Scenes of a Stylist: Photo shoot with Julia

 Now to update you on my latest project...

A few weeks ago, I styled a photo shoot of a girl that I met at party a few months ago that had the cutest sweetheart shaped red dress and cropped haircut. I love girls with well maintained short hair-I believe it is the perfect frame for a beautiful face.

A few months passed after I was able to reconnect with Julia and we finally did a shoot based on her life experiences with a bit of added flare from my style suggestions. When she mentioned that she spent some time in France, I immediately drew inspiration from the Parisian girls that I longed to visit in the streets of the romantic city. Lucas, as my sensible photographer and visionary, suggested to style her as an edgy Parisian, roaming the gritty streets beneath the shadows of sketchy alleys and unprotected underpasses showered in graffiti. The results were simply amazing.

Real life portraits are just as inspiring to work on as high-end fashion shoots due to their connection with the camera from previous life experiences. The surroundings, feelings, and memories of previous occurrences all captured between the milliseconds of each snapshot of a given frame. For a girl without any previous modeling experience, Julia was not only a pleasure to work with but a natural, as she interpreted our Parisian concept to life through her memories of France during her years as a translator. As the stylist, all of the running around was truly worth it. Finding the beauty in people who tell a story is inspiring in itself. I look forward to meeting additional people in life to discover ways to bring their journey into the camera's focal point for others to view.

Meet Julia

“I remember a lot of late night walks home after being out, putting on my iPod and looking up at the stars while heading home after an evening of good food, good drinks, and good friends. Any piece of art by Rodin immediately takes my mind to Paris; the Rodin Museum there is something I visit every single time I go to Paris because his sculptures are so beautiful, especially "Fugit Amor" which means "Fugitive Love." The thought of walking down the street past a bakery and smelling the freshly baked bread will always make my mouth water!”

 

"A reminder of the nightlife for me would definitely be the smell of cigarette smoke in the air. I can remember standing outside the club, trying to cool off, smoking a cigarette and hearing the music blasting from the inside and the thump of the bass.  Listening to the song "1901" by the band Phoenix will always remind me of this guy I really liked when I was living abroad, it was a song we both really liked, so every time I hear it, I imagine I'm back there in the bar with him listening to it on the radio." 

"As far as a French saying goes, what immediately comes to mind is "En art comme amour, l'instinct suffit" which means "Whether it is in art or in love, your instinct will suffice" because when it comes to living abroad, you depend a lot on your instincts!"

Photographer: Lucas Barber

MUA:  Megan Burda

Special thanks to Lucas for taking the pictures and post-editing work as well as Megan for doing the make-up!

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Scenes of a Stylist

Last Sunday I finally had a chance to link up with my sister, Shana, to style and direct a way overdue photo shoot for her portfolio (I use to work backstage during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, collaborate with different designers, and freelance when I was in NYC so I'm  pretty use to doing a shoot on short notice...I should write more about experiences one day...ok getting back to the shoot!). She's asked me so many times but it seems as though our schedules always conflict. So when she asked me a few weeks ago I just had to drop everything and just do it! And how could I say no, she's the perfect muse!

Here are some behind the scene pics leading up to the shoot:

Shana expressed her love for turbans and how she wanted to incorporate it into her vision of a clean editorial shoot with a heavy focus on the head piece. So we immediately went through my storage bins of fabric to fit her idea and found this cute pink and gold speckled fabric that I tied into a coil knotted turban. The warm pink colour went great with her skin tone and hair for a beautiful summer day. My hubby Lucas has recently taken his love for photography to the next level after just 3 months of having his camera and captured some great pictures on the sunny afternoon. We had a really good time during the shoot and as the perfectionist that I am, I was there to yell out stop, hold on, wait a minute every time I saw something out of place and put on my best Tyra Banks impersonation. FIERCE.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the shoot. The post production that Lucas did is sick! I love the effects that he applied to the pics. Bravo sweetie, bravo!

Check out Shana's site (She goes by Chiney Marie as a homage to our Chinese and Jamaican grandmother) and Lucas' website Lightbearer Photography. His site is under construction but he's been taking gigs through the form on the site. He'll have his latest projects posted soon, so bookmark both sites before you forget!

Anyone doing any upcoming projects that they'd like to share?

xxxo 

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