Gallivant Jeans Goes Live!

A few weeks ago I was commissioned to shoot the campaign shots for new jeans label Gallivant. I don't get to shoot menswear nearly as often as I would like, which is a shame as it's always a complete blast. We had Mark W from Viviens and he was absolutely fantastic to work with and has an amazing attitude toward his work. Thanks Mark, you rock! And thanks to Gallivant too; was quite a wonderful shoot, thanks guys, you rock too. Grooming by the lovely Lisa Sciberras.  Shot in and around The Photo Studio, Glebe.















Gallivant Jeans

Viviens Models

Lulu in Chains AW10, Photographers Edit

My own take on the Lulu in Chains AW10 shoot that we shot in the Rocks, Sydney a couple of weeks ago. I am continuing to develop my B&W in-camera & post production techniques.















We had a great time on this shoot and it was the first time I have shot at this very popular location in the rocks.

Model, Victoria from Chadwicks
Assistant, Harry Perlich
Lulu in Chains AW10 campaign shots. Photographers edit.

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

Hayley from Platform Models

A couple of shots from a couple of recent shoots with the lovely Hayley from Platform models. She was great to work with and has such wonderful skin.






I will be posting more work with Hayley from these two fashion shoots soon.

Hoàng Khánh Ngọc, Fashion Photography Studio Test.

A while back I received a Facebook message from a friend saying that he had given my phone number to a Vietnamese model; that she would be in Sydney soon, and she would contact me…

Cool I thought, and then forgot all about it…

But I did get a call from Hoàng Khánh Ngọc in late March. She dropped by the studio with some very cool tear sheets to show me at which time I found she was 181cm, 5' 11 1/2" tall, Miss Vietnam in 2004 and quite a glamorous model. After a bit of a chat we decided to organise a studio shoot to put some new Australian Fashion Photography work in her book.

For the styling I called up the very talented Seed of Scarlet designer, Fiorella Castro to see if I could borrow a few of the outfits from the new SoS range we shot earlier this year. I chose a few of my favourites from the Look-Book shoot and we were good to go.











Make Up was by Jessica Beazley and Hair by Emma Neilson, it was our first time working together and they did a great job. I decided to continue on with the theme of ‘Studio as Location’ looking for a more open studio feel. After the first couple of shots we veered of into ‘Frankie’s Nightclub’ mode, the shot at the top of the page and finished with the very lovely Layered Orange Maxi Dress in a wild Sphinx like shot.

Thanks to everyones great work on the shoot and special thanks to everyone at ‘The Photo Studio’.


Model, Hoàng Khánh Ngọc
MU, Jessica Beazley
Hair, Emma Neilson
Assistant, Harry Perlich
Fashion by Seed of Scarlet

The Girls Who Fell To Earth.

Unpublished Fashion Editorial.
Click images to view Large.

All garments are from the 2008 Graduate show
Ultimo TAFE Fashion Design Studio.


Bianca Linton, Melinda Johns


Elizabeth Di Marco


Sarah Starkey


Melinda Johns


louise Maniscalco


Lisa Catanea, Bianca Linton


Christopher Morro


Sarah Starkey, Ryoko Watanabe


Kathryn Beeson

Click images to view Large.
Hair & Make Up, Kathleen Hendry
Stylist, Lucinda Petroeschevsky - Mayer
Assisted by Melinda Johns
Models, Sarah Crawford & Anna Hill @ Platform.
Photography by Kent Johnson, 0433 796 863
Assisted by, Harry Perlich
Shot on Location at Kurnell National Park Sydney Australia.
December 14 2008.

Fashion Designers
Left to right, top to bottom.

Bianca Linton, Melinda Johns
Elizabeth Di Marco
Sarah Starkey
Melinda Johns
louise Maniscalco
Lisa Catanea, Bianca Linton
Christopher Morro
Sarah Starkey; Ryoko Watanabe
Kathryn Beeson

We don't work we Play.

When asked how he and his design studio managed to remain so innovative, design guru Philippe Starck replied, “We don't work we Play”. I love this quote from Starck, its in perfect alignment with behavioral psychologists beliefs that innovation & creativity is more likely to spring forth from a relaxed state of mind. Its also highly reminiscent of the old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. And no one wants dull work now do they.

Of course when working on an assignment and delivering to a deadline a relaxed and playful frame of mind may be hard to come by so thank goodness we already know what we are doing!



But what do you do when you want to come up with new ideas?

I can't say I am a big fan of the 'think outside the box' concept. If you ask me, trying to think outside the box just won't work. You need to be outside of it to do that. How do you get there, outside of the box? Better to forget the box altogether and just Play!



A couple of weeks ago I decided I just wanted to play around with the studio lighting. I didn't have a specific outcome in mind. I just wanted to see if I could try some different set-ups & see what I could get. I also had a new Hair & Make-Up (H&MU) artist I wanted to try out; Kate Bonar, so that meant I needed a model too.



Of course once you have a model and a H&MU you start to find yourself in a situation where you have an obligation to deliver. Now there is nothing wrong with that, delivering great photography is my job. But I just wanted to 'Play' (and not worry about delivering too much). I started casting around for someone that might just be happy to spend an afternoon in the studio in like-minded fashion, happy to play with ideas and see what we could come up with. Fortunately an email from another H&MU artist popped into my in-box. Cool; its always nice to find a new H&MU & at the end of the email this H&MU just happens to mention she is also an agency model. I checked her profile (could possibly use some more shots...) & gave her a call. One model booked along with a promise of a H&MU test soon.



