Banana Republic + Piece & Co.

 

You guys know that I am a photographer, professionally. Sometimes I think I am put in a blogger or influencer category which is fine because I love to share my passions on social media and have now for years. It has helped me grow as an artist and thinker, pushed myself creatively and brought many wonderful friends and opportunities into my life. However, at the end of the day I make my living making photographs for companies and brands. Sometimes I share my work and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I not even legally allowed to because the company owns the images and rights straight from my camera. Sometimes the shoots are really creative and fun and inspiring and sometimes I feel as if I’m just a body there to push the trigger of a camera. 

This is one of those photography jobs I took that I feel so honored to be a part of. Banana Republic did a really cool thing. They partnered with a globally conscience textile manufacturer called Piece & Co whose main objective was to give opportunities to women in developing worlds while celebrating and even saving artisanal practices. The fabrics created by Piece & Co in partnership with these co-ops around the world are environmentally sustainable and empowering woman as small business owners and even in some cases, the bread winner for their families. When Banana Republic learned about the socially conscience initiative of Piece & Co. they wanted to partner to create a unique limited collection of artisan fabrics. So, off to South Africa we went to photograph the stunning artisans doing their handmade sun dying process that make up the fabrics in the collection, I’ll share those photographs on another post later this week, and to shoot the Banana Republic campaign for the collection on two local South African models. 

I loved this shoot. The spirit of the South African people is as beautiful as the landscape. The pride of the artisans showing their process and joy they had seeing the fabric come to life in fashion on our models. I love these photographs because for me they represent a circle, a connection we all have. The hands that create on to the souls that carry them on. 

Very special thank you to my dear friend and collaborator Kelly for bringing on board with this project and to Piece & Co., truly Kathleen (founder of Piece & Co.) and Liza (director of Piece & Co.) you two are the most intelligent, talented, impressive women I’ve ever worked with. Thank you Banana Republic for trusting me as your photographer. 

Modeled by Carla Peters + Samuel Mukhuwana // Creative Direction by Kizmet. World // Styling by Kelly Framel // Hair & Makeup by Tina Hoffmann // Production by Liza Voloshin 

This entire collection is available on Banana Republic where you can see and learn more behind the collection. 

 

A Summer Soirée with Zac Posen & Ecco Domani

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I love New York in the summer. The parties are always at their most magical, and the people so beautiful. You would never know walking down a bustling street in Soho that behind a secret walled garden a glamorous summer soirée hosted by fashion designer Zac Posen is underway.

Under sparkling lights and fitted cocktail dresses, it was a perfect way to celebrate the newest collaboration between designer and wine maker. For two years now Zac Posen has been creating limited-edition bottle designs for Ecco Domani‘s Italian Pinot Grigio. Last year’s bottle was silvery burst of flowers and this year’s inspiration, taken from Mr. Posen’s 2016 collection, is reminiscent of joyful dancing bubbles in tones playing off of the wine’s crisp floral notes.

If Zac Posen is the go-to designer for the glamorous, classic Hollywood, lady-like women of the world then it is of no exception that his Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio design would be anything less. Perfect for a summer party table, the bottle is dressed for the occasion and all the joy that comes with….

Happy Summer! 

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Ecco’s Sparkling Rosa Cocktail

  • 1 bottle Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio
  • 12 oz Fresh Lemonade
  • 12 oz Fresh Grapefruit juice
  • 24 oz Club soda or sparkling water
  • lemon-lime soda
  • Mint for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a large punch bowl. Serve in wine glasses or low ball glasses with ice and garnished with fresh mint leaves and lemon slices. 

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Casa Palopo

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Carved into the side of a mountain, high atop Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan, sits the tranquil yet stylish Casa Palopo. The boutique luxury resort consists of only 7 rooms with the crown jewel being the villa on the highest perch, a perfect home to share with girlfriends or a small traveling group. The picturesque pool, the outdoor fireplaces, and the one-of-a-kind decor, with many items imported from Africa, make this a total fantasy of living. From veranda to veranda it’s impossible to feel stress here when all your eyes gaze upon is a view of nature’s spectacular show.

I wish I could have spent a thousand nights here, tucked away into the side of the hill, spending my days painting the ever changing colors of the sky and feeling the beauty of life discovered in Guatemala.

