I seem to be going through one of those phases where I neglect my blog again, but last week truly was the busiest I have ever been and the hardest I have had to work in my life! And I have had many jobs, doing many different things. I worked for 7 days straight, sourcing and styling for three shoots we did in that week. Each shoot was about 13 hours long, call time was 5:30am, most of the day in the hot sun (locations like Clifton beach and Lourensford Wine Estate), while prep days consist of crazy days of at least 8 hours each, driving all over Cape Town sourcing the perfect wardrobe for 3-6 models per shoot, and props for everyone to give it that “slice of life” and authenticity. I was burnt out three days into the week already and my bosses agreed I needed an assistant – made me feel hella grown-up, and cool in a Devil-wears-Prada kinda way.
If you’re confused about the type of styling and work I am currently doing, it is not fashion, despite it being called “styling”. I’m working for an AMAZING stock photography company, capturing staged, utopian tender moments and idealised daily activities. The focus is these moments, not the styling. Furthermore the styling needs to be very generic (so challenging) so that the images do not date quickly and can be bought years from now. These images are taken for the purpose of being sold to magazines, manufacturers, advertising agents etc. Everyone saves, and everyone wins.
As self-punishment for being scarce here, and to demostrate effective stock photography from 2003, I present to you: awkward teen/anno-looking me, aged 13 as a model in a stock shoot for Veer Images. I say it was effective stock because apparently the image didn’t date, so much so that the one with me hugging the guy resurfaced in People magazine last year (7 years later in my new, more adult life), bought for an article titled, “Are you boy crazy?” FML, but let’s laugh anyway.