We started at three in the afternoon and ran through until a little after eight. Together we played around with three different light set-ups and a few styling changes on the model, Kate gave us two different H&MU looks to go with the styling changes.In the end we had a rather nice clutch of pictures from four distinct shots including a new head/beauty shot for Angela & Kate. And I now had some new lighting set-ups I knew I could safely work with on future projects; a lovely new H&MU who clearly knows her stuff & another H&MU in waiting.

Having been reasonably busy shooting look books of late, the next day at the studio I cheekily remarked that I didn't know I could (still) do four shots in four hours, I thought I could only do 44!

Playing in the studio turned out not only to be a great way to find new lighting set-ups, it also turned out to be a great way to recharge the creative batteries too. And what better way to recharge than doing what you love. Making pictures.

All images shot at 'The Photo Studio' Sydney.
H&MU Kate Bonar
Model, Angela Thomas at Scene
Assisted by Harry Perlich.

 

A European Location - in Sydney.

“I want to shoot on location but I want it to look European.”

No that is not an exasperating request it’s an inspiring one and it’s the sort of request I love to hear. And it’s not really surprising to hear it. I was often asked if my black and white shots from the 80s had been taken in Europe. At the time I found it an odd question as those shots had been taken at landmark Sydney locations; but that said much of the identifiable ‘Sydney’ bits had been removed by careful choice of framing and I suppose I had a something
of an informed(?) European take on photography.

But finding the right spot can be tricky. On this occasion the client gave me a bit of a lead, however I thought it sounded a bit too Sydney and a bit too clean for Europe. I decided to take the camera out and have a look around. Using the suggested location as a conceptual starting point and my own perception of what might lend itself to being European, I made a series of shots I thought would fit the bill.

And its not just the location; it’s also the light! I love Sydney light but it can be oh-so-strong and unforgiving. I remember the French Fashion Photographer Denis Jobron remarking to me one day that the light in Sydney was like being in a microwave oven! So the European/Sydney location needs something like a Euro lighting feel as well.

Checking light and location is all about good preparation so things go smoothly on the day. The more complex the shoot, the more preparation that may be required. What will work in post-production can also be addressed before the shoot as well. Last December I finally managed to put together a Night Fashion shoot, an Editorial Submission. It was based around an idea I had been working on for quite a while, the big problem was just how to pull it off?

Initially I simply looked out for the shots I wanted and made location pictures on my point-and-shoot. But I also needed to know how the camera and lenses would work with a real model in situ on location. My friend Julia was kind enough to stand in(twice) for these location tests which were invaluable. A new lens was found to be required to allow for shooting at the best ISO and the all important mix of lighting was tested and put through its paces.

The preparation paid off and on the night of the shoot the team and I were able to put 10 shots in the can in just three hours, but more about that shoot when I am able to show it online.

Sydney as a European location? Why not!

Editorial Fashion, Fashion Advertising & Model Folios Too.

Well I may have already blogged some of the shots from various shoots over the last few months but the Web site itself was looking a little tired and in need of some new images. For the last four days I have been working on editing, re-processing, re-sizing, re-ordering and finally replacing quite a lot of pictures on the Fashion Pages of the web site.



Its always a daunting task but one that is very worthwhile. Both the Fashion Editorial and Fashion Advertising galleries on the website have never looked better and are showing my vision for fashion photography much more clearly.

There are a couple of projects that have been in the planing stages for quite a while that are about to 'come off' so now is a good time to check out the web site before some of the old favorites disappear back into the archive.



The Beauty Photography gallery has had a bit of a make over with some lovely new images that have not been on the site or the Blog before. I have also added some of the Notorious; yes these shots do seem to be gaining some notoriety... Frankie's Nightclub Campsie shots. For those of you who are not aware, there is no Frankie's! So please, stop emailing me for the address :~)) Its an Art Project, a kind of myspace thing, but there will be more about that later. Frankie's lovers might like to check out the Modelling Portfolios pages; just because you can.



So if you have only been following the blog, please click the links and take a tour of the site, there is much more wonderful photography to be seen. And of course; the whole point of the exercise is to entice you to commission me to shoot your Fashion for you. Great shots make for great web-sites, catalogues, look-books, promotions and lots of sales!

Please call or email for a quote.

Kent Johnson

Sydney Australia 0433 796 863, kent@artcommunication.com.au

Urban Edge Fashion & Atomic Milano

Four models, three tee-shirt designs and the urban landscape.

That was our Atomic Milano fashion shoot in a nutshell. The shots were made as atmospherics for an online catalogue to sell the exclusive Atomic Milano Tee-Shirts. The Atomic coffee machine is a 50’s design classic and in the days before café style espresso machines became so affordable they are now seemingly in every kitchen; the Atomic was the stove top coffee machine of choice.



An edgy urban setting was chosen that allowed for some nice variations without having to move around too much. The client required enough variety to allow for rotation of images on the web site over time to keep the site looking fresh while staying on-theme so the images will all blend well with each other. We started out with an outdoor studio approach laying down the new 3.2 x 12 meter vinyl white background on the roadway. Our new white ‘floor’ blended nicely with the low graffiti smattered concrete wall creating a neutral space for the models to work in and highlight the Atomic Milano Tee-Shirt.



It was decided that the casting for the models should reflect the world-wide universal appeal of the Atomics design & coffee too. If my enthusiastic directing was anything to go by, I may well have had one coffee too many that morning. But the mood was infectious and the models picked up on the Atomic Milano coffee high and delivered great energy for the shoot. The approach to the photography and fashion seems highly suitable for youth market and surf wear; don’t hesitate to call me with any inquires about shooting your fashion line.



Kent Johnson, Sydney 2008.
kent@artcommunication.com.au