Back in March I started conceptualizing a beauty shoot for my good friend Kat Sterrett. She is a make-up artist who donates a generous amount of time to Polina’s and my shoots and in return we stage beauty shoots for her that allow her to dictate the make-up and show off her range. For this shoot the concept was “landscapes.” The models have very different looks and complexions and I wanted to emphasize this with very different color and textural stories.
Three days before the shoot, we lost our hair stylist. Not wanting to scrap the shoot since coordinating schedules is the hardest part of any shoot, I quickly came up with an idea that allowed us to cope with the loss. I located 4 different helmets and styled the looks using old clothes from my attic and my roller derby gear. Kat’s approach to the make-up was to highlight single elements on the face in a way that complimented the styling. On set we loosely referred to the looks as Tank Girl, Easy Rider, Speed Racer and James Bond. These names and a quick glance in the mirror was all the direction we gave the models; the rest was up to them. There was never more than one model on set at a time so no model witnessed the other being photographed. I was fascinated to see how each girl chose to embody their character and work (or not work) with their huge accessory.
Kudos to Polina for agreeing to work with my crazy idea and for agreeing to shoot through the clear visor on our Bond chick. It wouldn’t have been the same had we kept it flipped up! And thank you to our lovely and tolerant models Kiley, Jenna and Yana.
These images and a few adddional detail images can be seen atwww.LEVELinterior.com under the ART DIRECTION tab.
Photography by Polina Osherov Photography Makeup by Kat Sterrett
