The Indie Lingerie Brand Love Bomb!

To promote the Love Bomb feature taking place over the next few weeks, I shot a set of images in an amazing circusy location! Featuring 10 independent lingerie brands, who will be giving away prizes galore from the 30th onwards, the Indie Lingerie Brand Big Love Bomb is a love letter to independence, away from large corporations. Catherine from Kiss Me Deadly wrote a fantastic explanation over on The Lingerie Addict about exactly why we have organised this love in!

I had the pleasure of working with two of my favourite models ever, the beautiful Jess Abidde and Miss Miranda. 

Here is the full set, with makeup by the awesome Cheyenne Raymond:

Tessa wears Playful Promises, Jess wears What Katie DidTessa in Miss Mandalay, Velda Lauder, Playful Promises and Pearls and SwineTessa in Kriss Soonik and Fraulein Kink. Shoes by Natacha Marro.Tessa wears Miss Mandalay, Velda Lauder and Playful Promises. Jess wears Kiss Me Deadly. Masks by Pearls and Swine.Jess in Ayten GassonCandy Baker hosiery with Natacha Marro shoesTessa in Playful PromisesTessa in Kiss Me Deadly and Fraulein KinkJess in Paolita and Natacha Marro shoesMiranda and Jess in Paolita and Natacha Marro and Fabulously Fetish shoesJess in Paolita and Natacha Marro shoes

Plus Playful Promises have just released one of the lookbook shots from AW12, which I shot recently in yet another beautiful location! This set of lingerie is called Dominique and will be available in April ;)

Broken lenses: After 120 years Kodak files for bankruptcy

Sad news came over the last few days; the once glorious Eastman Kodak empire is very probably ending as the photographic pioneer prepares to file for brankruptcy. First Polaroid, now Kodak, have fallen in this digital age. It is very difficult to discuss Kodak in the present tense, as the situation looks far too grim for them to pull through.

The company that brought photography to the masses is currently shedding a whopping $70 million a month. In an attempt to keep themselves (and their employees) afloat, Kodak are selling off their patents and working with lenders. If this wasn't bad enough, shares in the company have been closing at $1 for over 30 days. Ouch.

Looking at a graph of Kodak's share price over the past decade is depressingly gloomy, but predictable for a company that hasn't really managed to adapt to the changing times. Kodak had never really been able to recover from the digital revolution, which blew interest in traditional methods well away from mainstream consumers. The worst thing about this is that it was a Kodak engineer, Steven Sasson, who invented the digital camera in 1975 (even the Apple QuickTake cameras, one of the first consumer digital cameras were produced by Kodak) - so what went wrong?

Many are blaming phone cameras for the company's fate, but it isn't that simple, and if that were the case, plenty of other brands would be in the same situation. No, despite a pathetic attempt to reach the digital age by focusing on producing home printers, they just didn't manage to stay ahead of the game.

And this isn't their first mistake. In the 1970s Kodak sat on top of the market with 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in America, making them confident that Japanese newcomers Fujifilm would be no competition despite their cheaper prices. Kodak's pride and belief that the American public would never desert the brand resulted in them turning down sponsorship of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which Fuji quickly snapped (forgive the pun) up, giving them a foothold in the market. 

Although Kodak planned their move to digital in the 1990s, they never really felt any pressure of competition and, shockingly, the executives could not imagine a world without traditional film. Although film sales dropped dramatically in 2001, there was no lightbulb moment; instead the decrease was blamed on the September 11 attacks. Things snowballed from then on.

It is so sad to think that this classic photography brand is coming to a close, a brand so ingrained in our culture that the phrase "Kodak moment" has become synonymous with a rare, once-in-a-lifetime moment that has or should have been captured forever. 

It upsets me to think that a few generations from now, people my age won't know how it feels to load a 35mm film into a camera, or the excitement of looking through your grainy, already-faded holiday photos taken on a single-use camera. 

2011: So long and thanks for all the fish.

This post is slightly belated, I must admit, but I thought it best to write something about my past year!

I feel like I haven’t really shot much in 2011, but actually that isn’t true, I’ve just shot less self portraits. In fact, I think I’ve only shot about 5 sets of self portraits, which is pretty crazy considering how many I used to take. It isn’t that I’m running out of ideas but that I’m busy with other projects and the joy of actually being paid to take photographs - something that I didn’t think would happen earlier this year. 

When I first started being ‘serious’ about photography about 5 or 6 years ago, I used to take self portraits because I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and I didn’t have to worry about anyone else. I was also terrified of letting down models because I wasn’t good enough. I seem to have gotten over that fear, not because I think I am skilled, but because I refuse to pander to divas. If a model acts off with me, I’ll probably tell them to get out my studio.

