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

White Lights And Dark Knights, Le Magazine Editorial

White Lights And Dark Knights, one of the three editorials I shot for issue 3 of Le Magazine / Le Black Book. Rhiannon and I worked quite intensively on all the shoots, concepts, planning, how what where when. This one was initially conceived as a shoot that would use patterns either projected or dropped in using Photoshop. Unfortunately that concept went out the window & I started thinking about the Russian Constructivists and their use of geometric shapes and primary colours as a possible alternative to the type of pattern idea we had started with.

However, while doing my research on the constructivists I started falling in love with the portraits I was seeing of them , shots of the pavilions they 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 had dug out some night shots of the super structure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge that I had shot with my trusty (now dead, I dropped it) Canon Pro1 back in 2006!

The beams and girders of the bridge seemed to form a perfect constructivist vision of the future and I have always loved the Art Deco nature of the bridges concrete approaches.

The vintage inspired garments from Mrs Press combined with the slightly crazy Vivien Westwood shoes, stole from Coco Collectables.. Well lets just say, Rhiannon, the stylist knows her stuff. It all works perfectly against Sydney’s largest Art Deco structure the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

After pulling our model Sammy off the white background and dropping her over the night scenes of the bridge, post was mostly about blending B&W layers to deliver our Constructivist; now a little bit Film Noir feeling final images. 

Model, Sammy Raine
Styling, Rhiannon Bulley
Hair & Make Up, Lisa Sciberras
Photography Assistant, Harry Perlich
Shot at, The Photo Studio Sydney
and on the Harbour Bridge

Thanks to Kath & Rhiannon at Le Black Book/Le Magazine and all the crew.

Le Black Book, Le Magazine Issue 3 AW10

Le Magazine Issue 3 AW10
L'hiver Mode, Title Page.

I have about 20 pages across three editorials, Art Collaboration and two portrait shoots, you can see it all here, Le Magazine, AW10 Fashion Editorial





Thanks to Kath, & Rhiannon at Le Black Book/Le Magazine for their fantastic efforts in delivering such a great issue, and everyone who helped in the production of the shots.

Mirrors Art Collaboration with Elodie Silberstein

I had the great pleasure a few weeks ago of working on a collaboration with Elodie Silberstein and Rhiannon Bulley for the 'Mirrors' show opening next week at Morie Gallery.



Concept and Direction was provided by Elodie whom I have known through art circles for a while now & who I also had the pleasure of doing a portrait shoot with back in April of this year.

The shoot took place at my home base, The Photo Studio in Glebe. Elodie came in with her art notes, outfit and of course Rhiannon who modelled as a kind of Japanese Ningyo Doll. It was a great learning experience for me working alongside Elodie and being part of her process for bringing about the final image she was visualising with Rhiannon. It was a bit like a Master Class in Art & Process!

Of course Elodie's final work is much much more than one shot and is part of the Mirrors Art Exhibition curated by Rhiannon; an awareness and fund raising show for The Butterfly Foundation. Its well worth coming along to the opening night if you can make it as there is also a performance aspect to Elodie's work that will only take place on the opening night.

Mirrors Art Exhibition, Mirrors opens next Wednesday, October 14 at 6pm at Mori Gallery 168 Day St Darling Harbour.

For more information about Mirrors click here.

You can keep up to date with Elodie's work here.

And you can read the City Hub article about Mirrors here

See you at the show.

Fashion & Beauty Photography, In The Studio

My first full 'Fashion & Beauty' story photographed in the studio.











Photography, Kent Johnson
Hair & Make Up, lisa Sciberras using MAC Cosmetics
Stylist, Lucinda Petroeschevsky-Mayer
Photography Assistant, Harry Perlich
Models,
Adele Thiel
Stacey Monaghan @ Chadwicks
Hats by Helen Kaminski
Shot at The Photo Studio


Adele Thiel

Dress's by Lulu in Chains
Green BG. Reckless White, With Vintage Helen Kaminski Hat
Blue BG. endless Fascination, Zatana Hat
Red BG. Undaunted, Liana Hat

Stacey Monaghan

Red/Brown BG, Silk Dress by Sami and Sita, Brella Hat
Pink BG. French Silk Chiffon Top by Sylvia Chan. Brown Hat, Aldo. Black Hat, Jobi

www.chadwickmodels.com/
www.helenkaminski.com/
www.sylviachan.com.au/
www.samiandsita.com/
www.luluinchains.com/
www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au/

In The Studio, Jools Fashion Look-Book

Working to a very tight schedule the team & I shot two ranges for Jools new fashion label. The post processing for these shots was inspired by my recollections of the sun faded posters I still sometimes see in the windows of Tailor Shops with the classic magenta shift of old family photos. Fashion photography meets remembrance of times past.

