Cover shoot at The Peninsula, Hong Kong

 

Play List: David Elliott

5 things about fine art photographer David Elliott

What I’m listening to: music is usually playing when I’m working, so the likes of Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Andrew Bird and James Blunt, among others, are on a loop. My favourite male singers include Frank Sinatra and his modern counterpart, Michael Bublé, and my favourite females are Sarah McLachlan, Eva Cassidy, Alicia Keys and Norah Jones. Plus, doesn’t everyone love Adele?

What I’m reading: over the years, I have enjoyed Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Photography books such as Genesis by Sebastião Salgado, The Earth from the Air by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Manufactured Landscapes by Edward Burtynsky.

What I’m watching: I liked Birdman, Chef and even the soppy The Fault in Our Stars. The last great TV series was Breaking Bad. One of my favourite films is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

What artists I’m following: Christoph Niemann has a unique ability to visualise and create. He can take something simple and transform it into something inspiring. Steve McCurry is also inspirational. I like illustrator Tanya Piratay and painter Simon Birch, whose vision and drive are a great model for aspiring artists.

Where I’m surfing: apart from the obvious Facebook, I’m often on Instagram to see what the creative folk are doing, and on YouTube for music and comedy stuff like Jimmy Fallon. I’m a massive sports fan, so I regularly log on to ESPN.com to keep up on basketball, hockey, American football, tennis and golf.

As told to P. Ramakrishnan. Portrait by Jesper McIlroy   

Seeing Red: Cover shoot for Galaxy magazine with Kimberly Verge and David Elliott

Photography: Jonas Lillie 

Stylist: Jolene Lin 

Makeup: Karen Yiu 

Hair Adam Wong 

Models: Kimberly Verge and David Elliott from Starz People 

Art Direction: P.Ramakrishnan 

An amazing shoot done at Galaxy Macau's China Rouge. 

Friend's tireless aid to Thais hit by floods inspires photographic fund-raiser to rebuild homes

Model turned photographer David Elliott

Locally based model-photographer David Elliott’s first exhibition, A City Under Water, at JaaBar in Central, is a fund-raiser to help victims of last year’s flooding in Thailand.

“Last November, I made a four-day trip to the heart of the flood zone,” Elliott said. “A friend of mine was heavily involved in the flood aid. Every morning, we were arranging and picking up supplies and driving to Pathum Thani [province], where we would rendezvous with the boats – a necessity in navigating the floodwaters. The waters rose to the shoulders of the few people whom braved them. There was such a starkness in contrast to the imagery I captured and to the murky, milk tea-coloured water which we were floating in.”

Lending their support at Saturday’s exhibition opening were models David Oshry and Anna Rivera, photographers Jesper McIlroy, William Furniss and Lucy McNally, actor Darren E. Scott and socialite Yumiko Honda.

“The project was inspired by my friend Mednune and her devoutness to help the Thai people,” Elliott said. “She was there working tirelessly, as long as there was one person suffering, she was getting up and about working. In the wake of any calamity, we all want to do something, and it was then I decided the imagery I captured, could be used as a device to help her bring something back to the beautiful souls of Thailand. All proceeds from sales will go towards re-building homes for those who lost theirs to the flooding.”


CITYSEEN
P. Ramakrishnan
Jun 14, 2012

David Oshry, David Elliott and Darren

Glowing in the Dark: Cover shoot shot at The Peninsula

Unquestionably, The Peninsula is Hong Kong’s most renowned and recognised ‘brand’. 

The prestigious hotel is often voted the best in Asia, if not one of the best in the world. From royalty (Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana and Prince Charles), Hollywood superstars (Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise) to rockers (Bryan Adams), they have all stayed at The Peninsula over the years. 

Fiercely guarding the privacy of their respected VIP guests, we are very honoured that, for the first time, our magazine is the first publication that has the privilege of doing an exclusive shoot at their newly launched Salon De Ning. At the private enclaves of this beautiful new venue, we present what’s hot this season, at the coolest venue in town.


Produced by P.Ramakrishnan
Photography by Olaf Mueller
Stylist: Shiva Shabani
Hair & Makeup: Karen Yiu
Models: David and Zoe
Venue: Salon de Ning at The Peninsula, Hong Kong



BEHIND THE SCENES:

Working with Olaf is always fun. Apart from being one of the best in the biz, Olaf and Jessica, his lovely model-wife, are two of my fav people in Hong Kong. I saw his work in Kee magazine ages ago and kept his name on file. He's done nearly all my 'first' covers. Being as good as he is, he's also one of the few people I trust implicitly that I can leave the set and know everything will be done on time and be perfectly printable. Others, I have to hover over to make sure I get what I want for the mag.

This was also a second shoot with stylist Shiva Shabani, who is amazing and yum to work with. A great eye, a great relationship with brands, we also clicked from the word go. As mentioned before, after a horrific time in the last rag I worked for, life's too short to work with idiotic people who give more grief than relief!


Again, Karen Yiu was on board to oversee hair and makeup. Perfection.

And two of the great joys in my life, Savanna and Adyr helped out too. Thanks to Shiva, there was copious wardrobe and accessories and this was one of the biggest shoots we did and had the largest team behind it.

And you don't know pro until you've worked with a hotel staff like the Peninsula. They were sooooooo good to us, fed us and generally took care of the entire team 'cause it was a long freakin' shoot!