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Kelly wears a dress by Jonathan Cohen, belt purchased from a local Guatemalan market

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It’s a CHANEL world

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I like the idea of rejecting winter. While talking one morning with the team at CHANEL about the launch of their eyewear e-commerce for the US I started dreaming about those sunny resort days ahead when you desperately crave warm golden light and any color besides gray. Once I was driving with a friend in the early spring and she laughed at me as I starred glassy eyed out the window and said “I miss the color green.”

It’s just that simple.

So let’s bring resort to us. In a beautiful explosion of color lost in the concrete industrial vault of Brooklyn, Juliane, our exotic CHANEL flower, paints a trail of prismacolor like an escaped wildflower from some tropical distant land, bringing back to life the sticky memories of warm days past and all that there is to look forward to when we bloom to our fullest beauty again.

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Triumph Lingerie

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My latest project with my frequent creative collaborator Kelly got a little more intimate this time around with a look at one of the oldest lingerie brands, founded in Europe in 1886, Triumph. This project was unlike most of our jobs in the digital age, these image were used in print first, layout designed by Kelly, to be picked up at Journelle stores and handed out at Triumph’s fashion show.

We wanted these images to be a celebration of women, to be feminine but confident, uncovered but in control. We wanted to be inspired at the end of the day to put on some lace and love every curve. Now, doesn’t that sound fun?

Below are our four women, full of their own Triumphs, all from different places in the world and celebrated beautifully in their own skin because confidence is the biggest triumph of all.

Nneoma

 

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 Above & in the cover photo Nneoma wears: Amourette Spotlight Underwire BraAmourette Spotlight Hipster panties

Below: Amourette 300 bra

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CHANEL + PARIS

It’s hard not to think about Paris when thinking about CHANEL. It’s an entangled marriage that has withstood the hands of time that withers away most relationships. For this shoot I wanted to bring to life the Paris I feel and see when I think of CHANEL. Her perfectly monochromatic glow, silvery reflections of long casted shadows carrying the sound of clicking heels mysteriously descending from rue en rue, the dusty ashtrays at the night’s end as the last dance of smoke from a cigarette disappears into darkness.  This is my Paris. Black and white and smudged with history.

As I write this I am looking out at the rooftops of Paris from my suite at the Le Bristol Hotel pondering this wonderful moment in time. Time is a recurring constant in my life. As a photographer I count in tenths of a second and, as an artist, I try to pause it.

CHANEL released a new timepiece this season inspired by Coco Chanel’s nature to draw inspiration from the masculine wardrobe which has come to be an emblematic style of CHANEL. Coco was famed for her many boyfriends which, not surprisingly, inspired many of her creations and shaped the course of her life. It is then fitting the watch is named Boy.Friend – balancing both the iconic CHANEL watch shape but with a more masculine over-sized face, manual mechanical movement and ardillon buckle.

So we put the three together, my smokey silver city of lights, her mysterious fashion muse CHANEL and in the shadows the spirit of the woman who continues to inspire us all, Madame Coco.

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Portrait of a Lady

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Doing a beauty video for Elle and Clarins had me thinking a lot about French beauty. In particular, how effortless and tasteful they are when it comes to skincare and how you makeup your face for the world to see. Every time I am in Paris I feel so inspired about the celebrated form of beauty French women have. To me, they are the most beautiful women in the world which I like to think goes beyond lucky genetics and has something to do with yummy french beauty products.

Kelly and I wanted to do a shoot for her sister Erin Framel on her birthday to mark this time in her life and celebrate all our collaborations. Many people go into behind the scenes to make a photo-shoot happen and Erin has produced, styled, and even modeled in many of our editorials and commercial shoots as a way to say thanks. With French beauty and one of my favorite fashion photography books, Woman in the Mirror, as inspiration we capture Erin in this timeless moment.

We let Elle & Clarins on set to see how we work and play together and here are the final images from this day of beauty….

Cover images~ Pamella Roland Gown || As29 Earrings

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Monica Rich Kosann

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This past January on a Connecticut estate, I shot my first print ad campaign with my creative collaborator Kelly Framel for a luxury jewelry brand I have been a fan of for many years now: Monica Rich Kosann. As you know,  I have been collaborating with Kelly for close to five years now. She knows what I like, what I gravitate towards, and what will make a good photograph. I feel lucky I get to go to work with one of my best friends and have clients I personally love such as Monica. This time, however, was a bit different. When Monica approached us last year about creating their campaign images for 2015 it wasn’t just digital as we’ve done so many times before. This would be mine and Kelly’s first print ad campaign.

