Saturday marked our first conceptual shoot of 2010, and our third collaborative project with Lethbridge makeup artist Bonnie Ferguson. I’m quite happy having Bonnie as an extension of the creative – our team is bonding with great synergy.
This shoot was inspired by Christopher Moore’s “Cuddle Commandos” show (currently showing at the University of Lethbridge gallery). I loved Christopher’s visual twist of military gear and wanted to use the same concept, but for a different message.

My wife Stacey is a local Lethbridge cosmetician, so I have some insight to the retail side of the beauty industry. My own personal battles with self-image draw parallels to the types of issues young women face when they spend money on concealers, cosmetics, and diet drugs. So I wanted to make a visual statement alluding to the beauty and advertising machine as a war, that each young woman is conscripted to. The war machine dictates the rules of what is considered “beautiful” and alluring – allowing those who reject it to be branded as outcasts (or flat foots).

With the visual statement and creative brief in place, I was ready to play stylist for the shoot. I was very blessed to cross paths with Gord from G.I. Jen‘s – a local army surplus store (256 13 Street North Lethbridge, AB (403) 327-6769). I’m not sure Gord understood what I wanted to do with the array of combat uniforms, dog tags, helmets, belts and weapons, but he was more than kind to lend them to us without charge. If you get the opportunity to stop by his store, please show Gord my appreciation for supporting our endeavour.

Bonnie, Brien and I recruited new talent for this shoot (including one of my future Summer brides), which was rewarding in itself. Four models spent time with Bonnie reproducing makeup from the 40′s – only to dust and grease the final visual to keep with the battlefield approach. I spent time capturing some of the transformation on video with my Canon 7D – I’m consistently amazed by the possibilities of photography and video fusion that come with a video dSLR camera, and its neat to see the crossover between disciplines.

With a temporary studio space setup in my home, Brien and I tested a fairly complex lighting setup consisting of 5 light sources that combined to get a very contrasty and dramatic feel. My favourite frames from the shoot involve Ashley and the USA desert combat uniform. Brien supplied some (very gross) stogies to use as props, and Ashley rocked the smoke quite well. The strobes picked up the smoke trails quite nicely, adding just that extra level of detail to the series.

Brien assists almost every shoot I do, and is really expanding his knowledge of light and model interaction which is rewarding to watch! Brien is always provided the opportunity to shoot at each session (but I like to think of him more as a co-photographer vs. an assist now) but our frames have always been pretty similar. We offset that by choosing different weapons for this series, I shot digital – while Brien rocked expired AGFA studio film in some vintage 35mm bodies (modified to trigger studio lights) – see him in action on the video!

Special thanks to Bonnie, Brien, Ashley, Kellie, Kaylee & Taryn for giving up their Saturday to make this shoot happen. Personal projects are often the most rewarding, and expand skill sets well beyond the day-to-day assignment work, so thanks for contributing guys – you made this shoot happen!

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