Fashion

.................I am no great lover of fashion. I have very little interest in the subject to be honest. Being "in fashion" is as much a lifestyle choice as being into body art or skateboarding or being a hippy. It is all consuming. Fair enough too if that's your bag but it isn't for me. Don't get me wrong, I like nice clothes. I probably like them more than the next man, but fashion is different isn't it. The kind of stuff I buy I've been buying for the last twenty years. Good quality stuff, probably with a bit of a price tag, that I can wear until it falls to bits........... not until it goes out of style. The one exception is jeans. You've kind of got to get the right jeans. You really do look a bit of a lemon in a pair of flairs when everyone else has gone skinny. So fair enough, I have my limits.

When it comes to fashion photography it is a similar thing. It is a lifestyle choice made early on. You have to want to spend your whole time in the company of stylists, models, makeup artists etc etc etc. You also have to know how to make a frock look nice since the name of the game is selling clothes. It's so easy to go off on a tangent when something starts to work only to be told that it's all about the product and the beautiful, moody photo's you've ended up taking are of little use.

This is a recent shoot for lifestyle brand Mudd and Water. It's a spring summer catalogue shoot for next season. The photographs they wanted are as below. Bright and colourful like the new collection.

We got the shots and everyone was happy but left to my own devices I couldn't help but try and make the shots more moody. It was all about the location. We had this amazing house with plaster hanging off the walls and tatty furniture strewn about the place. We had a great props, a great model. It was crying out for a certain treatment but it wasn't what the client wanted, and let's face it they were paying. 

You've got to listen to the person with the purse or you won't get used again but it is always fun to try and sneak a few shots through for yourself.