We worked through over twenty looks on the day with both dark background and the lovely luscious pink!





















Jools Fashion Look Book Shoot
H&MU Kate Bonar
Model Tammy S
Photography Assistant, Harry Perlich

Thanks to everyone for their time and work.

Shot at 'The Photo Studio' Sydney.

Kent Johnson 0433 796 863

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.

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.

 

In the Studio, Fashion Catalogues and Advertising.

If you really want to see the garments, if you want to save on time, location fees, and the worry about whether it’s going to rain or shine on the day… Shooting Fashion in the studio has tremendous advantages. I have been doing a bit of Look-Book and Catalogue in the studio for a few designers of late at my new home-base, ‘The Photo Studio’ in Glebe.


View Large 750Kb

On one recent shoot we did over 50 looks on the white background (thirty shown here) and then chose five of the outfits and shot ‘Studio as Location’ to create a series of complimentary images with a much edgier feel. Our model Alex who has appeared on Australia’s Next Top Model was a real pleasure to work with and remained inventive and seemed tireless over a full day of shooting.



Our over 30’s market Catalogue shoot provides a nice contrast of style for a fairly similar studio setup, though this time with softer lighting and a little more fill light. There was some lovely layering, frills and detail stitching on Thai Silks which were beautifully rendered by the studio lighting set-up.



The white background digital shots shown here on the Fashion Blog are essentially straight from the camera in old school film style. Typically the only post/retouching work required is automated curves and sharpening (digital always needs some level of sharpening) adjustment. This makes a fast turnaround on most jobs a fairly simple task.



Kent Johnson
March 2009
www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au/
http://www.thephotostudio.com.au/

February Fashion Look-Book Sale.

To celebrate my joining The Photo Studio in Glebe I am offering a February Fashion Look-Book Sale.

Thanks to all those who took advantage of the special offer.

The Photo Studio is centrally located in Glebe just behind the Broadway Shopping Centre. With full commercial photography production facilities the Photo Studio is the perfect location for your next fashion Look-Book.

Here's what you get.

*A half day Studio Shoot (4 hours) at The Photo Studio.
*A DVD of all shots in JPEG format at 1400 x 2100 pixels at 300ppi.
*Standard post processing of one selection from each look at 2800 x 4200 at300 ppi resolution JPEG suitable for your print look book (or your printers specs) and also resized to your web-site specifications (allow for 48 hours turnaround on delivery of your selected images).

If it’s your first look-book here is a little background on what you can expect the shoot to entail.

Look-Books are typically shot at a fast and furious pace. As a result, professional models are recommended, outfit changes depending on complexity of the garments allow for shots to be taken every 5 to 10 minuets or, 6 to 12 shots per hour. Professional Hair & Make-Up (H&MU) will require an hour of time and is highly recommended to reduce the need for retouching images in post production.

A four hour session (including time for H&MU) will return approximately 18 more complex looks or up to 36 simple looks with very fast changes; think swimwear or lingerie! To keep things running smoothly you will need to have your fashion range well organised with any shoes and accessories required, freshly steamed or pressed.

You can book your Fashion Look-Book Shoot directly through The Photo Studio Sydney on 02 9571 9955.

If you have any queries you can call the Studio on  02 9571 9955 or Kent directly on 0433 796 863.

This Look-Book offer is strictly for February only. Book early to avoid missing out on this great offer to have your fashion range photographed at a very competitive price.

 

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

New Designers, New Fashion in Sydney.

There is some great young fashion design talent in Sydney and quite a bit of it seems to be residing, or should that be studying at Ultimo TAFE, at least if last weeks Evening Gown Parade at the Strand Arcade is anything to go by.



A little under a year ago I was approached by one of the TAFE fashion students about shooting her second year range. We met up so I could take a look at her designs. They were fine but there were only three solid outfits and they still had something of a student feel to them. I asked her to get back to me when she had her graduation range ready in 2008. And so she did.



Ryoko sent me a PDF drawing of her graduation range and I was sold immediately. What a difference a year makes! After seeing the drawings I called in a few favours, booking The Photo Studio in Glebe and enlisting two wonderful models, Kate & Joseph from Viviens to create the sort of photo shoot Ryoko’s range clearly deserved.



The range shows Ryoko’s Japanese influences in the fine fabric details (she is out from Japan studying design here in Sydney). The loosely structured garments were a pleasure to photograph.



A big thankyou to everyone who gave their time and effort for the shoot. The Models Kate & Joseph and the booking team at Viviens. North Sullivan for The Photo Studio; Kaori with Hair & Make-Up and Ryoko for her fabulous designs.