This has been the year when I have shot the most photographs of other people. Most of them, I would say are incredibly nice and talented people. I’ve shot one of my favourite performers Missy Macabre, the utterly stunning Jess Abidde, delightful burlesque performer Miss Betsy Rose, Italian model Shivabel, American artist Vera Icon, uniquely gorgeous Helene Atsuko, ridiculously photogenic Nina Kate, the super sexy frenchie Mam’zelle Maz, another of my favourite performers Leah Debrincat, beautiful Amanda (who I’ve shot before, amazed at her chameleon skills), ethereally perfect Miranda Barrie, and last but not least gorgeous red-head Sophia St. Villier! Most of those people I probably gazed at longingly years ago! 

 

 One highlight of my year was collaborating with Amelia Arsenic for her A is fo Arsenic: Crime and Punishment range, which are still for sale here. We actually shot the original images in November 2010, but they weren't released until this year. You can view the original images and the lookbook photos here. As if that weren't amazing enough, one of the images was featured on a Torture Garden flyer!

Modelling has taken a little bit of a back seat this year, although I have so many ideas and outfits, I rarely find people that I can work with who understand my vision! Unfortunately most of those that I do enjoy working with live far away! This year, however, my partner Markabre Charade has picked up the camera and been using me as his muse somewhat. Not only has he created some beautiful films, including the Monarch (a beautiful experimental film seen below), he is also a talented photographer!

A collection of some of the shots in which I modelled (photographers: Ravenblakh, Yukidoll, Neil Dawson, Maria S. Varela, Markabre).

 

One of my favourite shots this year is this one by Yukidoll photography. I had created this outfit from scratch in homage to Galliano's Frozen Ukrainian Brides and had been looking for someone to shoot it in a very specific way. Although this was shot in 5 minutes in a hallway before a mad rush to catch a train, it is still exactly what I was looking for.

 

In 2011 I've been treated to two Opera outings (Die Zauberflote at The Royal Opera House and Terry Gilliam's The Damnation of Faust at ENO), a Derren Brown show and went to see a fair few of my favourite bands including Katzenjammer (twice), Balkan Beat Box, George Clinton, The Tiger Lillies, Shantel and various musical marvels at Bestival.

 However, there was one big change in my life that made 2011 fantastic - starting work at Playful Promises! The 4 most recent shoots above were for PP, and I have also recently shot the AW13 lookbook, which we will be teasing you with soon. We already have some exciting ideas for 2012, as of course there is no rest for the wicked with Valentine's Day coming up! 

I don't really have any resolution apart from to update this thing a little more, and get the ball rolling with The Roustabouts (our new DJ duo team), of which there may be some exciting news very soon! I hope you all had a great 2011, and if you didn't, that 2012 will be better for you :)

Merry Christmas!

Oh dear, aren't I awful at updating? I'll be definitely adding this to my new years resolutions, and hopefully give this place a bit of a facelift!

Work has been super busy lately, and most of my blogging skills have gone into the Playful Promises blog. My partner and I have also set up a new venture, a theatrical DJ duo called The Roustabouts! We play all sorts of music, from Balkan Beats to electro swing - hopefully 2012 will be a big year.

I'm writing this from my parents' new house in Cornwall. They moved down from Essex a few months ago, but they have been looking forward to this for years and years. Their house is beautiful and this is what I can just about see from where I'm sitting...

It smells so beautiful here.

Have a lovely Christmas and I'll leave you with some photos I took of burlesque stunner Sophia St. Villier for Playful Promises!

Playful Promises Online Magazine Issue

Have I mentioned before how much I love my job? No? Well I love it!

I have also come to realize how much I adore marketing, when given creative freedom. Working for a laid back company that encourages creativity is so inspiring and refreshing. I think that even in university I had come to understand that I wouldn't be JUST a photographer (for one thing, I needed something secure, and freelance photographer does not provide that unless you are lucky enough to hit it big) - photoshoots are stressful and it would be taxing to constantly come up with good ideas. My skills are far too practical and technology-based to be a true artist (in the sense of what an artist is now - coming up with the newest bullshit to sell their art); I wanted to improve my graphic design skills, use social networking, write articles and blog as well as shoot pretty ladies in pretty underwear!

We have some exciting things underway for Playful Promises, from Circus-inspired events (I'd love to run my own club with my partner one day, so this is a fantastic stepping stone), more photoshoots, more magazines and more ways to reach out to our customers in an exciting and entertaining way!

Yesterday I published the 4th issue of the Playful Promises online magazine, which I had been working on over the past 2 months. Our current AW11 collection is called Damascan Dreams, and as it is our Autumn issue, I thought I would theme the whole magazine around the East and, in particular the way the Eastern culture and traditions have filtered into the West over time. As we also have a new style of gift pant available, themed around Circus pin ups (complete with their own adorable striped tin), I also included Circus-themed articles and images. 

Articles include makeup tutorials, cocktail recipes, a review of the Boom Boom Club, an interview with the fire-eating, glass-bathing Missy Macabre and an article about the birth of bellydance in the East. I also shot bellydance sensation Leah Debrincat and, to go along with her interview, Missy Macabre in all her art deco/carny glory! I've posted some of the images below, along with a few screencaps of my favourite sections of the magazine - don't forget to take a look!

 

Thanks to Silvia Ribera (hair) and Alice Birchmore (MUA) for their work on the shoot with Leah!