visiting gorgeous places. getting a look at the hottest fashions before they hit the stores or even the runways. spending your time with the most beautiful people on earth. getting paid to document your fantastic life with the latest digital gear as well as classic cameras from the past. it sounds like a fantasy job, but for fashion photographer jeremiah wilson it’s just another day on the job.
jeremiah was generous enough to invite me to spend an afternoon with him on location at a fashion shoot for steve madden shoes. he showed me the ropes of making models and clothes look perfect on the screen or a magazine page. we also spoke about his high tech gear for capturing images, his favorite fashions, photographers and how he got his start as a shooter.
i met jeremiah on a perfectly sunny day on the grounds of a well landscaped private school, which was serving as the backdrop for the photo action. the shoot was ‘back to school’ themed, and featured the hot new shoes from steve madden. when you see models in catalogs or ads, everything looks so serene. what you can’t see is all the work it takes to get those perfect shots. along with jeremiah and his camera, there was a makeup artist, a hairdresser, a technical assistant and a logistics manager. you could quickly tell this was work they had all done before, because they were functioning like an army on the march. they performed a complicated ballet of moving flashes, cameras, screens, props, models again and again with precision.
fashion photography is on the cutting edge of digital technology, and the geek in me was giddy surrounded by all this high tech camera gear. jeremiah’s main camera for this shoot was acanon 5d mark 2, which is a digital slr. he let me pick it up and pop a few shots. f you’ve never had the pleasure of handling a super high end camera, the first thing you’ll notice is how heavy it is (but good heavy, it feels very solid). this is a serious piece of machinery. on the ground, jeremiah had a macbook pro set up. whenever he took a shot with the canon, it was digitally beamed right to the laptop, so he could see the results of his work instantly, and make any adjustments to lighting, or the model, right there on the fly. i have to say, this impressed me. there wasn’t even a wire running from the camera.
i had the chance to watch on the macbook as the photos rolled in, live. in the photo below, you’ll notice jeremiah with what looks like a blanket over his head. it’s actually a shroud, connected to a set of bellows. it helps to block out the light and give a clear view of the screen. another cool gadget i didn’t know existed.
those large, white shiny things are used to deflect and adjust the light and find the right balance for each shot. in addition to the big canon, jeremiah also had a hasselblad h-1 film camera on hand, as well as a canon eos 1-n as a backup. he really enjoys shooting film, and though he loves digital, explains that there is just something about the way film captures natural night, so he usually brings both cameras to fashion shoots.
fashion photography is a job for someone with a great eye, and a wonderful sense of composition. it’s also a job someone with the ability to manage dozens of tiny details, and get them to work in harmony. for this shoot, there were many factors that needed to be considered, managed and incorporated into the photos: the weather, sun, wind, the props the model was holding and standing on, the clothing, the hair style and colour, and of course the main focus, the steve madden shoes. the hackneyed phrase “it’s harder than it looks” was definitely coined by someone observing the logistics at a fashion shoot.
during the shoot, we had a few questions come in for jeremiah, via twitter. since i know many of you have a thing for fashion, as well as photography, i decided to find out as much as i could about his work, himself, and the world of high fashion photography and report back.
jeremiah explained that he’s always been interested in photography, and became more obsessed with images when he started snapping photos of his friends shredding at the skatepark. then things just took off from there. you’d never guess it by the quality of his work, or the high profile gigs he’s done, but mr. wilson has only been shooting fashion as a professional for 4 years!
he calls new york city home, but his favourite places to shoot are spread all over the world. a stint living in paris got him hooked on using the palais de tokyo as a subject. in fact he loves everything about slinging a camera around the city of lights, especially…the lights. he is enamored by the way the paris streets are illuminated after sundown. the streets have appeared in some his best work, and the classic architecture lining the streets means you are never more than a short walk to the perfect setting to snap. the citizens in paris also hold a special place in his photographer’s heart. he explained to me that “everyone you meet is so friendly, and so interested in your work and what you’re shooting. they genuinely want to know what you’re creating. even the police.” sao paulo, brazil and new york city also get high marks in his book of photo friendly places to shoot.
being something of a hack photographer myself, i asked jeremiah what does a professional photographer do that makes their images look so much better than the ones i shoot (other than my lack of talent)? he explained that while the skill of the photographer plays a big part in how the photo turns out, there’s three things that turn an ordinary fashion photo into one that’s worthy of an ad in italian vogue.
**1. a great stylist** *- according to jeremiah, stylists are the unsung and under appreciated heroes of the fashion world. they bring their own creativity to the models’ own looks, and create a vibe that stands out, but compliments the beauty of the model and the clothes without overpowering them.*
**2. your device** *- in fashion photography, you deal with an extraordinary amount of color, texture, details and motion. using the right camera is the only way to include these subtleties in the finished work. specifically, he recommends using a lens with a really wide f-stop, at least 1.2.*
**3. the model** *- i said ‘duh’ to this one, but jeremiah explained there’s a lot more to modeling than looking hot. a great model will look attractive, but will also be capable of displaying a wide range of genuine emotions. a real smile, or an authentic sultry glare at the camera are what makes a good fashion photo great, and a great photo a classic. just my few hours on the set made this very clear to me. being told to smirk, or pout, or get excited on command for hours on end, and make it look genuine, is an incredibly difficult task.*
watching jeremiah work makes it clear that this is a man who really, really loves his job. he can speak passionately about the art of photography for hours on end, without ever tiring of the subject or running out of fresh insights. this is especially clear when he discusses traditional film. as he keeps working, one of his big goals is to continue shooting as much film as he can. he told me, “the pure look of film, and the texture and the grain can’t be duplicated any other way, and people just love the way it looks.”
though he loves film, he’s not a luddite. the majority of his work is digital. he enjoys the post-production process as well, and can easily spend hours on a single image using photoshop on his mac to achieve the perfect final result. he recommends that any aspiring shooter spend as much time learning the intricacies of photoshop as they do learning to frame a shot. it’s a skill that is becoming more and more valuable as we complete the shift to a fully digital and web based world. photoshop, and computer post-processing have replaced the dark room in the photographers’ skill set.
a majority of his work is fashion photography, but jeremiah is interested in shooting all types of images. skateboarding, bmx bike riding, architecture and party people getting down have all received lots of attention from his lens. some of his favourite recent projects have been shooting openings, parties and events in new york and miami for the uber-swank art book publisher taschen.
getting to spend an afternoon with someone who loves their work, and also happens to be supremely talented at it is a genuine pleasure. i feel like i became a better photographer, and developed a keener eye for fashion, just by hanging around him. learning about what goes into making a model, and their clothes, picture perfect makes you look at every ad in a fashion magazine with a deeper level of respect. making it look beautiful and easy, isn’t easy at all.
you can see more of jeremiah’s fashion work, including the most recent back-to school campaign from this photo shoot at the steve madden website. more of his fashion work, along with a wide variety of his photography in many genres is on display at his website, jeremiah wilson photography. if you have questions, comments or want to know more about the world of fashion and photography, his twitter account, @jeremiahwilson is absolutely worth following.
