A little bit of backstory before I get into the exiting parts: in December I had this idea of printing out three huge prints and hanging them up on my wall, three photographs that really captured the essence of my photography. I came to the conclusion that I didn't quite have the last photo of those three, this shoot was meant to fill those empty shoes.
Okay, I'm gonna be honest with you guys, this shoot has been an absolute nightmare to organise. It's been in the planning since December of 2014. Unfortunately it had to be cancelled at least four times. The location changed, the model changed, the outfits changed, so many things changed but something that never changed was the belief that this project was going to be magical - and it was.
The model ended up being Onerva and holy sh*t I have never seen anybody pour her heart and soul into a project like she did. It was an absolutely amazing thing to see - I keep telling you that one of the things I love most in life is seeing creative people come together and create something amazing. With this project, that happened on a scale that I have never witnessed before. She had so much passion for the whole project and that really helps out with the stress levels, especially when it comes to a project as special as this one. The outfit Onerva and I managed to put together was completely stunning, it looks really unique and I've never really seen anything quite like it before.
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I really wanted to make this shoot the biggest, most exiting shoot I had done so far, I think we managed that. For the first time I got a videographer involved, Laurynas has been helping me out on shoots before but always as an assistant and never as a videographer. Video is something he is really passionate about so it only seemed logical to finally let him do what he does best. We've both currently been drowned in work and bureaucracy so the more in depth story of this shoot has been shelved for a week or two but when we finally get around to it I'll make sure to spam you all to oblivion! I managed to get two assistants involved also, now assistants are the people who just don't get enough credit. They take so much stress away from the shoot, this means I can concentrate on the image, communicating with the model and I don't have to worry about so much of the technical stuff. So thank you Ragna and Elvira for helping me out on this shoot, you guys did a really good job!
Another thing I am really proud of is the location for this shoot, Laurynas took a train to Leuven on a weekend and he past by this train station so we tracked it down and I went on a little location scout there, it was perfect. In my opinion the location is just as important as the model or the outfit for the success of these kinds of photo-shoots - it has the ability to turn good into great, to really add emotion and feeling to the image in ways that a human cannot even express. Initially I was going to do this shoot in a metro station, it would have worked out alright but finding a place like this was an absolute goldmine. This is probably why in some way I am glad the shoot had to get cancelled and postponed so many times, every time it did it allowed me to take a little more time to perfect a thing or two here and there - I believe the outcome is much more mature because of it. Setbacks are always annoying, but there is a little bit of good in everything.
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” - Anatole France
This photo-shoot has had so many ups and so many downs but we finished on one of the biggest ups I have ever experienced. I am so happy with how everything turned out, Onerva did a wonderful job and the rest of the crew pulled together beautifully to make this project come to life in such a beautiful way. I couldn't be happier and I'm really exited to take on the next big challenge. Until then, I'll leave you with this final quote from Walt Disney:
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
