In my last blog I wrote that my inspiration comes from two main places. Art / film and the model him / herself so I thought I’d get typing and explain what I mean by the latter.
One of the most key aspects of my style is that I am extremly model led. What do I mean by this?
Simply it means that I don’t try and push models outside the stylistic wheelhouses that I feel they operate best in. If a model has an awesome streetwear look I don’t try and make her do a pretty floral girly shoot. If a model always rocks the same stern model face I don’t try and make her smile and act goofy on camera.
The key aspect of my style is that I try to identify what makes that particular model excellent and then elevate those aspects.
A rough breakdown goes something like this.
What kind of modelling work do they do often / do I think they do a good job at?
What’s their experience level / probable confidence?
What kind of wardrobe and styling do they look and feel comfortable in.
What is their general vibe?
I’ll explain this further by showing off a couple of shoot with two of my favourite models who have distinctive but different styles.
Georgie Riot.
L-R - James Beddoes, Selfie, Jase Holzer, Unknown, Selfie, Stephen Smalls.
Let’s start with the excellent Georgie Riot.
So looking at the questions I use above what did I know about Georgie before I shot with her?
Big into streetwear, has a very distinctive sense of style. Doesn’t need a stylist or much guidance from me as she knows how to make herself look good.
Chilled about shooting nudity and does it well.
Tons of experience.
With that in mind when I created the mood board for Georgie it was pretty much along the lines of “you know what you’re doing, pack a bunch of stuff that you think you look ace in and we’ll just rock and roll on the day.”
As I mentioned in my last blog the way I use moodboards is to communicate a vibe as opposed to a prescriptive set of images that I want to copy. With that in mind the moodboard I sent Georgie basically just showed off the two aspects of the shoot I wanted to cover. which were “Streetwear location” and “Indoor sexy gritty attitude, I’m a boss bitch and I fucking know it.”
Selection of moodboard images.
With that in mind on the day I just reacted to what wardrobe Georgie had bought with her and shot some grainy, messy, imperfect kind of work which I felt matched her style.
Here are the results.
2. Courtney Baldwin
L-R Iulia David, Bartley, Iulia David, Sylwia Szyplik, Milianeyes, Milianeyes
Let’s jump straight to the obvious here. Courtney looks like Angelina Jolie in the 90’s. On the list of people to look like that’s definitely not a bad person to have so there is one of your starting points. Courtney is beautiful in the classical sense of the word, her face is perfection, it’s like a piece of art so with that all in mind what do I consider when planning a shoot with her?
Classically beautiful face which needs to be the highlight. No need for styling or makeup to detract from it.
Her looks lends well to beauty / 90’s Calvin Kleinesque underwear shoots.
Hard to get a sense of her dress sense + I don’t want to distract from her face so best keep the styling minimal.
I don’t like shooting beauty and she’s got tons of beauty already in her portfolio so how can I make the most of that face and give her something a bit different?
I’ve shot with Courtney a few times now so in the past the main things that have been in my moodboard are really simple and clean location type shots & 90’sesque black and white stripped back simple underwear / denim kind of looks.
Selection of moodboard images used across various shoots with Courtney.
With all that in mind here are a selection of shots from the few times I’ve shot Courtney.
I really love working with Courtney and if you take a look my work within her agency ports here and here you’ll be able to see that the work I shoot with her has a different vibe to the majority of her portfolio which is good for her range.
Summin’ Up
So in summary here’s a little breakdown of how I find inspiration for shoots from the models themselves and some general principles I follow.
Models usually look best when they are asked to shoot a style which they feel comfortable doing on a day to day basis.
If you can see a model has a cool look / sense of style trust them to style themselves. They’ve been dressing themselves / doing their own makeup forever, they usually know what looks good on them better than you do. My general principal for 90%+ of my shoots is to identify the ace aspects of a model that made you want to shoot with them in the first place and then elevate them within the work.
If you’re shooting for a client and the styling / moodboard is in a brief then model casting is very important. I always try to get involved in model selection if possible to make sure the models I’m using suits the brief.
Communication as always is key. Speak to the models about your general idea, allow them to give feedback and come up with their own ideas and go into the shoot with both of you knowing what you want to achieve. That being said I’m a big fan of improvisation so if something feels right on the day just go for it. If something you’ve planned isn’t working out feel free to throw it in the bin.
Bartley - www.instagram.com/bartley.photo
