Peter Lindbergh's work speaks to me more than any other photographer. This is for a couple of reasons. One is that much of his work has an element of portraiture, and there's no question that even when I do fashion editorials, I tend to lean that way as well. The other reason is his role in the rise of supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford. That time pre-dated my interest in photography, yet I still knew who they were. If there are supermodels now, I don't even know who they are, and I sense that "super" anything has more to do with social media followers than the runway and print achievements of the 90s supermodels.
The model in this particular shoot is Vanessa Villegas. We have worked together on many occasions on both photo and video projects, and like many of the models I work with, her talents go far beyond what she does in front of the camera (styling, hair, and makeup are all hers). The inspiration for this shoot was Lindbergh's 1987 shoot on a beach in France with Marie Sophie-Wilson, Tatjana Patitz, and Lynne Koester. Vanessa was the perfect match for this shoot - not only did she share my affection for the supermodel era, but this was my first-ever film shoot. I knew I could count on her to deliver exactly what was needed in the three rolls of Tri-X I shot that day instead of the 500+ digital images we'd usually take together.
I used a Mamiya C330 medium-format film camera mounted on a tripod. It is a top viewfinder camera - which makes it a bit different than shooting with a typical digital SLR. With this camera, the viewfinder is enormous, and I'm looking down, which means the camera naturally wants to be held lower than an SLR. This lower position is much more natural for this type of photography, and I'm not hiding behind the camera either. When I was working with Vanessa, I felt like I was much more connected. Once the camera was set up, I looked at her, independent of the camera, and activated the shutter when I saw the look I wanted.
