Well, Fashion Week came and went. I didn't go anywhere near the tents, watching instead from the safe distance of the living room television.
One of my students gave it a shot, though. Two articles I wrote about his experience went up today: an interview and some how-to hints:
Life at the End of the Runway
Seven Tips for Runway Photographers
The dialogue between photography and the world of fashion is a fascinating one. Michael Kors show at New York Fashion Week, for example, referenced the work of photographer Slim Aarons.
An article on Aaron's life is here, and David Patrick Columbia's visit with Aarons is worth checking out as well.
One of the things I find very odd about Fashion Week: it sounds like it would be great fun to be a runway shooter, perched at the key viewpoint, firing away and then quickly filing all the images for distribution to the world. Strangely, though, every runway shot I've seen this season looks more-or-less identical. And by coincidence I've spoken recently to two people who do exactly that kind of shooting -- and gotten the impression that the goal is in fact to provide that generic set of shots.... That's why the check gets cut. Still, it brings up an interesting question: what would a unique eye do with the runway situation?
I've seen some interesting "behind the scenes" coverage from Martin Fuchs and there have been books like Runway Madness.
Are there no other ways to shoot this?
Every so often I run around the reservoir in Central Park. It's a pleasant loop. There was good weather today, so after I finished two short editing projects and put one of them in the hands of a bicycle messenger and the other in my stack of materials for tomorrow, I went for the run.
On the back stretch, by the West side of the park, I looked up to admire the trees and the usual collection of people. And then I noticed a large umbrella, black outside and silver inside, and a man holding a medium-format camera at waist level. Flash. As I ran on, I saw a model holding one of those poses photographers get out of posing books. Flash.
"No," I thought, "you've got to move her hip forward. You're doing it wrong."
And then I remembered why I hate that sort of thing: even if you're doing it right, you're doing it wrong.
