conceptual photography s collaborative

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1 1 AFTERCAPTURE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2008

2 Imagine a beautiful, bikini-clad model perched on the corner of the roof of a building, sadly looking into the distance where a flood has swallowed up a city, leaving only the tops of the tallest buildings reaching up above the waters. Even the sky is sad in this scene, which you might guess to be a billboard promoting the latest Hollywood dystopian spectacle. Rather, it is the work of Los Angeles imagemaker August Bradley, who studied business and worked for several years in marketing for a variety of companies like J. Crew, Gap and Banana Republic before switching careers. While this might not appear to be a likely starting point for conceptual, high fashion photography, Bradley was first exposed to camerawork in his mother s photo studio where he assisted her starting at age 5. It s obvious that he picked up more than the nuts and bolts of photography from the experience

3 as Bradley s conceptual style relies as much upon his imagination as it does upon lighting, directing, and organizational skills; models; stylists; assistants; etc. My mom s approach to everything was always creative and artistic, pushing boundaries and coloring outside the lines, says Bradley. My sense of freedom to explore with images, to let go of traditional constraints came directly from her creative approach to photography and painting. Once I learned to develop and print blackand-white images, I virtually moved into the darkroom full time. All I did was shoot and print. I was doing composites on darkroom enlargers almost from the beginning, I wanted to push and transform the images toward the vision in my head; I was less interested in documenting the literal facts before my eyes. It was always more about imagination for me. With business experience, ties to the apparel industry and a background in photography, it s no great mystery that Bradley changed directions. After finally leaving his career in marketing, he was pleasantly surprised to find how the photo industry had changed. Digital technology had replaced film and this new medium fit what he had always intended to do with his photography. When I came back to photography, he says, creative interpretation and communicating what was in my imagination [defined] a natural course for me. All the tools had changed with the advent of digital photography and digital postproduction, but I employed the new tools in the same direction as before. It s just that my imagination was more charged than before. Having done time in corporate America I was bursting at the seams with pent-up creative expression. Bradley first began shooting adventure travel and action sports photography from his base in the mountains around Lake Tahoe. Even his travel photography was dramatic and stylized, forming the roots of his current fantasy style. Pursuing adventure photography gave Bradley a taste of the collaborative process. He realized that he thrived on working with other creatives. This recognition and his work experience with high profile apparel brands adeptly guided him into fashion and

4 ALL PHOTOs COPYRIGHT august bradley conceptual photography s collaborative nature. Elaborating on his move to fashion, Bradley says, The editorial style of fashion, even when used for commercial ends, just fit well with my aesthetic. I like dark and dramatic, and that style lends itself well to editorial and high-end commercial fashion. I like reflective and introspective moods, and that fits well with beauty images. At the same time, so much fashion was staged on a flat, empty backdrop and lacked story or emotional depth, so I felt I had something to contribute and a way to establish an identity in the field. Bradley was never one to be satisfied with what the camera could capture, even in the film days. He felt liberated by the new digital tools he discovered upon returning to photography. He says, There is so much magic that can be created through lighting and interaction with the subject and shutter speed and depth of field and lens personality. But, there are many very real practical constraints to in-camera capabilities, particularly when budget constraints limit location access or set-building options. And then there are the physically impossible concepts that often creep into my head. The computer eliminated the constraints of the camera, [creating] a tool without limits that could achieve anything that the mind could imagine. The camera s limitations ceased to be such a defining aspect of what the end result would be. Now it s all about the imagination of the artist, as it should be. Bradley s fashion and beauty clients include Paul Mitchell, Louis Verdad and Mark Nason. Still, his commercial work could easily be mistaken for fine art work. When I inquire about this, he says, I enjoy creating commercial images. I don t think we ve ever before been in a period with such strong commercial

5 imagery that challenges fine art museum and gallery work in terms of technical skill, concept strength and sheer imagination. I m very happy operating in the commercial realm because there is so much creative energy there right now. But, then again, my images are not center-of-the-road in the commercial field so perhaps my view is biased by the opportunity to operate at the more imaginative end of the commercial arena. By working in fashion I can create images that are commercial but darker with an odd, haunting quality that might not go over so well in other commercial areas. Though his commercial work has a fine art quality to it, Bradley also pursues his own personal work to fill his portfolio and exhibit at galleries. Pursuing the gallery work will let me continue to explore and confront issues that are antithetical to commerce. Issues that go to the root of personal identity and place in the world detachment and isolation, self discovery, struggles to relate and sheer curiosity for the spectacle and the diversity of our world. I visited Bradley in his studio a loft in a downtown Los Angeles building populated by photographers and other artists, some of whom he has collaborated with. We looked at his portfolio ( bradley.com) together and he broke down the elements behind some of the shoots. In particular, we looked at a fantasy swimwear shoot he did for Foam magazine. The photo spread was called Atlantis (see above) and had a post-apocalyptic theme. Each image depicted a girl in a bikini in an urban setting that was flooded with water presumably a result of global warming. One image was composited out of seven elements: the model, the water, several buildings poking out from the flood and several sky images that were blended together. On a shoot like this, one of the key decisions to be made during preproduction is model selection. Bradley has relationships with many of the local modeling agencies that him information about the models. He and the magazine often have different preferences but, once they come to an agreement, they book the models, hair stylists and makeup artists. He usually works from storyboards so everyone is working toward the same goal. It can take several hours for hair and makeup to be done for each model. So, while Bradley is shooting one model, another is getting prepped. His shooting day is long to allow him the opportunity to shoot as many setups as possible. He said that his lighting style tends to be highcontrast and said that he often moves the softbox extremely close to the model to achieve this. The silky look that he often attains with the models skin is a function of the lighting, makeup (sometimes adding a sheen with baby oil) and retouching. The next step is to composite the images. Bradley uses Photoshop with a Wacom tablet and stylus. He did mention that he usually relies on a white background for his models as he can often eliminate any remnants of the white background by using certain Photoshop blending modes. It s not only the clothing styles that change quickly in the world of fashion. Bradley talked about fashion photography having its share of changing styles as well. Namely, he thinks one of the current trends is the raw snapshot aesthetic a style that he clearly has little interest in. Whatever terms one arrives at to describe Bradley s style (and there are many possibilities fantasy, post-apocalyptic, conceptual), his approach seems the antithesis to the snapshot. For him, even props have meaning. A large hammer can mean breaking free; the dramatic poses into which he guides his models convey specific messages, though they may only register subconsciously to others. Bradley advertises in industry directories such as Le Book and makes periodic trips to New York to meet with editors and other photo buyers. His livebooks website is instrumental to his marketing efforts. Bradley reports less and less need to rely upon printed portfolios thanks to the sophistication and beauty of his site. Recently, having won some coveted awards, including the Hasselblad Master s Award and second and third place in the beauty category of the 2007 International Photography Awards Photographer of the Year award (photoawards.com), he is experiencing increased interest in his work. Bradley is also among a small group of photographers featured in the Hasselblad Masters book, released in September 2008 and available on Amazon. He created a group of images for the project that he is developing further for a gallery exhibition. I ve never taken a photography class or post-production class. I don t even know what they would teach after covering the basic operations of the tools. Artistic works are not achieved by the tools, it s about the vision in the creator s head, he says. And with the momentum he s been gaining as a result of winning prestigious awards, we should have the pleasure of sharing his visions for some time to come. Larry Brownstein is the photographer of the books Los Angeles, Where Anything is Possible and The Midnight Mission. He is represented by Getty Images, Alamy and other agencies. He has a growing wedding and portrait photography business. He also offers stock photography consulting and career coaching for emerging photographers. See his work at stein.com or contact him at (310)