Following one of my previous posts with the description on how the SNC Pride Club contest went, I’m sharing a few photographs from the backstage in order for the reader to understand better the conditions we shot with. Though, to be fair, for shooting it was not that hard of a job, but putting make up and doing hair wise I guess it was pretty difficult. But bravo to amazing Anna Zakhozhaya, she once again managed to pull it off and create a piece of art.
The shooting took place on a rooftop of a British School of Design in Moscow. However, the location was not chosen intentionally. The idea and the purpose were completely different to the result and the actual process of shooting. Below is a description of how and why the shooting went as it did.
The reason I’ve decided to do the shoot is because a russian magazine SNC held a contest for emerging photographers and I’ve decided to participate. They chose 3 themes: graphics, drama, black & white. I’ve decided to chose graphics but take an unconventional approach and instead of making it a plain black and white, play with forms and colour. In order to put the shoot together, I contacted one my favourite MUA – Anna Zakhozhayaand a DSC modelling agency and set the date . However, the agents from DSC had to catch a flight the day of the shooting and we’ve decided to pass the key to the model, so she would have access to agency’s studio. Surprise was that when standing in front of the studio, we found out that one the keys is missing, which left us with a choice: cancel the shooting or move to another location. A few calls and DSC organized access to a rooftop of a nearby location. Nevertheless, since we did not have electricity and limited lighting we had to change the concept of the idea and try to make it work with what we had.
In the end we went with two looks: ancient greek with a modern touch and slick and simple. Designer Alexander Arutyunov provided beautiful clothing and accesories from his AW12/13 collection. In terms of technical aspect I used natural light, trying to use it coming from a side, and sky as a background for portraits.