Photography

Creations By Liv Free

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Not only is Liv Free a beautiful model and wonderful makeup artist, but she also has a line of accessories, Creations by Liv Free. Making everything from masks and eyepatches to opulent headpieces and horns, Liv has created a stunning collection of everything I want! 

She had previously made me this stunning halo and I also have a horned headdress that I still need to get around to photographing. Liv's pieces are always extremely well-made; the Halo has been in and out of suitcases to multiple different countries and still survived!

Liv got in touch with me to see if I wanted to shoot her new 'Pavo Cristatus' headpiece, and I can't turn a kokoshnik down ;)

My first thoughts when I saw the headdress (apart from the obvious Peacock-inspired colours) were of traditional Indian art, in particular the South Indian Mysore paintings, which featured a lot of bright pigments and gold leaf. I also thought about Vladimir Tretchikoff's paintings, in particular his best known "Chinese Girl" painting.

 

 

I wanted to channel these bright colours into my self portraits, which also made me think of glorious Technicolor films of the 1940s and 50s (here's an example, note Carmen Miranda particularly!).

I had originally planned to paint my hands and arms blue rather than my face, but that was too impractical to shoot with, and I'd been wanting to do a blue face look ever since seeing B.Ames & Valentine Steaphon's amazing makeup! I wanted the eyes to pop in a contrasting colour that would be picked up by the lighting.

 

 

The entire makeup (except the lips) was done using Sugarpill Cosmetics, which are now being stocked at Playful Promises!

Face - Afterparty and Tako (not currently available)

Eyes - Love+, Buttercupcake, Flamepoint, Asylum and Hi-Viz

Lashes - Glitzy

Lips - Shien Cosmetics Cobra Lily with a dab of Hi-Viz pigment

 

 

I actually ended up going out with the same face, which turned into a rather Beetlejuice-ian look :D


Playful Promises Circus Collection Lookbook

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Hooray, another lookbook I can show off!

Normally with lookbooks I shoot them 6 months before I can actually show them, but in this case the production process was shorter.

Playful Promises is celebrating 10 years of making knickers, and to celebrate we created a limited edition Circus-inspired collection, made entirely in the UK. Check out our facebook page to read more!

This is not only one of my favourite lingerie collections to date, but I'm so pleased with the images we shot. As this collection is exclusive to our retail website, the images didn't need to be so commercial, so we were a little more creative, experimenting with lighting. 

I shot in what I'm going to describe as a secret location (you might see it crop up in another way later this year) with Miss Miranda, who did all her own makeup and hair. We actually shot all of this in about 4 hours, because we are awesome ;) 

Click on the photos to buy the extemely limited edition pieces!

 

 

We also shot some mix-and-match images of some of the other brands we carry.

Suri Sumatra and The Bump!

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Back at the beginning of the year I had the absolutely beautiful Suri Sumatra visit the studio!

Suri is one of my favourite performers; I particularly love the way she utilizes her vast knowledge and cultural background to create incredibly striking, rich acts complete with exquisite costuming. She's also one of the  kindest, sweetest lady I have ever met!

However, we had a slightly different, yet no less exciting, reason for finally shooting together - Suri was pregnant! I say was, as she is now a mother to a beautiful baby girl, Lena. 

As you might have guessed, I've not photographed a pregnant woman before, but I'm glad that I could document this occasion for Suri :)