The Travelling Dress.
Last year I was contacted by photographer Erin Falkenham about participating in a project she had undertaken. I knew Erin from a photography community I am a part of. I was referred to her by my good friend and stellar photographer, Lexy Parks. The project was called "The Travelling Dress." The idea was that a dress would travel all over the world, passing through the hands of ten photographers who would all impart their own styles and visions onto images with subjects wearing the dress. If you know my work, you know I love long, flowy dresses. I couldn't wait to be a part of this.
Our dress was created by Dee Silkie and Michelle Duncan. The dress started its journey in California. It then came to me in Vancouver. I sent it to Kelowna, and I don't know where it went from there. But it travelled all the way to the east coast of Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands. Ten different photographers in ten different places with ten unique styles. What a privilege. The leader of my particular group was Erin, and she wrote a blog about her experience which showcases images from all the artists that participated. You can read that blog here.
I can't speak for any of the other photographers in my group, but I can talk about my experience with the dress: it was difficult for me. Knowing about this project and waiting for my turn with the dress, I envisioned big ideas with it. But like any idea, you need to be able to make the time and effort to make it happen. I tried, I really did. But a few of the ideas I had didn't pan out. When I got the dress, my parents were in town from Africa, and we were about to head to the island for family visits before I headed off to Tofino to shoot a wedding. It was a very busy time.
I met up with a model on the island named Alicia Maclaren. We met up for a non-travelling dress related shoot, but I told her about the idea and she was into it. Being an astrophotographer at heart, I really wanted to shoot the dress with some night skies. So one night we headed up to the Goldstream Trestle, a place I'd wanted to visit for awhile. Shooting the dress here seemed like a perfect place. But alas, I wasn't happy with the photos I had taken. At first, I was a little choked at myself for not getting the shots I had envisioned. But therein lies the common trait in all artists, the "own worst enemy" syndrome. Sometimes ideas just don't pan out. They don't work. It happens. Get over it. And I did.
When I returned to Vancouver, I met up with my friend, Erica Tam, who I've shot with before. She's always up for whatever, and when I told her that I needed her to go into the Pacific Ocean early one morning, she didn't hesitate. Erica. Thank you so much. I love the photos that we captured together for this project.We were told to choose three images for the blog post. These are the three I chose. I love the second and third the most. The second shows the dress in full flow, while the third is as west coast as I could imagine. I'm so happy with these. I really do suggest checking the original blog post to read more on the dress and all the other artists involved. The link is here!
