A collaborative project between communication and fashion
students at the Otago Polytechnic School of Design has had
some remarkable results, as Jude Hathaway reports.
The images range from the elegant to the bizarre
Some have a stark "look book" feel, while the location shots
convey that provocative editorial quality that the fashion
glossies have made into an art form. All have an
individuality to reflect the particular fashion designer's
aesthetic. Most importantly, the originality of many of the
shots grabs the attention and the viewer wants more.
The images are the result of a collaboration between
third-year fashion students at the Otago Polytechnic School
of Design and two communications students also studying at
the polytechnic.
The brainchild of Henry Hewat and Charlotte McLachlan, the
eight-week project was seen as a way of creating a visual
record for the fashion students and a body of work for
themselves. Most importantly it would allow them to "test the
waters" of the real world before they stepped into it at the
end of the year.
"We decided that a project that contained a brief that worked
towards a final outcome would be a good way to go about it,"
Hewat explains. "Margo Barton, academic leader of the school
of fashion, was the key client, but we worked directly with
20 fashion students who also treated the project as a
business exercise."
Most of the fashion designers secured professional models for
the fashion photographs from the Ali McD Modelling School and
Agency.
The pair's first five weeks were spent liaising with clients,
working out what their fashion brands were all about and the
approach each designer wanted for the photographic shoot.
Last month they succeeded in photographing the 20 collections
in just two weeks, working every day from sunrise into the
night. They scheduled up to three shoots a day, using indoor
and outdoor locations as well as the photographic studio at
the Otago Polytechnic.
"The models were amazing. They worked tirelessly, never
complained and always looked beautiful," McLachlan says,
adding their professionalism in front of and away from the
camera was admirable.
The rewards were "huge". Hewat and McLachlan took their
photographic skills to new levels, learned about sselecting
from and editing as many as 300 frames per designer, and
about time efficiency and working with others. Most
importantly, the client was pleased.
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