Ultimate Goth

First ever blog on here… The blog title comes from my view of creating something out of nothing, I’m creating a world, this world has rules and narratives that I follow to create context.

This shoot was a dream brought on by a desire to pick up the camera, I hadn’t in a year and felt… just plain scared to do so. I’m not afraid to say, it’s probably not the kind of thing you want to hear… but fear can be a good motivator.

So I set about putting the pieces in place; model, studio and make up and hair.

Gathering as much reference material to provide a blue print of where I wanted to take the shoot, lost count of the amount of pins on Pinterest and the amount I culled to fine tune the material

It had been 11 years since I’d worked with Nadia Van Der Westhuizen, we’d been friends since that first shoot all those years ago but the opportunity to do another shoot never really presented itself. As I was wanting to do a full on goth shoot I couldn’t think of anyone who exemplified that aesthetic other than Nadia. And the ideas and clothing she brought with her was invaluable.

Zaneta Swiatlowska is one of the most amazing make up artists I’ve worked with, her ability with hair is only surpassed with her artist skills with a make up brush. We’d worked a couple of times before in the past and always discussed working together again.

If you ever need true genius for you shoots please get in contact with her at www.divineadmiration.co.uk and you will not be disappointed!

Since my move away from Leeds I no longer had access to my little home studio, most of my previous work had been done in a little attic room that I shared with my old flatmate Hannah Bent where we shared the space with her jewellery making. I only knew of a few places in the Birmingham area to shoot at, but the one place that always made me feel welcomed was Studio X (www.fromdimensionx.co.uk/studiox/) in Oldbury. Run by Bekah Davies and her husband Shaun Davies this place is an absolute playground for photographers, you’ve got 3 areas dedicated for shooting and all the lights and modifiers you could possibly want. So much so that I needed both Bekah and Shaun to help me out as there was too much for me to play with. Luckily i’d printed out my moodboards for quick reference.

Sam Mchale came down from Leeds to assist along with Kennedy Procter who had never been on a shoot before, think she had a good time but I was busy trying to set up and shoot. 

The day was demanding, and some of the ideas we wanted to do had to be cut due to time constraints, however I think we completly nailed it, there’s still some images to edit but this shoot has been to the gift that keeps on giving. With Zan’s amazing work and Nadia being the absolute epitome of being a goth queen there’s so much work i can do!

And with out Nadia, Zan, Bekah, Shaun, Sam and Kennedy I couldn’t have produced what I did, everyone got involved and suggested ideas that it truly was a collaboration. And these are the best shoots, because despite the long day we all had fun!

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