2017 In Review
As 2018 begins, we wanted to do a feature on two projects that stood out to us from 2017. Both were shot at Starr Street Photo Studios, with help of our equipment and techs. The first project was shot by Heather Haazan. We reached out to her to get some detail on the whole production. Enjoy:)
1. What was the direction or end goal you had for this project?
“I'm really drawn to the beauty in a relaxed woman. She is serene, yet unapologetic... in control, yet free. My goal was to take inspiration from the natural female form and all her lines, curves, angles, textures, shadows, highlights found in art and sculptures. As soon as I heard that my current favorite artist Christiane Spansberg was an inspiration for the shoot, I was on board. The Dimanche founders — Carly Smith and Paige Melkerson — gave a beautiful introduction to the shoot:”
"The first shoot of the issue is a study of the female body and its history in art. In its conception, we drew inspiration from Matisse's 'Blue Nude II', Christiane Spansberg and Caroline Walls'
, paintings of Venus and Greek sculpture. With all of the news surrounding sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace, especially in creative fields, we took a moment to celebrate the beauty of the female body in a safe and supportive space, with an
. It felt necessary to produce a genuine shoot that honors and appreciates the simplistic beauty of nudity and re-imagines the relationship between the artist and the muse. We wanted to create visuals that capture the inherent art in humanity and through light and form, communicate the serenity of being naked. For this project, we teamed up with
photographer
in an effort build upon her previous shoots. Her work was as much an inspiration for this piece as Matisse, Spansberg or Walls."
2. What was your favorite part of the production?
“Hands down, the all female team. We had a lovely, calm, inspiring day.”
3. Go-to equipment or camera for this project?
“I wanted to shoot this project entirely on film and mostly with natural light. We shot 14 rolls (Portra 400 & Tri-X 400 & Ektar 100) on my Contax 645 AF and some polaroids on my Hasselblad 500c/m and Impossible Polaroid 600. We also had fun playing around with the Profoto equipment that is graciously included with the rental at Starr!”
Project-
Our second feature was shot by Bailey Robb.
1.What was the direction or end goal you had for this project?
“We wanted to shoot an editorial with a concept featuring a sort of Sofia Loren inspired fashion obsession vibe where our amazing model Yasmin Geurts (Muse NYC) was able to be a bit more theatrical in her posing and movements to draw attention to the more obvious sense of voyeurism, fetishism, commodity, and display that occurs in fashion editorials.”
2. What was your favorite part of the production?
“One of my favorite moments of any production is when you get the second shot of the day. All the planning, moodboarding, concepting, casting, and team building, all seems to come together for an overall sense of direction on the second shot. The first shot you are still wondering if you need to change any big over all direction, but by the second shot you can start to see how you are going to pull it all together to make a story and then you get to fine tune what you are doing for each shot after.”
3. Go-to equipment or camera for this project?
“For this story I grabbed my Mark IV and my Mamiya 7II film camera - I generally shoot both for each shot, starting with digital until we get into the flow of what I think I want out of a shot and then switch to film.”