Making Fashion Photography Creative Again - A Shoot by Stylist Stephanie Renee
Here’s a fashion editorial with….ready?…… editorial! We at Breed were so fascinated by Stephanie Renee’s offer to style, model and shoot her own fashion editorial during the lockdown, that we had to ask her to share what it was like to be all over the set…..which was her own apartment! Read on! Be sure to sign up for our BREED Patreon Channel, link at the bottom of this article!
“I moved back to NYC right before the lockdown, determined to start a new life! I wanted, no, I needed a change. A massive shift. I needed to get uncomfortable, to challenge myself, and really make amends with the past. Of all the bad decisions made more out of fear than curiosity. I was yearning for something new. Not just a new place but new friends, new apartment, new city, new book. I was yearning to uncover what I was suppressing inside.
A friend of mine, fashion designer Michelle Helene, asked me to style and shoot myself in some of her designs while I was on lockdown in Upstate NY with my boyfriend. We were talking about sustainability in fashion, about ethical standards in clothing production. How the younger generation has been so vocal about the need to start paying attention to our planet’s needs and how that relates to what is going to have to shift in the fashion industry.
I decided to take this offer as an opportunity to get creative again. It was important for me to work with this designer, as she supports sustainable fashion, she isn’t fast fashion, plus I just really love her clothes!
Once I got into it, I realized how liberating it was to be both in front of, and behind the camera. Stylist, model, photographer, creative director. It was actually harder than I thought it was going to be. But what I liked most, was that I was the one in control of my image. Not being in control in the usual sense of the word, it’s more about ownership. I had to own myself, and some parts of myself that I hate. And that’s hard to do-to love what you hate about yourself.
I encourage everyone to explore that process. To spend some quality time owning where you are, owning who you are, owning what you are. You can even own the bad stuff, and give thanks that if you don’t like it, you can discard it at any time. What are your values? What makes you get up in the morning? What doesn’t? I think a lot of people are waking up. The people who have been left out, are now carving out their own paths.”
Join Melissa Rodwell & Stephanie Renee in an upcoming Patreon Podcast audio & video chat where they will be discussing
the challenges and the freedoms that come with having total creative control.
follow stephanie renee @steph.anie.renee_nyc
follow michelle helene @mh_michellehelene
follow melissa rodwell @melissarodwell