I have a rewarding job. I get to hang out with people I really like and create images that reflect a vibrant, healthy and exciting lifestyle.  In fact, such is the appeal of that lifestyle that the world of fashion uses it’s cachet to create branding for the many products it markets.

The way my shoots come together has always been sort of weird. Sometimes I feel as if some grand conductor has launched a symphony and I simply stumbled into the performance unawares. Then it all connects and I do my portion. It truly is a small part that I play at that point, albeit an integral one.

Hailey and Sierra Partridge and I were hanging out at my home in Ventura. They had made the drive down from Santa Cruz that day. One of the girls had asked: “Have you read Skinny Bitch yet?”(Skinny Bitch is a book about diet basically.) “I want to!” I had answered. “Just have not found the time. You know what Mary (Mary Osborne) and I always say right? Binge and purge baby, binge and purge.”

Our banter though light hearted and  an ongoing joke amongst us, serves as a continual sarcastic take on popular culture’s icon fabrication  process, where one starves ones self, does the “necessary” drugs and surgeries then models or performs. The result frequently can be an image that is not based in any healthy reality for the average female. It can be” the unhealthy art”. I frequently catch myself being simultaneously fascinated, attracted and repulsed by it.

I had a very general idea of what we would be shooting. Mary had called and asked if the girls would like to get spray tanned as part of a test of her new product and company, Sol Y Mar tan.  Donna Von Hoesslin wanted some shots for a campaign for her Betty B fashion accessory line. The twins were to meet the folks at the eco fashion company, Stewart and Brown the next day about possibly representing their line. My editor at Surfer, Jean Paul Van Swae, had sent me an e mail query about doing a series of vertical frame images for the magazine masthead featuring girls. Hobie always likes to see new images of the twins who as athletes and models, represent the iconic waterman branded company. Then there was Patagonia, Oneill etc, etc… I could hear the instruments tuning up. I made a list.

By the next evening the girls were a newer shade of bronze. Jeanette Ortiz had jumped into the group and I had spent the avo with naked girls running around the house. Now a part of me wants to go: “Yep dats right!” But the reality for most guys that work closely with women, is that though we cultivate a certain amount of sexual tension in order to build emotion that adds to the images depth, we are really more like a doctor-cum- artist when we look at our female subjects: objective and level. The actual process is the opposite of what some might think and definitely far from sexy for the photographer (and the girls if the complete truth be told I think)

Mary explained it to me many years ago from her POV. “Sometimes you feel like my boyfriend, sometimes my Father, sometimes my Brother, sometimes my best friend, I have just completely given up trying to figure it all out and just go with it.” And that is exactly how it is. We all travel together, spend long periods of time together and develop relationships that span many years, so a foundation of trust and commonality of purpose arises which makes for a very efficient process when it comes time to work. We have a lot of fun, and often, some great adventures, since most of the skinny bitches have superior athletic abilities.

The below text was copy pasted from an e mail exchange between Hailey, Sierra and I today. The girls have a casting call for a shoot with Vanity Fair this week and the photographer is Michael Halsband, whose work I have always admired. The correspondence offers a unique insight:

So do you know the photog? And thank you for the reassurance! 🙂

xo
Hailey

Nope do not know him personally, but know of his work and preferences. As long as he sees you as the real deal and unique he would select you guys. You would make him look good. Seriously. That is, if he gets to make the call. It is all about selling magazines and VF has a history, albeit recent, of attempting to portray surf culture.

You see, contemporary fashion apes surf culture in a variety of ways. One means is to steal it by doing things like this. I do not mean that in a necessarily bad way. It is the converse of what I do with fashion, whereby I import art, styling, lighting  and fashion and motion picture standards IN to surf culture via the work I produce for the surf industry etc.

Get it? Fashion borrows from popular culture since it is not a culture unto itself really. Fashion is there to sell merchandise and manipulate the wholesale and retail market into a longing for what it produces. Halsband will want that which exemplifies popular culture and makes him look good by having a facile tool with which he can build the image the photo dept and art director want. They have an idea most likely, but they are probably still looking,  trying to firm it up. That is what this modeling call is probably about.

I do this also.  But my process is different obviously. It is no accident that I chose you, or Mary, or Holly, or Jeanette or Hannah or Aubrey to work with. It was the basis of my decision to invest in little Asia as well.  My work is defined by my subjects. Fashion generally takes a different approach due to the way that business is formatted. For  someone or something to become a subject of mine it must be true and exemplify that which I wish to portray. You all do that. As people, athletes, artists/models, there really is a connection on the inside of me to yourselves. With you and your sister, as the saying goes, you had me at hello. Then as our relationship grew and we really got to know each other the entire adventure unfolded. Get it?

This is a fascinating twist and a huge step away from that last Allure shoot. This one is real. Be happy, go down, do what you know to do on the call. Be polite, direct, engaging and approach all in as intelligent a manner as possible.

They may want to portray what they are being sold (Sofia, and the contest surfers in this call, as products which exemplify women’s surfing), but my guess is that they will be looking for what surfing really is. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE OTHER DAY. SURFING IS ABOUT SURFING AND AN OCEAN LIFESTYLE. COMPETITIVE SURFING IS A DERIVATIVE OF THAT. GET IT? One authored the other NOT vice versa.

Relax, focus, have fun. It really is just like surfing. If this is the wave you want, this is part of paddling in. If you miss it, another comes along. It won’t be the same exact wave, but who is to say that one is better than another? They are just different.

Love always,
David

Blogger Seth Godin points me in the direction of a fantastic video that illustrates the fashion image game, which is here.

The images below are a cull from our 24 hour shoot and illustrates the work ethic and talent of my skinny bitches. We produced approximately 500 images and the conductor that day had us in near perfect form. We had a lot of fun, well, maybe except for the 54 degree water. Click on any of the images for a full view.

Equipment: Canon 5D Mark 2 body,  and more lenses than I can carry.

Location: Ventura County

Models: Jeanette Ortiz, Hailey Partridge, Sierra Partridge

Wardrobe: Stewart and Brown, Oneill, Hobie, Patagonia

Wetsuits: Oneill, Patagonia

Surfboards: Hobie, William Dennis, Dick Brewer

Hair: Danny Moa

Location assistant: Angie Izzo

Makeup and styling: Donna Von Hoesslin, Mary Osborne (tanning tech) for Solymar Tanning

Fashion accessories and jewelry: Betty B

Addendum:

Steven Falconer is incredibly unique and talented.  Today he is a novelist. But his background is as a highly successful New York fashion photographer. His  former models roster reads like a whose who of  fashion. He just sent me a note back in response to the blog, some of which I can post, some which I cannot because rather well known people’s names are involved.   Here is the part of his note that I can reprint from a person with a very rare perspective:

Thanks for sharing David.  I really like this shot, the way she’s carrying the board, the light, the wave behind, her long youthful figure.  Sounds like you’re busy and having lots of fun!  I’ve never read the book, but I don’t like the derogatory title.  I have to say that most of the girls I worked with were still slender because they were so young that they had hardly grown into their tall frames yet.  They had usually been veritable beanpoles when they were younger, naturally.  They didn’t have to worry about their weight any more than I did when I was young.  My problem when I was young was that I couldn’t keep weight ON.

When I  first met Steven some months back he was in a wheelchair.  Turns out a ski-ing accident put him in it when he was young and he built his amazing career while in that wheelchair. Something about him fascinated me from that first moment. I think that it is his  intense energy. One can see how it would affect his subjects.