Clifton Hill Costume & Textiles Launch Night

Big post today, but it is totally worth it!

I was recently invited to attend as one of the photographers for an event to launch the new Clifton Hill Costume And Textiles clothes shop. 

For the evening, there were seven different themed rooms - each styled in a different era. The eras were '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s. Within each era there were two models sporting the most fantastic clothes from that time. Each room you went into was like dropping into a scene from the past. It was wonderful! An hour before the guests started to arrive, me and the other photographers were given a chance to peruse the different rooms with our cameras, arranging the models how we wanted, sharing set-ups and so on.

As well as all this, there were two halls in the basement. One had a bar, and the other, a stage with live music surrounded by different vintage stalls. There were stalls for vintage jewelry, clothes, records, lace, oil cloth bags/items and vintage-inspired magazines. 

Later in the evening, a fashion show was hosted! Everyone crowded round the staging area which had a runway surrounded by vintage shoes with flowers planted in them! The models from earlier came down and paraded along the catwalk with different outfits, the music matching the era depicted.

The night itself was a massive success and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves! A huge congratulations and thanks to Sue Fyfe-Williams and Ali Cook of Jezebel Events for pulling the night off!

Shout out to The Marionettes and Pretty Nostalgic magazine who both featured in the event. I highly recommend them both so do take a look at their sites!

Fashion Photography Award

So before we get into the new shoots, I thought I should quickly just post this up. I recently entered the Shepton Mallet Digital Arts Festival hosted by Claire Sully. There where five categories and I entered three: Portrait, landscape and fashion. To be honest, I didn't expect to win the fashion category as there are so many great photographers out there so I was astounded when my name was called for the category. After the awards ceremony, we had a wonderful evening of chatting and (for some) dancing! I even had a chance to speak with the amazing Angela Williams who judged the photography competition. I learnt that back in the 1960s she assisted the legendary fashion and portrait photographer, Norman Parkinson!

Comment from Angela Williams: 'Rosa's work I found very contemporary - typical of the shots for the fashion pages of young people - refreshing and self assured...'

Pictures Entered That Won The Category:

1. 2.3.

Links to shots: 1. (Click) 2. (Click) 3. (Click)

Receiving the award. (In my defense, the lady handing the award out was quite short).

James Dean Inspired Shoot

This is a shoot inspired by 1950s Hollywood icon, James Dean. I only discovered Dean a couple of weeks ago when my granddad sent over a dvd of 'Rebel Without A Cause' for me to watch. It is now one of my favourite movies, next to the other Dean classic, 'East Of Eden'. When searching for the right model, I was quite surprised at the amount of people from my generation who had not heard of the movie star so if you are one of these people, here is a short summary:

 James Dean embodied the phrase 'live fast, die young'. At the age of 24, he died in a racing car accident. He only ever made three movies before his death: 'Rebel Without A Cause', 'East Of Eden' and 'Giant'. As I've heard it, he was always very anxious about his performances, rigorously perfecting each detail of the character he portrayed until he was satisfied with the result. As directors have said, Dean was very difficult to deal with on set as he had very definite ideas of the character or storyline he was portraying. These often      differed from the directors own ideas resulting in frequent clashes. 'Rebel Without A Cause' began a genre of movie dealing with teenage angst and the misunderstandings between parent and teenager. The movie created such an impression that after its release, young people identified with the character Dean played. Everyone wanted his look. They wanted to smoke, to hold 'chickie runs' and to comb their hair back in the classic 'pompadour' style. Young people were rebelling against traditional values and looked to James Dean as their icon.

Initially for this shoot,  I wanted to attain the James Dean on-stage 'Rebel' look, but in the end decided to go for the laid-back off-stage 'glasses with jumper' style instead. I then researched various James Dean images to find the right feel on which to base the shoot - these are featured at the end of the post. 

On the day of the shoot, it was half an hour before the model and assistant arrived, the weather was looking fine - and then it happened. Rain. A photographer's worst nightmare. So when we went out, not only was I trying unsuccessfully to keep the lens and model dry, but also trying  to keep the big light-reflector upright in the gale that was battering us about.

The model in this was also used for the 'Burberry Inspired' post. The assistant was the female model from the 'At Court' post.

If you are a James Dean fan, I would really recommend watching this TV short called 'The Dark, Dark Hours' with Dean performing with Ronald Reagan. Its a very rare piece of footage as it hasn't been seen for 50 years since it was originally aired. 

The Dark, Dark Hours Link

D-Day Celebrations, Normandy

This was an interesting day. Thank god for long zooms though!

Whilst in Normandy (France) it was nearing the anniversary of the D-day Normandy Landings and so we decided to go along to the celebrations. We drove around the french motorways and countryside for about an hour and a half until finally we found our destination. We had been told that proceedings started at four. They in fact, began at the leisurely time of half six.

Waiting around in the boiling hot sun for two and a half hours was not fun. However, watching the people dance to old jazz music whilst we waited, was. The old war veterans got up to dance with the young and pretty ladies, dressed in 1920's gear.

I was all the way across the other side of the square from these dancers, but thank god for the extra-long camera zoom otherwise I would never of been able to document this event.

Liberty March, Normandy