Sexy vs. Sexy

Over the past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the distinction between the kinds of photography I will and won't shoot. At a recent casting, I found myself having to state repeatedly that “I don’t shoot the sexy stuff.” But in hindsight, I feel like that’s a little dishonest, because when you get right down to it, I do shoot sexy images. I shoot lingerie and swimwear without compunction and more times than not, as a beauty photographer, I’ll work with nudes or implied nudes in order to achieve the clean, bare shoulder look desired in a lot of commercial hair and makeup materials. The subject matter is inherently sexy and when you throw a gorgeous model into the mix, no one in their right mind could argue that it wouldn’t fall into the realm of “the sexy stuff.” And yet, when directing models or describing what sort of gigs I’ll book, I continually find myself asserting that “I don’t shoot the sexy stuff.”

I guess what I'm really talking about boils down to the difference between swimsuit ads you might see in Pacific Sunwear versus something you might see in Sports Illustrated. A figure you'd see in a dayspa ad as opposed to something out of Playboy. But where does that line fall? I joked with a few friends over a bottle of wine after the casting that if it’s in black and white it’s art and if it’s in color, it’s porn. It’s an old joke that I’ve heard bounced around creative circles since my very first days of photo school. Of course, the adage is absurd, but there must be some truth to it for it to stick around like it does.

It’s true that black and white photography more often evokes a certain mood that biases us to call it “art”. The removal of color steers our minds from the realm of “what was in front of the camera?” towards “what was in the artist’s head?” It has an inherent element of abstraction that encourages a viewer to look a little deeper, and that’s the crux of the difference between art/fashion photography (something you’d find in a Gallery or an issue of W) and glamour photography (something you’d find in Maxim or FHM.) A deliberately sexy image is all about how attractive a model is. It says nothing more than “Hey, check HER out.” Whereas an image that is merely incidentally sexy is more about mood, gesture, expression; a desire to tell a story. It’s about something other than the model’s various physical charms. That something may be a simple shift of focus to the clothes or it could be the illustration of a greater aesthetic idea, so long as it invites the viewer to do something other than ogle the figure of the featured model.

So yes, I do shoot sexy photos, but I don’t shoot The Sexy Stuff.

All photos Copyright 2010, Stephanie Maulding.

I shot this test earlier this month in my living room with a single gridded softbox, no reflectors. (My new softbox had just arrived and I wanted to see what it could do on its own.) No MUA or stylist on this one.

Model: Kendra (Look Models)

Stephanie Gets BABAK-ed

This past weekend I trekked up to Seattle to attend the Teal Academy’s workshop with one of my long time photographic heroes, Babak. I’ve been trying for 2 days to distill the experience of Saturday down into a blog post, but I've decided it’s futile to try to encapsulate it in words. So, instead, here are a few snapshots I took during the workshop (after asking Babak’s permission, of course!)

It was an amazing day. Babak is simply a force of nature. If you're not familiar with his work, stop reading this right now and take a trip over to his website. The work is pristine and evocative and I'm totally jazzed I had the opportunity to get some insight into his methods. I came home with all sorts of ideas and inspirations bouncing around in my head and I've already scheduled a shoot for next week to test a few new techniques.

Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the Teals, the NAHA winning avant garde styling duo who co-hosted the event. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met in the industry and though I know very little of the technical side of hair styling, the pieces they presented were just downright cool. I was itching all day to photograph the models they'd made over. I succumbed to temptation just at the end and did this impromptu portrait of Kayla hanging out during the reception, hair tousled after removing one of their premade pieces.

In closing: Thanks so much to Bruce, Brenda, Ailsa and family for helping me fund the trip (best Christmas present ever!) and to C. & roommates for putting me up for the weekend. It was also wonderful to see all of the lovely MT people at The Geekery again after a few years. I'll try to make it back to Seattle soon to spend some more time with you all!

On Location with Natural Light

Once in a while, I just need to get out of the studio. This shoot started out as a strict studio beauty endeavor. Evgenia was my second model of the day, and while everything was going fine, I was BORED. Completely and utterly uninspired. Don't get me wrong, Evgenia was stunning and talented and Victoria Toda's styling was lovely. I'd just been shooting nothing but studio beauty for the several weeks leading up to this.

