What do you do when you're at a dinner party and you find yourself seated right opposite a rather interesting character? Well, in my case you reach for your camera (which by the way is always with me), and you take a picture! What if that picture actually turns out to be a little candid marvel, and the subject you captured is Stephen Jones a legendary milliner? Well - you put your thinking cap on and start being creative, because when such an opportunity presents itself to you, you better recognise it! I did just that, and by the end of the evening I knew exactly what kind of Image project i would like to create with Stephen Jones . The difficulty I had to face, was to convince my subject of desire to take part in this little project.
Luckily, Stephen knows a good concept when he hears one, and therefore I didn’t have to work too hard to convince him . I started making some sketches to illustrate what I had in mind immediately the day after. Portraying a Milliner - it was obvious to me, the story had to be based around hats! It would’ve been rather predictable however and somewhat boring if Stephen wore some of his own Hat-Creations, because that’s something he does everyday anyway, and therefore this approach wouldn’t have been special. Instead by using a Snake as a metaphor for seduction is something special, and it totally makes sense when you think about it.
When Stephen and I met up again and I showed him my sketches, explaining how I visualised the story, he got it straight away and no further discussion was needed. At this point I knew I got his trust and he would allow me to do whatever is needed to get the image I desire.
Obviously, this wasn’t one of those portrait session when the subject turns up and you have 10 minutes to shoot! Oh no, a lot of planning and organising is involved to get it perfect, and one heavily relies on the team helping to achieve the image.
Now, that the ball is rolling and the picture is published (here on my website firs) hopefully the rest will fall into place too and some more creative collaborations will follow.