Page 167 - ConvinceThemFlip

find your style
artist, the best stylist (the person who dresses and acces-
sorizes the talent), and a seasoned photographer with his
own studio. Until I met him I’d never even been inside a
commercial photo studio before.
I confided my innocence to the stylist and she dis-
creetly told me every good move she’d ever seen a
photographer make. And she’d seen plenty. Most of
what I knew about fashion photography I’d gotten from
seeing the classic 1966 movie Blow-Up, about a scruffy
young fashion photographer who rode around London
in a Rolls-Royce and shot wild fashion spreads in his
studio. Once again I was a chameleon. I dressed like
the guy in Blow-Up, and did what the stylist had told
me, and everyone assumed I knew much more than I
did. I got in the mood (adjusted my attitude to mischie-
vous) and quickly figured out what I wanted. I told the
models where to stand and got them in the mood—
attitude is infectious. I even took some of the pictures
with the photographer’s guidance.
We did twenty-four setups that day, including five
exteriors. In some shots the models looked more formal
and authoritative; in others they were more casual and
approachable. I learned how tailored clothing, for both
men and women, could make the models look impor-
tant, credible, and persuasive, while the more casual
clothing made the same models appear more accessible,
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