Tom Keenan and I travelled from the hotel to PT4U studio on Monday morning, after carrying out an Austin Powers' style many point turn on a very narrow road with rather a steep drop we reached PT4U. Debbie was there to greet us and took us on a tour of the facilities, well equipped in an understatement it is every photographer's dream! It is amazing, so much space and in such a beautiful setting, a decommissioned old chapel, it is truly beautiful, they have retained a lot of the original features so it has so much character too. Debbie introduced us to all of the team, they were all so welcoming and friendly to both of us.
The first part of the day was extremely nerve-racking, the prospect of being interviewed on camera was very daunting for me, I am sooooo much happier being behind the camera these days.
Tom went first thankfully and seemed to be amazingly relaxed, or certainly appeared so outwardly, the interview was really interesting and great to watch, you should check out his video when they go live. Tom is a really lovely guy, very creative and talented.
It was then my turn, I was super nervous and I am sure it will show in my body language when the video goes live. Mark was extremely good at interviewing and really helped me to relax, well as much as I could with my heart beating in my throat!
As my mind went totally blank during the interview here is a bit about myself:
I am married with two gorgeous girls (of course I am biased that is a mother's prerogative). We live in Derbyshire and I have a studio a couple of miles from where we live. I specialise in makeup, hair and fashion photography, I work closely with the local colleges and universities taking pictures for the student's portfolios and designer's lookbooks.
I have worked with photographers since the 90s, my husband encouraged me to start out in business so Gecko Studios Photography came into being in 2002 as a part time business and I left my safe job at the Council to go full time in 2008, I have always loved photography it just never dawned on me that I could make it a business, so I really need to thank Jeremy for his support and encouragement. I feel blessed that I am able to do something that I truly love for a living!
I graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) last year which I studied with the Open University, starting the same year as I started in business, it was a great journey and I am so pleased that I gained my degree but if I am true to myself, my heart is most certainly with the photography.
Here are a few photographers and publications that I LOVE:
Horst P Horst
Helmut Newton
Mert and Marcus
Al Rodriquez
Annie Leibovitz
Zemotion
Herb Ritts
Howard Schatz
Lara Jade
Michael David Adams
Solve Sundsbo
Richard Avedon
Tim Walker
Stephen Meisel
Ellen Von Unwerth
David La Chappelle
Patrick Demarchelier
I adore Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar as the photos are always so amazing!
I also love cinematic and graphic novel style imagery, taking influence from films such as The Third Man, Amelie and director such as Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam.
After the separate interviews Tom and I were interviewed together with Mark, we talked what inspires us. We chatted about our mutual respect for Lara Jade, Mark set us a challenge to carry out during the period before our next visit, we have to take a series of 12 photographs in the style of Lara Jade to display and critique during our next visit. For me this is very much out of my comfort zone as the majority of my work is carried out using studio flash both indoor or outdoor, the thought of using natural light is a tad scary to me.
The Adele photograph for Vogue US that Mark, Tom and I were discussing can be found on Vogue's website at http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/adele-one-and-only/#/magazine-gallery/adele-one-and-only/9 I love Mert and Marcus, their work is absolutely stunning! The photo that we discussed is so beautiful - the lighting, composition, set, clothing, styling and the makeup, it is a dream of a shot.
After the interviews we had lunch and met our stunning model Ryo who was modelling for us for the afternoon session. I will post the afternoon in the next post, we have some great behind the scenes photos taken by Paul Cornish.
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