So about 1/2 hour in (after I'd gotten the shot I'd planned) I said "The heck with this! Let's go outside." I packed up my camera, a few spare lenses, a speedlight, a bounce card, and an absurdly heavy box to use as a seat and we took off walking. I have to say, it's amazing what's right in your neighborhood that your eyes just gloss over on a daily basis. I shot this set of images right across the street from my apartment building in a little empty field tucked between a big corporate office and the freeway. To look at it you wouldn't know we were a stone's throw from traffic gridlock.

I've since been noticing all sorts of little pastoral nooks interrupting the urban grime of the Bay Area. I've assembled a laundry list of locations I'm dying to use. So, who's up for shooting some location fashion?

Photography Copyright 2009, Stephanie Maulding
Model: Evgenia Sokie
Hair & Makeup: Victoria Toda

Rockaballet

As my inaugural image post, I'm proud to present this sampling of photos from a shoot I did just before Christmas with Dominique Ansari of DA Designs. We had such a fantastically talented team for this shoot. Dominique is a truly visionary designer with a gift for bringing feminine flair to dynamic, contemporary pieces that are not only alluring, but wearable. They spring to life on our graceful and vibrant model, Morgan, whose energy and enthusiasm seemingly know no bounds. To my amazement, she was still smiling and laughing after almost 7 hours in pointe shoes! Top this off with a winning styling duo who can really bring the rock and roll and you've got a good day to be a Photographer!

Photography Copyright 2009, Stephanie Maulding
Model: Morgan
Wardrobe: Dominique Ansari
Makeup: Keke
Hair: Stephanie


The Complete Collection of 63 Final Images Can be Found on Flickr

StarlaMeris?

One of the most common questions I get from my friends and colleagues is about the origins of the name StarlaMeris. I've long used this as a professional alias and have only recently started transitioning away from the psuedonym.

It started, as most things do, when I was a teenager. I took up shooting portrait commissions when I was 16 and went on to shoot my first commercial architectural job at 17. Having grown up alongside the internet, I was sharing my work online from my first forays into the darkroom. However, having very smart parents, I was absolutely forbidden to publish personally identifying info, such as my full name, on the internet. (I'm sure that at the time, I kicked and yelled and called them mean names and did all of those melodramatic things that 16 year-olds do, but in hindsight I have to say: Thanks Mom and Dad!)

Undaunted, I started posting images under my long-time internet nickname: Starla Meris, who had been a character in a short story I wrote in high school. The name was originally derived from an old Latin title for the Virgin Mary, Stella Maris. Literal translation: "star of the sea." This appealed to my inner romantic history geek. Besides which, it mirrored my real life initials: SLM. Teenaged me found all this to be terribly clever.

By the time I was in college, the nickname had kind of stuck, shortened to Meris in conversation. Nobody knew anything about Stephanie. *Meris, on the other hand, had earned a modicum of name recognition. So, I stuck by it, and when I launched into freelance life at 19 or 20, registered Starla Meris Imaging as my official DBA in New York. It served me well for several years, especially while I bounced indecisively between specialties of design, web coding, photography and retouching and while I was toying with the idea of developing my business into a larger, full-service design studio.

I've since moved back to California, settled into my service niches, and generally reverted completely to my given name, though I'm just now getting around to changing all of my collateral to reflect this. I've lost interest in the idea of umbrella-style creative consulting and broken stylistic ties with a lot of the work I did under the old pseudonym. In other words, I've grown up and want my own name tied to my own work. Just the same, I expect vestiges of *Meris to live on forever as an integral part of my artistic identity, even if just as a fond footnote.

~*M

Blog Launch

For me, 2010 heralds a fresh start to my artistic career and a not-so-fond farewell to those early-twenties post-Baccalaureate flailings that are all too familiar to so many of us.

After a few years of wage-slaving in post production and design positions, the economic slump of the past year and a half, along with some personal family tragedies, really forced me to take time to reflect on where I'm going with my art. It was a time full of introspection of the sort that was crucially significant to me and my development as a person but which would bore you to tears if I were to articulate it all to you. So, long story short: I'm now gearing up to do the kind of work that I feel creatively compelled to do rather than the kind of work I think people want me to produce. Because life's too short, especially in a global economy where even the daily grind work you don't want to do won't necessarily pay the rent.

Armed with this new mantra, I began my mission with some fresh test shooting a few months ago (most of which I haven't shown anyone yet) and am now moving on to all the associated marketing Hoojoo to make it so I can easily share my work with all of you out there in the Great Digital Beyond.

Step 1 in all this: A grown-up blog. Check!

Next steps: Continued Test Shooting, A Sparkly New Website, Fresh Collateral Materials and then Showing the New Portfolio!