So it was a little different…

They wanted Kelly and I create the entire thing from concept to final selection. Kelly spent a ton of time researching photography books and british magazines and would come to meetings dragging a suitcase full of them. A lot of visual inspiration came from Bruce Weber’s Blood, Sweat and Tears and Peter Lindbergh’s Untitled 116. For me, the story was all about heritage and balancing the timelessness of Monica’s jewelry. The way each piece is something you collect (or dream of collecting) and becomes a part of your life until ultimately being passed it down to a loved one. Monica is also a photographer so there was an element of her photographic spirit I wished to capture in the images, the way she finds these quiet and intimate moments so beautifully. I wanted to shoot in natural light, as Monica chooses to do in her own body of work, and I wanted to give elements of a place or home but never be literal. To feel like a life being lived shown with a delicate simplicity.

We casted two women for the shoot to make it multigenerational, something that is integral to the Monica Rich Kosann brand which we also felt represented the storytelling quality of her jewelry. Though I worked closely with the ad agency, I handled all post production in-house from color grading to retouching. I was very adamant that these would not be overly beauty retouched and aside from a very small few blemishes the women were left as beautifully natural as they are in real life.

When I was growing up it was a pre-digital world everything lived and died by what was physically printed. I dreamed of seeing my work in magazines, on billboards in Times Square (back when they were still billboards), window displays and in mailers. I’m very happy about my career and how things have changed through technology but there is a small piece of me that feels really proud to be able to check off an old fashioned goal of making it in print. When the first ad came out it was so thrilling to see it on the shelf and comb through the pages looking for the shot. If you follow me on snapchat you’ll remember the tears of joy I had sitting there, holding it. I hope I am lucky enough, talented enough, smart enough, to make this the first of many more.

So here are the series of photographs we made on this winter day. Though these are the final four you’ll start to see in Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Town & Country among others, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite moments, and fill you in on what exactly they are wearing these chic creatures and a few behind the scenes stories to some of the shots below…

To Monica & Rod, thank you for believing in Kelly and me.

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The above shot of Deborah was the first in the series of ads to come out in this month’s Town and Country. The call time in Manhattan for the crew was 4:30am in order to get everyone up to the house in Connecticut by early morning light. As the models were in hair and makeup, the styling team were steaming the clothes preparing for the fist shot. I was standing in silence watching the light come up minute by minute. I knew I wanted to shoot in that soft delicate time before the sun comes up just over the horizon so I told Kelly she had ten minutes to have them ready by the dock. After we finished the shot just in time, the sun arose and that quiet moment had passed.

Above~ Marissa Webb navy button up dress | Primary funktional stockholm sweater coat | Monica Rich Kosann carpe diem necklace, gold locket, link chain with diamond pave bracelet, planet cocktail ring, cat’s eye stud earrings

Below~ Jill Stuart peach top | A Piece Apart white pants | Monica Rich Kosann earth charm necklace, suppose you love me posey ring, octopus charm necklace, short poesy rings necklace 

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The above shot of Ira was taken toward the end of the day. This is the 2nd ad to come out in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar. This photo is really special to me for a variety of reasons. First, I personally own this charm. It was an anniversary gift, a nod to all the world traveling and memories I’ve collected around the world. At this particular moment in the day I was feeling a little worn down from having so many people talking at me while I was trying to shoot. I felt like I couldn’t hear myself think! I told everyone we got the shot and they all started heading back inside. But I pulled Ira back and asked her to hang on for a moment. It was just her, my assistant and this quiet moment on the edge of the ocean and I asked her hold up the earth in front of her eye, like she has the whole world on a string.

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Above~ Tibi blue trench | Monica Rich Kosann sugar loaf bracelet, posey bracelets, gate collection hoop earrings, stacked collection of posey rings necklaces

Below~ Karen Millen white tshirt | Zimmerman pinstripe suit | Monica Rich Kosann hoop earrings with scroll detail, collection of poesy ring necklaces,  poesy ring bracelets, & stacked poesy rings

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The sports car… that was a surprise. When Kelly and I arrived at the estate the day before the shoot to location scout the grounds keeper took us into the garage were we gasped at the sight of four amazing sports cars. It made for quite the hysterical Snapchat show. On the day of the shoot we had Ira in the previous photo on a yellow couch with a blue jacket on and it just wasn’t sexy or cool enough. The jewelry stayed the same but Kelly put her in a power suit and white tee shirt, we pulled out this little red sports car and that was the right moment. That’s the girl I want to be. This image will also make it to print.

