Olive Becomes a Photographer
I am always trying to find a way in which two make life a little more beautiful for women. On our face and above the neck, so that we feel our best (THE ONLY WAY TO LOOK OUR BEST IS TO FEEL OUR BEST) I suppose you could fake it here ands there, and there are moments, when we must carry on, with one foot in front of the other no matter how we feel. But I love the idea that we build our selves up, so that we can go out into the world and do what it takes to earn the ability to go to work, or to make a home, or to have a family. I also love the romance of the time in life where we are going out to find “the one” to share in all those goals and dreams or maybe you are just doing it just for yourself, which I am such an advocate of. However you can motivate the romance of life, well that’s the key!
So the Sunday times UK asked me to do a cover story for them to promote Flower Beauty and Eyewear. I asked if I could write the piece, as tone is everything to me. But then they asked if they sent a bag of clothes and some cameras, could I also shoot it? Then I thought,. instead of a bunch of a selfies, what if I made this a mother daughter project? I looked around at the surrounding of where we were. Things were fighting their way to come out of winter, and it seemed to me like the perfect backdrop for this photoshoot.
In nature, things have to go into hibernation. They have to become a totally different form, and then, miraculously, they come back to life. Rebirth! and that became my inspiration They sent me a bag of disposable cameras, color and black and white, and a bunch of Polaroid film (talk about coming back to life!!!! Polaroid and Film! Yaaaas!!!!!) I also asked if I could write it, because I am extremely sensitive in my wording of everything at the moment. Things change from day to day and what was funny yesterday, might be not appropriate today. I want to come at this with a complete respect to what people are going through right now. I also hope to bring a little escape and hope, as doing this piece did for me. I went from feeling like “I can’t figure out how to do this right now”, to “you know what, I cannot think of a more beautiful activity for me and my daughter”… and with that, I asked my almost 8 year old Olive to join me. The dialogue went like this…
ME: Olive will you take pictures for the photoshoot. Its for a magazine people work for years to shoot for!
OLIVE: Why are you asking me to shoot you mom? And who normally shoots you?
ME: A photographer. But right now, the world is in a crazy place. Everything is an opportunity to do things differently! So what do you say? Do you want to be my photographer?
OLIVE:I’m honored to be your photographer. I like taking pictures, so thank you.
ME: Do you promise not to shoot me from below?
OLIVE: Yes. And then you won’t look like you have a very big chin
ME: Oh no, I’m worried about looking like I have NO chin!
And so we were off (with the help of Christy Doramus, my social media partner in crime, who happened to be out where we were, and kept her distance, but gosh we were all so excited for this assignment)
The first day we went to the beach at sunset. Talk about the lighting of the Gods! It's like having a million candles all around you and it’s why filmmakers wait all day for “Golden-hour”. We brought a trunk full of clothes that the magazine sent. I changed right there on the chilly sand, and looked to see if anyone was around, but no! The world is very quiet right now, and you can feel it! One minute it’s haunting and the next minute you feel like the whole world is a playground. And for me and olive, it is just that. Our shoot is about to commence! Olive pulled out the cardboard boxes made by ILFORD and KODAK!
OLIVE: We’re shooting on these cameras?
ME: Yes they want to shoot it on film God bless them !!!
So we began. Olive has an eye. She has style. That very morning she had found my black eyeliner and drew all over her face in the coolest formation. Like alternative rock star cool. Purposeful, the way if a pop star did it, other girls would emulate it with a stamp of iconic identification! She gets it. She alters clothes on a daily basis with scissors (I’ve got my own Little Edie!) and she safety pins and draws on herself. Her hands are always fun of some type of colorful residue… which brings me to her hair. Olive always has different colored hair. She lives to change it and the bluer to pinker the better, as if there wasn’t a pigment that existed that is rich enough in depth. When she plays Billie Eilish music and looks the way she does, she is comfortable. I in no way encouraged or influenced this. THIS is who she is! (ps I am in love with Billie Eilish so right on! and did you know she ands her brother, Finneas, made their album in their house? It could be a new frontier they are leading. A new way of doing things)
Back on the beach, at times I would tell Olive to come closer or crop within the frame, but for the most part she knew what she wanted. She would say RUN ACROSS ME! or LOOK BACK! I would go for the sultry look and she would just say, dry, SMILE! as if she wasn’t into my posing and wanted something more optimistic. She also paid very close attention to the styling. She insisted I put on heels.
ME: It’s sand, I'm not going to be able to
OLIVE: You just have to try. Heels will look great here
ME: I can’t!
OLIVE: TRY!
So I did, but decided to sit and hold my legs up, very Varga Girl, only to realize that my legs were unshaven. I quickly pulled my dress down and then it looked liked shoes were popping out of fabric with no legs. Gosh darn shoes! Ever since I had my two daughter and my feet grew three shoes sizes, and the weren’t back does two sizes, leaving me unable to access my old Carrie Bradshaw life. That said, is there anything more powerful than heels and a statement lip? It will bring me back to a rebirth in seconds.
