All Of The Above Creative.

I'm always on the look out for new sources of inspiration.

A few months back now I heard about 'All Of The Above Creative', a creative team here in Perth conisting of Fashion Stylists, Hair and Makeup artists and Photographers available for hire to create amazing editorials, campaigns and adversining - the results, AMAZING editorials...

 

Brought together by a mutual love for fashion, photography and styling, Perth lasses Emma Bergmeier and Hannah McGrath formed All Of The Above Creative in late 2010 with the intention to advocate for some of Western Australia's brightest photography, styling and beauty talent.

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Representing WA's brightest emerging photographers, stylists, hair and make up artists, All Of The Creative is an agency dedicated to the dreaming up and executing of editorial shoots, advertising campaigns, promotional images or whatever else one's heart may desire.

I love photographs to tell a story, it instantly draws the viewer in and captivated them within the made up world created for the picture. This can be achieved in a number of ways - through the stying and hair and makeup to create characters, through the set to create a world or even jsut simply through the way the photographs are captured using certain angles, effects and the connection between the subject and camera.

What I love most about all of the work from All of the above is that they never fail to create such an intricate, almost magical world but they also build the most amazing characters that draws the viewer in and leads them on. This shows just how perfectly the stylist, hair and makeup and photographers all work together and understand not only each other but the overall goal and feel to be communicated through the pictures.  

 

Here's some recent work in the name of ALL OF THE ABOVE CREATIVE..

Above images part of 'The Boys' editorial

Above images part of "She speaks in Velvet" eitorial

Above images part of "Dapple Grey" editorial

All avobe images from:

http://anadventure.wordpress.com/

Information from:

http://anadventure.wordpress.com/

To stay up to date with whats happeing in the All of the above world:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/All-Of-The-Above-Creative/139826509410119

Back in Business.

So, It's been a while.

..I mean since I've posted, of course.

Life's become hectic lately and while I'm loving the faster pace and there's so many exciting things happening; at the same time I'm starting to feel like I've really been neglecting things that I like doing.

I've started (Well, I've been here a month and a half now) working fulltime in an office job which it's great, or more so the paychecks are great! I am enjoying it but it's taken a little while to get used to having no time during the week for anything else really.

On top of the not-so-new job I've also started doing work experience one day a week at Pigeonhole which is a great store (small chain of stores actually) here in perth.

I've loved Pigeonhole for years now and I asked the owner a little while back if I could do some general work experience in the stores to get that experience working in Fashion and with clothing.

If you live in Perth and haven't heard of Pigeonhole you must be living under a rock! I'd difinelty recommend checking out the stores in person, alternatively or if you live elsewhere Pigeonhole does sell some of their stuff online so check it out! http://www.pigeonhole.com.au/ also be sure to check out and 'Like' their Facebook page ...http://www.facebook.com/#!/pigeonholeaustralia

Pigeonhole aslo holds an annual event to support Movember that also promotes and supports local Lomographers (see previous post - http://gininaperfumebottle.blogspot.com/2011/06/la-sardina.html). The event Lomovember "will be held during 11-13 November at a secret location in Perth’s CBD, and will kick off on Friday the 11th with a launch party featuring live music and prizes. Stay tuned for the final unveiling of the location! "

I've applied to help out at the event and have submitted a few peices of my own Lomo work. Check out the website here: http://www.lomovember.com/event.html

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So hectic life aside, I'm back with a plan; or lack of plan in a way, but that is the plan! ...Are you following?

..I feel that one of the reasons that it got too hard to keep up with before was because I set out too strictly what I wanted to post about that it become impossible to find the time to sit down, source information and plan a post. So I'm going to try jsut going with the flow, I'll post when I have things to post about and I'll wing it, I'll write about whatever I'm posting how I feel about it at the time.

Papercut magazine

Papercut magazine is an online magazine that will never leave you short of inspiration. I'm so glad I found it somewhere along the way as the amazing editorials as well as the great content are so awe inspiring and just a little bit different and quirky to any other magazine.

I love this kind of new age of magazines - digital, web based and/or just free to readers. We've definitely seen more of this develop over the last few years and I definitely think it's a great new breed of independent fashion magazines and such a refreshment from the big-name magazines if you ask me!

I often prefer the content and love that it's really provided a platform for up and coming artists of so many disciplines to be exposed. 

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Papercut Magazine is a digital magazine focusing on fashion, art, culture, and current events.

Our mission is to highlight the artistic, political and cultural landscape of the emerging fashion community. Through investigative journalism, witty analysis, and creative research we invite our readers to explore this ever changing and provocative industry.

(above from the Papercut Facebook page)

I don't know where the magazine is actually based - they say that they like to think of themselves as citizens of the world. I do like this idea and I can't help but be intrigued by the mystery of not knowing! I like the way that it broadens the readers that are able to identify with the magazine.

I especially loved the latest issue of Papercut magazine (cover shown at top of post).

My favourite editorial from this issue:

View the full magazine and past issues on the Papercut website: http://www.papercutmag.com/

Simply seductive.

Apologies on such a huge break between posting! We've been having HUGE trouble with our Internet and yesterday it completely cut out.  We're told it's fixed now but it's still rather slow. 

It's still cold here at the moment and it can get hard through a long winter to stay inspired in dressing and for me designing and making clothes when I'll I feel like doing is curling up on the couch watching movies (I get bored with this quickly though). 

