A long, long time ago, in a far, far away, place called in Perth, I decided that I loved shooting fashion shows. Only God (whatever your favourite kind is) knows why.
Fast forward six years, I was trying not to illegally park my car right next to Pakenham Street Art Space (PSAS – this is where Yuuki, formerly known as NiStore, and I did our editorial/creative shoot early this year) because I didn’t want to drag my case along bumpy pedestrian paths in Fremantle. It was a usually hot evening and PSAS wasn’t the best place to be on a night like this. It was not equipped with any kind of cooling system. Some sea breezes from the doors stood ajar would have been nice. Even those breezes were no where to be found. Usually, they are always there to blow my hat off but not on this night.
I was there kicking nonexistent dust off the floor with fellow photogs waiting for things to happen. I’ve been doing this so busily for the past six years until I found my love for this glamour portrait business.
Crowd began pouring into the space and the show began. There is the usual crappy lighting -heavily back lit and where it was lit was actually fine. It’s just that models’ didn’t know where to stand so their half of body was too bright and the other half too dark – and swearing my ass off to fix focusing as my ancient D700 struggle to nail the focus on each shot due to back light. It’s just the usual struggle on the media pit.
I suppose I’m just reminiscing how fresh I was when I first attended Fremantle High Street Collective – Transformation in 2008. I was hungry (for fashion runways) and very eager (so not to miss any shots). Now, I’m not as hungry (been covering far too many runway shows). I am easily the oldest person on the pit as each year the media pit in such shows sees the younger generation of photo enthusiasts taking up space while pros just go after more lucrative shoots. There, I still remain rubbing shoulders with young folks for the love of fashion runways, the music and the heat (probably more of body heat generated by some young dudes half my age right next me). Perhaps, that is why, thanks to this long running ‘romance’, I’m more often than not referred as a fashion industry person (although some real fashion people may not even heard of my name!).
So here I am remembering the woman in her mid 30’s on a hot summer’s day six years ago trying to madly photograph a fashion show in Fremantle. More specifically, I’m trying to remember the hunger and the eagerness she had. That woman is now 40 years old. Definitely, older but perhaps not wiser with a ton of runway photos. Now she wants to do the same with posing and taking photos of women – any women – with the same hunger and eagerness.
