Recently, I was lucky to spend the day shooting with famed fashion photographer Steven Klein for a layout in Italian Vogue magazine.
The theme for the shoot was high class fashion in a low class setting and the model was Lana Del Rey.
It was a fascinating shoot for many reasons.
Working with fashion photographers is always interesting. This is the third time I have had the experience of shooting with someone who is a master of their craft and watching them work is always a lot of fun.
Tying for them can be a challenge because they often have a hard time articulating what they want. Often what they will do is show you some images of what they like, not realizing the things they are showing you are often radically different. One shot may be 10mm cotton rope tied in a very decorative pattern, with the next is traditional kinbaku with a full takate kote with natural colored jute.
It can be difficult to explain the differences to someone without any background, so you have to try to find what it is they are looking for with no common vocabulary.
Photographer: Steven Klein
Rope: Zetsu, LA Rope
In this case, it was going to be red rope and roses.
I demo the tie on a stand in and show him the pictures and he loves it. Unfortunately when it comes time to tie Lana Del Rey, she has a great deal of difficulty tolerating the rope and we need to readjust almost every aspect of the tie to make her feel comfortable and to get the shots the photographer is looking for.
It is a challenge but one we are able to meet.
As a result, we not only get some beautiful shots, but the red rope and rose image gets selected as one of the cover shots.
It was a lot of fun working with them and, after a long day, I think everyone was really happy with the outcome.
