I’m going to start this by saying these images are wildly different than what I’m used to sharing – both in posing and editing, but I’m so excited about this shift in my work because it reminds me of college. I took a class called Location, where we went to different – you guessed it, locations – and we had to either bring a model and create something within that space, or photograph whatever we found there. It forced us to break out of our shells and think outside of the box within whatever location we went to for that class and that is something I’ve started to reapply in my work again so many years later. Which brings us to this shoot, the first real “creative concept” I’ve done in YEARS.
For the past few months, I’ve driven by this empty lot by my house and each time I drove by, I kept envisioning different scenes. After about 4 months, I said to my boyfriend while I was driving “can you take a video of this lot when we drive by so I can stare at this when we get home?!” He used to think I was crazy when I requested things like this – he’s finally gotten used to doing weird things in honor of my creativity. Once home, I finally saw it all come together – the vision was of a girl standing on a box or some type of elevated surface, along side her partner. The thing that really tied this all together was the old, run down gas station sign in the back. That was what I was after in every image. I wanted to give the feel of abandon and grungy, but not deserted. I never intended there be two types of levels (aka the chair) but when I was thrifting for a box (aka a dresser) I found this chair that begged me to buy it.
Now to find humans to model. Micaela had been a long time follower of mine and when I had shared that I was looking for a couple who’d be down to get a little weird for a concept session that I had in mind, she instantly jumped at the occasion. It was honestly pretty bold of her to just blindly follow my poorly drawn example of what I had in mind and show up at the coordinates I’d send of this lot, but I’m glad she trusted me enough. We shot right before golden hour because I knew I wanted some pretty harsh lighting for the start of this – to really give in to the grungy feel of the location. From the second I started shooting, to the very end, these two gave it THEIR ALL. At one point, Michaela said she had done some research and looked at poses to match the vibe of the whole thing. Truly iconic. This session also reignited my creative brain to step out of the box I’ve found myself in and I cannot wait to create more magic like this.
