Not Another Guide

It occurred to me, after I swiped off a plate of French fries, two beers and ½ a dozen oysters, as I made my way down to 20^th street to meet Brooklyn based photographer; Anna Moller, that I would be hanging with a gaggle of human beings who look like Giacometti statues.  Models.   Nothing like stuffing your face, till you want to burst our of your pants and then hanging with models (I am currently on my 2nd latte and devouring a slice of pound cake as I write this....ah!  The freedom!)

As a general rule, models really aren’t as striking looking in real life, as they are on camera.  Their sharp angles and flawless symmetry tend to reflect the light perfectly toward the lens and make them appear as beautiful and flawless as you see on camera.  But, if it weren’t for their height and subsequent anorexia, you probably wouldn’t notice them as their photos suggest if you saw them on the street.

But there is something ethereal about the way they move – like giraffes out of the African Safari.  It’s like they all take a sublime pill when backstage….perhaps they need to, to counteract the flurry of activity that surrounds them.

Speaking of a flurry of activity, I was a part of it as I followed Anna backstage at the Proenza Schouler show for NYC fashion week 2010. She has been shooting a week-long series for the online magazine AnOther.  This was her last show for the day.

Backstage at these events, the chaos that surrounds the models seems perfectly orchestrated.  Photogs swim through a sea of other photogs in the middle and, on the sidelines, the models sit with make-up artists and hair stylists while they are being photographed from every angle.  They don’t flinch; they don’t seem fussed…they barely blink.  They just sit, nibbling on their feed for the day – an apple, or a grape…..Maybe it’s more like open day at the zoo!

Anna, however, moves through the room just as her photos tell a story – with sublime beauty and ease.  She glides, observes, pays attention and finally finds something that no one else is looking at and makes it beautiful.  She finds the extraordinary in the ordinary and that’s what makes her pictures so powerful.  They are simple in their subjects, they are clean in their presentation but they are layered with story and emotion.

I particularly love the juxtoposition of what was going on in the environment, the big picture of the show, and what she chooses to capture; the quiet moments.  The images that we don’t see from other photographers.

I followed Anna around, watching her work and here are the subsequent images and video.  Photographing a photographer, photographing.  

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For the actual photo shoot that Anna took check out AnOther magazine