember meeting the official family wedding photographer and discussing how we could work together and not get in each others way. This was back in the mid nineties and I was still discovering how things worked. I recall being amazed that he was not in fact a wedding photographer but a well known fashion and portrait photographer and the bride and groom had chosen him to cover this important event. I can still remember we met as he was setting up a little portrait studio under some arches in the grand castle with reflectors and lights. It was a total revelation that I could be both a social photographer and a fashion photographer too. This was such a wow moment understanding that I could mix this up and bring skills from each discipline to the other. I felt that this could be my calling and that I could be known as a wedding and party photographer who brings certain fashion knowledge and stylistic approach to my coverage. I feel that I’ve been trying to do this ever since. I have shot portraits and fashion my entire career and for some very well respected magazines and I have also regularly shot celebrations for the royal family, celebrities, wealthy discerning clients and so perhaps I need to accept that I have achieved this goal set way back when I was in my twenties just starting out.

This blog includes images from my last Ralph Lauren commission. I was asked to come in and shoot the new spring collection at the wonderful Bond St. flag ship store. I spend so much of my time searching for well dressed, beautiful and elegant guests at functions to capture and express my frustrated inner fashion photographer and so it was a pleasure to be asked to simply be a fashion photographer for a morning and not struggle and battle within a party environment to capture posed shots. But to have a stunning model with a great personality, good make up and hair and the freedom of such a stunning building to capture some great shots. The model was the wonderful Adelaide Sines from Milk Models and we immediately hit it off. It makes such a difference when the model brings passion, experience and skill to the shoot. There was no need for direction and I feel we worked well together. I hope the Ralph Lauren team are happy with the results and I’m sure I will drip feed these images into my Instagram page for the next 400 years. And discussing shooting images that are similar to many others and creating photographs that fall into familiar categories that we see only too often, well these images certainly do. They are not highly original or groundbreaking in any way but I know I met the brief and created some wonderful images to help promote the new spring collection.

As Bert Hardy eludes in the quote above, it’s about finding beauty in all things and taking it beyond a snapshot. I imagine that Bert would be happy that I saw and composed beauty and took these images beyond the mere snapshot. Its not everyday I’m shooting just fashion but as discussed I see beauty in everything and fashion is everywhere. A wedding or party is packed with beautiful moments, people and objects and anyone for an eye for beauty is going to be stimulated. What could be a better environment for a photographer with an editorial fashion and portrait background to truly be inspired, let lose and hungry to capture incredible memorable moments with style and beauty.

Blog