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The Female Nude

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I am a woman. I am aware of my body like any normal human being. It’s not a surprise, just look at the images served up to us. Everyone is beautiful, happy, young, thin… they have the perfect (insert your own personal thoughts here) stomach, eye brows, waist, legs, hips- sometimes it feels like an impossible treadmill of perfect we will never really achieve because of genetics, because we have real life and real work and can’t spend the amount of time it takes to achieve “perfection”.

But really, what is perfect?

I’ve always be interested in shooting nudes. I started in college. The body is one of the most beautiful, natural things about life. The way it changes, the way it gives life, the way each is our own and that is what makes us special. I wouldn’t take my grandmother’s wrinkles away, or Dad’s loving soft hugs, or seeing my sister-in-law’s body change carrying the amazing twins my family adores. I would not say that I have had body issues all my life, but as I’ve gotten older I had to learn to look in the mirror and teach myself to stop judging the way I look compared to other people.

As a photographer I look for what is photogenic from people to places to the design of a still life. I’m not going to lie, I love tall beautiful thin fashion models. They are like illustrations of illusions of an idea of who we think we are or could be. Fantasy is part of the fun, photographing that fantasy is one of the things that I love most.

However…

There is a place for curves too. Curves are incredible. When our model Jourdan walked in I was honestly first taken back by her personality. Her confidence. Confidence is the one of the greatest quality anyone can possess. She was cool, smart, comfortable in her own skin. She was one of the least self-deprecating models I’ve ever worked with. When we started making photographs a lot changed for me. Not only as a photographer but as a woman. Maybe even more importantly as a woman. Here was a human, not afraid to let me photograph her with nothing to hide behind, no character to portray, no fantasy story to tell, it was just her. In the moment. In the light. Just the way she is.

After this shoot I had a mix of emotions. Her body, so beautiful, so photographic in its shapes and contours was in one word: inspiring. She made me realize that the female form in any shape and size is incredible. To have curves, softness, confidence was true beauty. She represented to me what being a woman was all about. I understood why Renior and Matisse painted the way they did and I saw that beauty too. I was so proud to be a woman and in my personal life, more confident about the size of my chest and softness around my stomach. If wrinkles show the hand of time and the life that was lived, curves show the fertility of it and the raw attraction of humanity.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that women come in many fascinating forms and, at this sitting, I saw beauty in a way that should be more often seen.

Here’s to the beautiful form we call being a WOMAN.

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Play it for CHANEL

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The fashion world is always colliding and collaborating with artists, like two exotic fish constantly swimming around each other in a never-ending dance of inspiration, a black and white yin & yang. When the Chanel Haute Couture Spring 2015 collection came to New York for 48 hours they sent a selection over to our studio for another midnight sitting (after the delicate, one-of-a-kind pieces spent the day in back-to-back appointments with clients, collectors, buyers and press).

Of course, shooting couture on a model would be terribly fun but sometimes I want more of a story… not to mention, the Chanel shoots happen in the middle of New York Fashion Week where every model is busy being sent down the runways multiple times a day.

So we find our own muses.

Last September it was our Botticelli-esque raven, artist India Salvor Menuez on a concrete set piece we created for her, to live like a flower sprouting up between the cracks of distressed urban time. For this sitting, my creative collaborator Kelly Framel, found violinist Margot Moe, already a fixture in the fashion world for her legendary violin riffs over musical partner Mia Moretti’s DJ sets. They’ve brought music from the Lower East Side up to the runways of Fashion Week and into the temple of art by opening for Janet Jackson at the Louvre.

Which brings me back to my point of fashion and art and its never ending dance of inspiration.

So here Margot is, an artist, and there is CHANEL, the most legendary fashion house in the world, a moment of black and white yin and yang tugging and pulling and swirling and and jumping around each other on set like a tangled pair of lovers caught up in the fires of inspiration one never quite able to let the other go.

We sat in the studio in silence and listened to Margot play, the snow falling in a white blanket outside our old industrial windows contrasting with the inky black looks billowing through the set and I thought back to that moment when I was sitting in Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment  last fall, listening to the stories of her intimate dinner parties. She liked interesting people, people who had a story, people who created something and played to their own tune much like Coco herself.

