My journey back into fashion photography continues.
Per Wikipedia:
Fashion: 1. a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior. synonyms: vogue, trend, craze, rage, mania, fad.
2. a manner of doing something.
There has always been a pull to shoot fashion. The entire topic fascinates me. It’s ever changing and evolving. I’ve studied it and the photographers that have done well with it. I grew up pouring over images from Penn, Ritts, Newton, Avedon, Meisel, and others.
I’ve always thought of fashion in the manner that it’s not what you wear but how you wear it. Jeans have been jeans for over a century. But they have changed over the years. Bell bottoms, boot cut, designer, cut/torn, acid wash, stone wash, skinny and, of late a trend back towards designer.
Give me a t-shirt, a knife, and some time and I’ll go to town. My favorite fashion “test” is to give students a scarf, give them 5 minutes, and have them shoot as many different ways to use it other than as a scarf.
Then there is the manner of how I shoot fashion. I like high energy and motion. I want to show the cut and flow. I want life. I want the people wearing it to exude sass, power, joy or whatever emotion they are feeling while wearing it.
Which brings me to these images from a recent session with Leslie in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. We set out on a very blustery day to capture fashion images. Time was tight, as always, and we didn’t want to keep putting it off “for a better day.”
As always, Leslie didn’t hold back. She has a fire that just burns brighter when a camera is turned towards her. She is a posing ninja that keeps me on my toes in an effort to keep her contained in the frame. I’ve always said that she moves like she’s in The Matrix. Bending, twisting, turning. Pow, pow, POW. I always need a nap after working with her.
These images are just a landmark in the journey to becoming a better fashion photographer and, ultimately, a better photographer. As I continue on there will be an infinite amount of these markers. There will never be an end, a goal that says I made it. That is not in the plan.
But they are something, aren’t they? I’m pleased with them for now but I can’t wait to see what’s next. I’m ready to go again.
Mark Knopp is a Virginia Beach-based photographer covering the Hampton Roads community and beyond. Contact him at mknopp1(at)cox.net with any questions you might have or to book your session today.
Photography by Mark K 