The next day, we went around the neighborhood catching moments of the evolution of the nature around us. it was a lot of bare trees and sprouting flowers. I thought it was a good juxtaposition to the angelic shoot the day before at the ocean. I put on black lipstick in honor of Olive, I put on a slick long black patten leather trench and threw myself into a pile of dead branches. I also looked at the trees above me that were fighting to grow leaves, and asked Olive to shoot up at me. She looked at me
OLIVE: You said never to do that
ME: I know but I think it will look cool
Let's just say the trees looked cool. I looked like a saggy hanging old fart. This was a grey day and lacking the gorgeous lighting. Let’s also say there is a reason a lot goes into a photo shoot. However, the shoot must go on! I wasn’t feeling as confident when saw the polaroids. But it was certainly telling a story. And it was so economical. Make up? 10 minutes. Hair? Zero minutes. Shoot time? Well two days and multiple looks and locations, but, it made me think. On the one hand, I loved how easy this was. We got to save on time and money. Less of everything. Which I believe the world is clearly screaming for. In many ways I hope this teaches us all a beautiful lesson. LESS. We need to do things with less money. Less time. Less fuel. Less distance travelled for work (NOT holiday travel. That must continue). We must save time. We must save energy in every form. How inventive can we get? What if fashion and beauty and shipping and work travel and runways and gatherings could shift? Not end, but become truly more provocative and conservative about how we all create and be creative. We should not go back to business as usual. A rebirth on the approach we take for everything. I want us to come out of this never more celebratory and expressive. But I hope that comes with a conscience inventiveness. (I should ask Stella McCartney how? She is a beacon and has been for as long as I can remember.) And I want to ask that of magazines and fashion houses and retailers and factories. I promise that I will come out of this a more thoughtful person. But I will still want us to make the world a beautiful artistic place. What humans create move me to no end. It is a source of inspiration that truly keeps all my fires burning. And here in this shoot, Olive and I are trying our best with our very paired down supplies. She is also getting tired and grumpy. I may be working with the worlds smallest and moodiest of photographers. I am lying here in a pile of bright yellow daffodils that have just sprung. Even though Olive ands I are starting to argue, I cant help but love that things all around me are coming to life with color and glory. If humans create great things, well nature might out do us all. And here in the soil, we are putting woman and earth together, in a jean jacket from the latest collection of course!
I have always loved fashion, but I loved it in accordance with photography. I lined the wall of my rooms growing up with Helmut Newton and Revlon’s “The most beautiful girl in the world” campaigns. Old “Interview” magazine covers and “The Manipulator” (a huge old school black and white art mag) because when it came to art the bigger the better. It was like making my own wallpaper that were created for us to learn not only how clothes could be put together, but come to life with lighting, styling, cropping, and the model in them. I loved the make up and hair as much as the clothes. I loved the total package of creating characters. When it came to my personal style icons, I always loved the chameleons. Talk about rebirth? Once they were done with the invention of their latest look, it was dead and on to the next life! Bowie- GaGa- Fonda-Streisand- because they go for it. you fall in love with their new look, and then It’s gone and we wait for who they will show up as next?
I have myself experimented with every hair color and style. I would put eyeshadow to my temples at my tenth birthday party. Fashion for me wasn’t about expensive clothes and looking put together. It was about HOW I put it together. I wasn’t ever the classic girl. its sadly didn’t suit me. But mixing and matching and vintage put with labels. Or pattern on pattern on pattern. Kicks with pajamas pants from a local chinatown with a Dries van Notten sweater with white eyeliner across my face and a shiny wet maroon lip with a father in my hair!
Although life as a mom and in my mid forties, I now have my hair color I like that is drama free and more natural. It takes 30 minutes to do the base of grays that only barely covers them, so they can actually function as light grabbing follicles as it grows out (yes your grays can double as highlights with the right tint!) I use flower beauty when I need to step it up in a minimal or maximum way. Our make up is so carefully crafted and that makes me so proud! Because I have studied beauty my whole life! I don't feel about make up formulas the way I do about fashion. With fashion I will be wacky, but when it comes to how that lipstick functions? I am meticulous about the formulation. It should not clump, or feather, or run, or coagulate in the corners. The pigment should be able to suit any age, skin type and hair color! And until it does, I will not give up! Let me have your back ladies, so that you can be worry free at price that doesn’t break you. My whole life has been an “All ages party and everyone is invited” The same applies for economics!
So when we all come out of our rebirths here, in this moment that will be very defining, when we come out of this winter, how will we express ourselves? I may have to safety pin a flower on myself everyday this year, to remind myself everyday to think different. Maybe we could all put a little piece of nature into our wardrobe. Think of it as the new pocket square! Let's take a thoughtful approach to what style means! Let's make it our own, and let's go out there and show em what we’ve got. Eye candy? Yes please!!!!!
I believe we will want to peacock and dress up. We will come out in full energy and more appreciative. More excited to be out in the world, and I say go for it. Use the good stuff that you save for special occasions just to go do a random errand. Strut as if the world was your own personal runway. I hope street style explodes with color and prints as if we were human billboards. When we emerge back into Society… LETS GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO LOOK AT!
