Why Fashion?

Why do I shoot fashion?



Several years ago, after several more years of passing interest in taking up photography, I got a camera. With that camera, I took photographs. Amazing how that works eh? I took photographs of just about everything I could see through a viewfinder. Plants, street lights, toys, windscreens, landscapes etc, etc.

One thing I never pointed that camera at was another person. I couldn't bear the thought of what someone else might think of me as I pointed a hulking piece of plastic and metal, firing away, frame by frame of film.

As I said in another post: I am socially inept.. I avoid interaction with people at all costs.

"But wait," I hear you say, "Don't you primarily shoot fashion and beauty now? I'm totally confuzzled!"



Well, something happened in those early days with my trusty film SLR. I would hungrily eat up the information in every magazine, book, or internet article I could get my hands on. I would scrounge everywhere just to look at photographs that might inspire me. Of course, National Geographic was an obvious choice to look for sensational photography. But then I found something else.

Vogue.

Four different editions to be precise. Vogue: UK, Vogue: Paris, Vogue: Italia and to a lesser extent Vogue: USA.

The imagery in these magazines is enough to make anyone stop in their tracks. Just like any good n00b photographer, I started looking at these images to see how they were made. Imade accounts on websites related to the this particular industry. I gorged myself on the various magazines. I started talking to individuals who made that type of photograph.

Through all of that, I learned something.

With the exception of some high-end commercial still-life, the amount of creative energy that goes into a fashion shoot is virtually unrivalled. Not only do you have the photographer and usually the assitants, but then you have the Make-up Artists, the hair stylists, the Wardrobe Stylists, possibly some set builders, an Art Director, the model and in some cases the list can go on.

Your standard commercial or editorial fashion shoot relies on the hard work and creative ingenuity of a whole team of people and a lot of the time, it is really hard work and a whole lot of ingenuity.



I decided very early on, that I wanted to be a part of that process. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself. To create something as a team that could not be created on my own.

These images inspired me early on and still do. It is that inspiration and my desire to create that forces me to break through my social limitations.

That is the reason why, at least for me, that such an introverted individual would drop all of fears and social concerns in order to work in photographic niches that heavily rely on social competence: fashion and beauty.