I can’t help but think in another world, she would have been quite pleased to have Margot filling her home and her heart with a soulful tune that would fade out onto the black and white streets of Paris…

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Tell me about some of the current projects you are working on?

I’m in the studio right now recording my solo record, creating a classical music mixtape, and writing an orchestral piece. 

You’re an incredible violinist, how did you get started?

I picked it up when I was four and haven’t put it down since. 

What drew you to the violin? 

It’s a conversation without words.

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Beach Resort Fashion

 

As I sit here in New York City, it’s 24 degrees outside, we just “survived” snowmeggedon and more freezing rain is in the forecast for this next week. Oy, I’m ready for a break from winter, to play in the sun and sand and look out on a horizon of endless teals and blues until it ignites into a fiery sunset. I like to fantasize about what I’d wear to the beach or sparkling dinners seaside. Until that getaway day comes I’ll just pretend I’m here at Casa Claridge Beach Club, in these sweet, simple, resort outfits for the classic girl at heart.

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Above~ Jill Stuart crop top and skirt | Maiyet Purse | Maiyet Bracelet

Below~ Audra Bustier | Christian Siriano Trousers

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Above~ Solid & Striped black swimsuit | Maiyet sweater | Tiffany T bracelet 

Below~ Jill Stuart dress | Maiyet Shoes

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Above~ Jill Stuart crop top and skirt | Maiyet Purse | Maiyet Bracelet

Below~ Zimmermann Swimsuit

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Above & Below~ Tanya Taylor Meredith Dress

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Above~ Maiyet dress | Maiyet Purse | Maiyet Ring

Below~ Audra Bustier | Christian Siriano Trousers

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Shot in Miami at Casa Claridge Beach Club | Styled by Kelly Framel | Modeled by Gabby from Ford Models | Hair & Makeup by Melissa Connor using Sephora Cosmetics | Manicurist Cecilia from Pau-Eric Sinclair

Maiyet Resort

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Sometimes you have to be present in the moment. Sometimes you wake up and it’s raining outside, the wind is ripping at you and what you physically feel in nature, you are emotionally feeling in life. When Kelly and I were talking about shooting a fashion story on MAIYET’s resort collection, fittingly while at a resort for Art Basel, we couldn’t have anticipated the day nature gave to us. I wanted to use it as inspiration, to set the mood, to let the rain fall on her, the sand stick to her skin, the wind throw her hair and the ocean push her down. I wanted to wash away the year into a black and white memory. I’ve been so raw lately, having traveled and created non-stop for so long. I wanted a dark day on the beach, just to feel… something.

I think though the turmoil of that day, the turmoil of emotion is a part of life and a part of art. The change in the weather, the change in our lives. Everything changes, does it not? I remember last summer shooting my first story on MAIYET, the dancing light of the eastern tip of Long Island, the bond of friendship and womanhood captured from behind the lens. This resort collection carries the same threads but like life, you can see the changes. The signature cuffs are here but they are bigger now. The gorgeous coats take on more volume. The artful design to clothing is still there but more refined, more wearable from ocean to ocean.

So why MAIYET?… because they think differently. They hire artisans from around the world to produce their boutique clothing line which aids in these craftsmen to be able to build viable businesses in counties where opportunities like that do not exist so freely. Beyond the clothing they work with artists like Benjamin Millepied to choreograph a video with custom made pieces in movement to a beautiful dance based on an ancient Greek love story. They also made my all time favorite black blazer I’ve worn more than any other article of clothing, and THIS video which always and always gives me wanderlust.

…. and then I’m ready again for the sun to come out.

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Island Girl

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The beauty of Punta Cana was not limited to the just the resorts, but I found the island people of the Dominican Republic mirrored what nature had created. From their charming personality to beautiful warm skin color I found them intoxicating. A strange hybrid of latin culture mixing with European elegance, most of the people we met spoke multiple languages, lived abroad in Europe for a time and had a history of world experience. Being a photographer left alone on a island with her best friend (a stylist) and all these beautiful locals, we decided to focus our lens on Ana Nicole, another one of the Dominican Republic’s beautiful island girls, before she sets out to university in Holland… but for now, she’s just hanging out in Elle Sasson, letting the sun warm her skin, getting guys to open coconuts for us.

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