One of my favorite shoots last year was this fashion shoot with Melody @ The Squad management. I was very inspired by American cool vibes, so I wanted to do something summery, but with some attitude. I was super lucky that Melody was in town, as she’s from Belgium. She fit my idea perfectly and I knew I wanted to shoot with her as soon as I saw her in the agency’s email.
As a location, I wanted an old school theatre, also something nearby that would have palm trees (like an outside bar etc.), a food market, or some cafe’s with a bit of a grungy facade. So I ended up choosing Brixton, as I found many of these sort of options there. However I’ve never shot there before or knew that much about it, so I was a bit surprised how the area actually was. Was definitely not easy to shoot there on a busy weekend. ;D What you don’t see especially in the Ritzy shots is loads of people around us, someone was constantly shouting nonsense etc…
Magazine editorial
It started just as a test and even though everything was a bit chaotic because of the location, I loved so many of the shots. (That’s why this post is crazy long… sorry ;D) But I knew I have something good here, so I submitted it to a mag. It actually came out in Off the Rails magazine’s “Lust for Life” digital issue. I loved that magazine for ages! I also have shot a roll of film during this shoot, but this post is already way too long, so I’ll do a separate post for that.
Credits:
model: Melody @ The Squad management
make up and hair: Vicky Alice
photography and styling: Ailera Stone
Let me know which outfit and pictures are your favorite from the Melody @ The Squad fashion shoot! Always curious as I can never choose myself (or have a really hard time to..) You can find my other fashion editorials here, and other model tests here.
Ritzy cinema location
I was SUPER happy that we shot in front of Ritzy while Once Upon A Time in Hollywood was playing there. It couldn’t have said anything better on it for the vibe I was going for! (Also just love Tarantino so.. ) Love these little coincidences when shooting.
Since the main street was so crazy, I was looking around for another place. These images were shot on a street literally next to Ritzy. I found a tiny leafy part you see here for the background (the rest of the street was not that), have to use whatever you find around you! I actually love how these portraits came out so much, better than I expected from that chaotic beginning. And playing with shadows has become my favorite thing lately.
Market
Images below are the only ones I actually chose/retouched from the market area. I thought shops were supposed to be open, (I was looking in particular for a fruit stand), but they mostly weren’t. And it was quite dark there too!
Another funny thing with location – I managed to make it look like a park, but it was like… 4 trees in front of some houses/ a random street. ;D I feel like a lot of this shoot was basically “ugly location challenge”.
That orange wall on the right was the TOILET entrance. ;DD Of course the only 2 palms I found turned out to be in between toilets and a fridge…. ;D (there’s a mop just behind her if you look closely…) Also it’s like a food market, so again many people were around us and walking by.
Possibly one of my favorite moments of the shoot was at the very end as the sun was setting behind us. There was this beautiful evening light coming from that street and it suddenly started to rain. But it made the light even more beautiful and magical! I shot loads of shots very quickly as it was raining on us and my camera, but I wanted to capture that light. And of course Brixton provided with a wonderful background with a pile of trash. ;D It was pretty much impossible to get that best light/glow without getting the trash in the shots. (And to edit it out would be a pain honestly). So I’m okay with that now, that was the reality we were in. Let me know though what you think – is it worth retouching the trash out for a better shot? Particularly in the 3 images below:
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