Me and my frequent model and collaborator Samantha Wardel were inspired by a photo we saw on the internet. The image was of a woman putting a VHS on her face to mimic eyes. We wanted to take this concept and put a messy spin on it. I used a 35mm Portra 400 in this shoot and was pretty happy with what I got from it.
Levi Russell is the owner of Thrifty, a home based second hand clothing store. He is someone I have volunteered to work to bring his thrifted clothing to life in with models. He brought me this idea to have a big a group shoot of people wearing denim. Denim jackets, jeans, shorts, shirts, purses, and even slides. There was 10 beautiful individuals rocking second hand denim. We did three different locations and it was just a blast! Enjoy these pictures of the day!
I had the pleasure with collaborating with one of my models and friends Samantha Wardle. This time she wasn’t modeling she was creating the image behind the scenes with me. I took pictures of 7 models that were wearing there own sweaters of any type. I sent the photos to samantha and she printed them out and took cutouts of magazines to collage onto the portraits. This project is pretty much about individuality and beauty behind making art with unique individuals.
I think that its pretty common knowledge that society has made norms for gender. Girls are supposed to be soft, nurturers, and feminine. Boys are supposed to be rough, workers, and masculine. Yet these norms end up being invalid in the hearts of many men and women alike. I feel like personally I had to deal with coming to terms with my masculinity. I had parents that did kind of go by these norms but they never truly enforced them on me or my other siblings. They let me cry, they let me like pink when I was 5 years old, they also let me do the musical in school (which a lot of people stereotypically label as a feminine thing). I think thats incredible important to let people find there own masculinity and felinity. In my eyes you can be super masculine and still have a strong famine side. Actually I think that expressing/ being vulnerable to your feminine side (When your a masculine person), is probably the most masculine thing someone can do. With this piece I just really wanted to make a statement that you can be a masculine person and still express your feminine side. You don’t have to be seen as feminine anymore because being feminine is being strong.
