Pandora's box

Terry O’Neill - Photographer

Last week my husband and I went to a private showing of Terry O’Neill’s work at the Hotel du Vin in Bristol. I’ve always been a fan and had Terence Donovan, David Bailey and Brian Duffy’s work drummed into me from an early age by a mother who lived on Kings Road and danced through the 60’s with a medium format camera slung over her shoulder.

O’Neill acheived great success documenting fashion, moving onto rockstars, celebrities and the royal family, catching them unaware and ‘in the moment.’ Among his most iconic images is of his ex-wife Faye Dunaway shot lounging next to a swimming pool at a hotel in Beverley Hills, the morning after winning her Academy Award. This picture, and my favourite from his collection are below. His pictures sit in a class of their own. What a difference from the overstyled, retouched celebrity portraits that we see today!

It inspired us to shoot on film from now on - we’re bored of digital!

Spotlight on Claire Salter, make-up artist

I worked with Claire on a fashion editorial shoot last year, and became a firm fan and avid follower of her work.  Claire is a freelance Make Up Artist & Hair Stylist whose diverse work varies from commercial, fashion, editorial through to high fashion. Her influences include the wonderful Italian Vogue, Pat McGrath (ID, Vogue, MaxFactor) and Alex Box (Gareth Pugh, Lagerfeld, Rankin). Check out some of her work below.

www.clairesalter.co.uk

Picture Credits for images 1 and 2 above: 

Photography Sarah Jones http://www.sarahjonesphotography.co.uk
Hair & Make Up Claire Salter http://www.clairesalter.co.uk
Hair & Make Up assistant Amy Davies 
Styling Danielle Saville 
Model Emilia @ http://www.premiermodelmanagement.com

Mike Vensel fashion brand - young designer

I met Mike on a course at Central St Martins, and have been raving about his work ever since. The mikevensel brand is futuristic, minimalist sportswear made of simple, yet luxurious eco friendly materials. 

Mike trained in architecture and he designs, makes and photographs his own collections. As well as this he edits his own online and offline magazine ‘Kitten’ from his base in LA.

I’ll let the work speak for itself…Pictures below are from previous collections. To find out more about Mike view http://www.mikevensel.com/

The Enchanted Palace

Kensington Palace has been transformed into ‘The Enchanted Palace’ by Wildwood Productions, famous for their outdoor installations and carnival performances, evolved from Kneehigh Theatre Company.

The brief was to create a magical world through which visitors could explore the history of the palace, and the early lives of the princesses who resided there. Vivienne Westwood, William Tempest and Echo Morgan have created installations using the ‘incredible and dramatic stories of the people who lived in the palace as the springboard, ’ with each room telling tales of secrets, jealousy, love and loss brought to life by interactive theatre.

While I enjoyed some of the installations, I felt that the story was fragmented (deliberate?) and didn’t link well from room to room. It could have done with more audio support that would help tell the story as it unfolded, or more actors to accompany you from room to room telling the tale. Instead the actors only appeared every now and again, pottering around cupboards, mumbling, and casting spells.

The other problem was negotiating the crowd of people that moved from room to room which meant that some of the flow of the story was lost. I did however get a real sense of the emotions felt by the princesses that were dramatised through lighting and props such as the collection of antique glass bottles, called ‘tear catchers’, where tears were put in bottles in times of mourning. One of my favourite pieces is Westwood’s interpretation of a Georgian dress, based on the rebellious Princess Charlotte. It stands on the steps of the King’s staircase, against William Kent’s portrayal of George I’s court, looking over the painted banisters as the dress ‘takes flight’. A fan set near the dress would have really brought it to life.

Really worth a visit. A selection of my favourite parts of the exhibition are below…The exhibition runs until this June.

Westwood’s dress for ‘a rebellious princess’

‘The Cupola Room’ by Boudicca - my favourite installation, centred on time pieces with mechanistic dresses circling the room - stunning.

‘Of the World’ by Echo Morgan

Phoebe, outside the Palace. Outfit designed and made by Phoebe.

Bring out your corsets

I was lucky enough to art direct a shoot for Haute Magazine recently in which we shot the amazing work of Una Burke.  Una creates wearable pieces of art made out of leather giving a conceptual and evocative slant to the traditional ‘corset’; her sculptural forms created around the shape of the contorted female body.   Some of the pieces in her collection are reminiscent of prosthetics and medical braces, and can be worn as arm, leg, head, chest shoulder pieces which can be worn with contrasting fabrics such as sheer, flowing fabrics.

Thank you Stylist Marie-Claude (http://marie-claudelamb.blogspot.com/), for introducing me to Una’s work.

See below one of the shots from the editorial using one of Una’s pieces. The full shoot can be viewed at http://annettesloly.carbonmade.com/