I contacted Rachel Vague at Vague Models about setting up a shoot with a couple of her models. Rachel is incredibly nice and easy to work with. We settled on Laura Dinardo who just happened to be on of the very first models I ever worked with and Sara Bartfai who was just getting started in modeling at the time.
Christine Bartfai agreed to help out with styling and she contacted Philip Manus of Manus Designs and he graciously agreed to provide some dresses for the shoot. The second half of the shoot was inspired in large part by a photo shoot that I saw for Aquila Magazine.
The shoot for Aquila featured dark fabrics with a Middle Eastern vibe featuring veils, turbans, head scarves, and lots of intricate jewelry to create a mysterious look that I found really intriguing. It’s a great look but it has a very specific style and a lot of pieces that have to fit together to create the look. I was a little unsure of how it would all come together but I need not have worried.
Christine would tell you that she’s not a “stylist”. I would tell you she’s wrong. She’s got the eye, the attention to detail and she loves shopping and seems to just know of people and places that can contribute things to help out.
Thanks to her work and the work of Laura and Sara this became my favorite part of the shoot just because it was so interesting. Some of the photos would fit in a fashion magazine and others seemed like they would have been at home in National Geographic. We experimented with a lot of different poses with both Sara and Laura together and individually.
I had also borrowed and antique chair that has a very dark, ornate back to it and photographed Laura in it. There was one photograph that really stood out because of the way Laura is not only looking at the camera but the way she’s holding her hand. It’s a distinctive photo and one of those that happen once in a while where everything just comes together in a way that you didn’t plan or imagine.
So it was incredibly gratifying to be in the middle of another shoot several weeks later when my phone and Kristopher Osuna’s started blowing up with messages from people letting us know that Dark Beauty Magazine was featuring the photo on their FB page.
That would not have happened without the effort of everybody involved and so once again I’m very appreciative of the team and their willingness to give their time to help out on a project like this.
