First shoot for Post magazine's fashion pages. As the widely distributed weekend magazine with The South China Morning Post, there is no other English publication in Hong Kong to compete with their weekend edition distribution numbers.
More nervous for Reema than myself, her first day back at work and as a stylist, after years of martial bliss and two kids ended up being painless and really fun - she says so herself!
Weeks of planning, endless e-mails, delivery fiascos, location snafus (thank God for... oh wait, atheist Kate, thank the cosmos for Kate Bryan at Cat Street Gallery/The Space!) and last minute cancellations, it's never as easy as aim, click, done.
BUT, with an able team, 'twas all good.
It was brilliant to work with the very cool, calm and collected photographer James Gabbard. He did my first ever cover at Sentinel when it was at its earliest stages. He did such an amazing job, his name topped a post-it on 'must work with again' list. But after the initial few months, the budgets at the old office kept shrinking with every issue, until all shoots were done at some undisclosed location with clothes with the brand-names on its sleeve, un-retouched images (and no, not in the cool retro-chic way, more of a 'we have no dollars or sense' sorta way). Ugh.
This is the only shoot I've ever worked on where I was a bit snappy, but we had a tight deadline (there were other events being held at the very busy gallery!) and being an over-caffeinated monkey, there was little time for pleasantries. Delivery guys dropping accessories to the neighbours, a dozen art students landing for a tour of the location of the shoot (pfft children!), model getting stuck in Hong Kong's ever-increasingly heinous traffic and to top it all, Karen Yiu wasn't there! Make-up artist and friend, she was multi-booked and wasn't on location which always makes me nervous. Apart from being one of the best in biz on the planet, she's a zen-like influence as she's done 90 per cent of ALL my shoots and knows the rhythm and flow of a shoot. Bless her socks, she did do hair and makeup at her studio and of course, it was perfection.
On the plus side, shoot ran smooth as butter once it kicked off, we finished earlier than expected, the final shots are phenomenal, the art and the sculptures at The Space (and Cat Street) just enhanced the overall look of the shoot - way beyond the mental brief I had on what this would/should/could look like.
Gabbard's dedication to getting the perfect shot was only met with David's single-minded focus on holding the position until he got the shot. The staff at the gallery are getting buckets of goodwill and positive thoughts ushered to them (if I had the dosh, I'd be sending 'em all flowers and champagne) as they were kind and helpful beyond belief.
Reem and I didn't fight or argue once (yeah we might be growing up at long last!), was far more organised than I am at a shoot, there were notes and images refs and entire looks laid out and looks tried on the night before on a test model and what not. It was also great to see how enthusiastic she was on the shoot 'cause at this stage, I'm sure I'm a little jaded. But I swear I can fake enthusiasm with the best of 'em,
Its about 'post' impressions after all.
Photography James Gabbard
Styling Reema Khanna
Art Direction P.Ramakrishnan
Hair and Make-up Karen Yiu
Model: David O at Models International
Location: The Space, Cat Street Gallery
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