I found this editorial photographed by Tom Munro for Numero #125 just since getting our Internet back and I find it greatly inspiring as the clothing and styling of is exactly what I've been loving this winter but had lost the inspiration for. 

I love the edginess of the kind of fetish, Bondage theme which to me communicates the 'feel' of the clothing in a way. All the tight leather, cinched in waistlines and buttoned up necklines, yet never done in a conservative way. 

I especially love where leather and chiffon have been used together, all in back but they'r just such different fabrics that the contrast is amazing.

I made myself a shirt recently that's black chiffon with leather detailing and it's been too cold to wear it yet but I'm looking forward to getting the chance to wear it with either high waisted pants or a high waisted skirt. 

I also adore the stay up or held up stockings (with suspender belt), again a look I love so much at the moment and before we came into our rather cold weather here I'd been wearing stockings either just over the knee or thigh highs and before I broke it, I had a lovely suspender belt to wear with them. I'd wear it just below the hem line of my dress or skirt. Like a lot of things, it looks good if done right. I've seen some people wearing it but the rest of the outfit they're wearing it with is too revealing that it starts to look really tacky and well just plain skanky. So, my rule that stays true most of the time: Choose, boobs or legs - it's fine to show a little bit of cleavage or some thigh, but not both at the same time. Of course at time's depending on overall styling as well as materials used and such this rule changes but generally it works.  

"Buying a Canon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Canon owner"

I couldn't agree with this quote more. I generally don't place great value what so ever on what camera people shoot with, just what they can achieve with it and how they used the camera to do so. Photography to me is personal and it's using a camera as your tool to capture the world in the way you see it, or express a feeling or mood. To be able to do fully control how your photo turns out if you are wanting to express something particular you need to know how to use the camera settings and controls to achieve what you want. 

At the same time, I do think there is something so beautiful to spontaneous photographs - I just don't agree with people that call themselves photographers or claim that they are really into photography when they buy an expensive camera and put it all on Auto settings and take a million pictures of the same thing and find one that looks decent and then edit it in Photoshop until it's a good picture. 

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Here is some of my personal Digital photography. 

The first two were shot in a studio with controlled lighting back when I had access to the studio at school, I really want to get the chance to work in studio's again but I just don't have access to one at the moment. 

These following shots I took last year at a lunch that our family held for my Grandparents 50th Anniversary. I was asked to take photo's of the day and these are some Candid snaps and photo's of just around the venue from the day...

Here are some more recent pictures I've taken..

I like the two above when I was playing around with long exposures and starting zoomed in on one spot and  zooming out whilst the shutter is open - I think it creates a really cool tunnel effect.

I don't edit my photo's much  - sometimes I'll change digitals to black and white if I'm not happy with the colours, and every now and again I'll lower the saturation or fix the shadow/highlight balance - yet I do believe that if the photo is taken well and you know how to control your aperture and shutter speed to achieve what you want then you shouldn't need to do even that. 

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Whilst I photograph really anything that I think looks interesting and I do enjoy photographing events, I particularly enjoy actual shoots that I've planned to a degree (I always leave some parts of the planning out as it forces me to get into my creative head space) and I really want to get more into fashion photography, both in studios and on location.

For a while now I've really wanted to do a shoot in a graveyard, I've found my location and I know what what style I want for it but I haven't found someone with the look for it and that would be happy to be my model for the day!

Like I said before, these are my person photographs, so I'd appreciate if they're not copied or shown elsewhere without credit back to me or a link back to my blog, thanks!

Muusik.

My Internet hasn't been working particularly well the last few days and when it's worked for me to at least get on and check emails and such, it just doesn't load pictures, so I haven't been posting so much either.

But anyway for now here some music I came across more recently, 'Katzenjammer' - a Norwegian band  that I'm really liking! They're so different and I really like the almost 1920's jazz vibe to a lot of their songs and a kind of 'Gypsy' sound to some as well? 

Have a listen if you please..

The spy glass: Jonathan Leder's camera lens

So I've shared with you my favourite digital photographer and a few other photographers that I really like the work of, but I hadn't (until now) shared with you any of my favourite photographers that shoot primary or completely in film. Given that Film photography is my preferred format, I myself was surprised when i realised but when I think about it, it's actually quite hard to come across photographers working commercially this days shooting with film due to so many different aspects to it, the process and the costs involved that just makes digital so much more time and money saving!

Anyway, I do know of a few photographers that have still made quite a name for them self shooting in film and some others that I really like even though they aren't known at all but I've just stumbled across their work at some point.

For this post though I want to just share my overall favourite film photographer: Jonathan Leder. I adore the 'simplistic' beauty that all his photographs have, yet whilst always being simplistic in nature they all tell a story and really draw you in wanting to know what the story behind them is. 

Whilst visually they are so beautifully simplistic, all his photographs are composed so well - I really love interesting placement of subjects within pictures or how subjects are framed, etc. I think this is something that Leder does so well that the standard viewer wouldn't notice it, yet it creates more interest within the photographs.  

The thing I love most that a lot of his photographs possess is a sense that you are almost spying on the subjects within the pictures and they either have no idea you're watching them or they know and almost are putting on a show for you - without you knowing that they know you're watching them. 

There's a great interview that tells you more about the man than any bio's will over at http://www.seelike.me/post/123533743/jonathan-leder-interview

and his own website is http://www.jonathanleder.com/