I left the house this morning, dragged onto the train (not typical for a Saturday morning), rode into Manhattan, and climbed the stairs to the street level and a sign which read 'Fashion Avenue'. At 9 am, I was starting my first of 3 weekends of fashion photography boot camp at F.I.T, the Fashion Institute of Technology... This was an amazing day. The instructor, a native Parisian, has been shooting fashion for over 40 years. The pearls of wisdom I gleaned from this guy in one day have blown me away. I'll never look at a fashion magazine the same way again, now that I'm aware of some of the formulas in place along the pages of an editorial fashion spread...

We were placed into groups; one photographer and 3 stylists and were told to come up with a concept for a photo shoot which will take place in two weeks... We will spend the week collecting garments and accessories, will do a fitting with our model next weekend and the shoot the following.

Model Fittings!

The more I learn about fashion photography, the more I realize how very difficult it is to break into, but I also realize how I natural I feel in that environment; how much I fit in. The underpinning of editorial fashion imagery is pure art. Fashion photographers are so married to fine art, it seems sometimes they reference art history more than most of artists I've known. I went to six years of art school and have had constant disappointment in the art world in my professional life. It seems to toggle between craft and corporate, with the history, romance and the intellectual aspects often being lost along the way. Fashion photography embraces the all elements of fine art, while showing us fantasy stories wrapped around exquisite garments.
I absolutely love it...