Ivory Flame
In her natural habitat
How it all started
There is a nice story behind these shots that I think is worth sharing. Holly is someone I have known for a few years now, but prior to these images we had only worked together once and that was at a workshop/networking event, not the 1:1 experience that I favour. We had connected quickly and would often chat together. She is a genuine person, a model but also a photographer and easy to converse with. She also cares deeply about those around her which is perhaps the quality I like most. I owe much to Holly, she was instrumental in me pushing the boundaries and going away on a photographic adventure to Utah. Perhaps most importantly she connected me with some very talented people in the industry which unlocked many other doors. But somehow, despite all of this I hadn’t seen her in ages. Covid was the big factor yes, but geography played its part too.
I had hoped she could pass by my studio in Wiltshire one day when she was next down south, but our diaries never seemed to align. So when Holly told me she would be in London we quickly agreed to work out how we could shoot together. She recommend BeltCraft Studios, a new location to me, but one I had seen via work belong to a friend of mine. I had also recently shot in another daylight studio and loved the experience so was keen to try it again.
I sent over a mood board and joked that it included ideas from my usual style of 90’s fashion, my concern being that this could be a little off brand for someone who’s canvas is more Pre-Raphaelite than ID Magazine. But Holly is a pro and brought her experience to bare on our shoot together. We worked through outfit changes and ideas and both tweaked the looks as they came through on my laptop. Somehow we had decided Madonna would be our background music for the day and that just added to the nineties vibe. We had such a lot of fun taking these and being creative together, it was like old friends catching up, but with a camera in hand. That is how I like every shoot to be, a shared experience for creatives to be themselves. As I write this, I realise that that concept is not my own, but simply one I have borrowed from the photographers I once worked for who stood out against the others.
Ultimately your work is only as good as those who play a part it it and when their part is significant one should empower them to be as creative as they can be.
BTS of Holly from our first meeting
I’m a big ‘fan’
David, a photographer friend of mine would call this image a dirty frame, a term used to describe the fact that the image contains all the studio paraphernalia. I love a behind the scenes (BTS) shot but was particularly drawn by this massive fan that was used to breath life into the fabric.
These shots with the fabric were taken in the last 15 minutes of our studio time and I am glad we squeezed them in. This concept was on the mood board as it is closer to Holly’s natural genre, but below are the shots taken to the backdrop of Vogue by Madonna.
Oh and fun fact, Holly said she didn’t own a black suit, so I offered to bring mine to see if it would work and in a nice Cinderella moment it fitted her, even if the jacket was a big on the large side!
