Last week I worked with Next stylist and blogger, Stephanie Tanner and photographer Chris Aadland on a 'Midnight Madness' brief. The model cancelled last minute so Steph had to step in but i'm so glad that she did as she looked stunning! Perfect for the dark and mysterious theme for the shoot.
I kept the make-up fairly simple in the style of the brand, focusing predominantly on contoured cheekbones and a focal lip colour. The hair was inspired by the textures of the clothes with smooth and sleek skirts and jumpsuits combined with textured knits, this is mirrored in the hairstyle. Here is a series of the best shots.
Another beauty from BFL. I wish I could find the directors and stylists for his videos, they really deserve more credit. Although the lyrics are quite simple and not really that imaginative, the video allows for a much deeper story to be told.
His videos really get me thinking quite deeply about things - in case you couldn't already tell! A photograph is such a powerful document. It captures a moment. A moment which is impossible to recreate exactly again, we will always be feeling or thinking something different each time. I think that the video focuses on the idea of 'rewind' and 'destruction', both ideas that cleverly link to each other. Destruction is a negative, rewind is a positive, and the notion of both a photographic mind and the physical photographic document helps us to do this.
If you rip up a photograph, will this rewind and destroy the memory? No. If you take a new photograph, will this create and bloom a new memory? Yes. The man wripping the feathers from the bird is a perfect example of the destructive nature of photography. It has the power to destroy great people but the power to create great people too.
The snake is quite a cryptic symbol within the concept - at first I was unsure what the significance of it was. However as I sit here at my desk and think, I link it to the idea of memories being trapped and constricted into the constraints of the photograph and the mind - They are kept in there forever, but can never be destroyed.
Maybe I should go into this music video-making business...meh one day I hope.
The official music video for 'Atlas Hands' the lead track from 'A Million Miles Out' EP by new artist Benjamin Francis Leftwich. (Double click the video to view full screen)
Half a job for an artist is to create beautiful, entrancing music. The other half, is to create an even more beautiful music video - it creates a concept, a story, a foundation for the lyrics to build from and most importantly, lets us see what the artist was thinking when it was written. Granted, some music videos don't reflect this at all, but it is the most meaningful songs with the most heart-felt lyrics that always shine through on screen.
This video is a mesmerising mix of childhood playfulness combined with a wistful glance on life's possibilites. 'Make Believe' springs to mind everytime I watch it - the idea that if belief isn't made, nothing can ever be true. You have to believe in the 'making' of anything, otherwise nothing you can do would ever turn out the way you want it to. Make-up design and styling are fantastic, keeping a 'back to basics' approach yet still retaining playful props such as the masks, rope and feather to capture the child-like memory. The plaiting of the hair and twisting of the rope at the beginning is such a simple technique in symbolising the procrastination of thoughts from the girl about whether she should stay or leave.
I have entitled the blog as 'The Idea Girl' as my viewpoint on the concept of the video is that all the characters in it symbolise the woman in white. The children are personifications of her childhood memories, the man letting the ship free at the end is symbolising her mind letting go and the ship itself is a metaphor for herself, her own limbs and ultimately, her own life.
Collectively, they make up a woman who is letting herself free from any worries and stresses. A woman that truely does have an atlas in her hand, the world at her feet, and an idea to sail away to...
Since I haven't blogged in a while, I thought it was about time. So I almost had a heart attack tonight when I went into my bag to get my goldfish and it wasn't there...by goldfish, I don't mean an actual fish. A memory stick in fact so don't go calling the RSPCA on me. So yes, no memory stick, 5 edited images lost forever and almost 5 hours of my life wasted editing them. After getting past the massive melo-dramatic stage, or so I thought, I decided the best thing to do was to drive to the library at 10oclock at night to see if a lovely, fellow student had handed it in (student being the KEY word here, making my expectations very low) and low and behold...no little goldfish to be seen. So I revved my little car back home and sulked in my room, looking in every little place where I knew it definitely would NOT be- why do people always do that? The knicker drawer? Maybe hiding inside a random sock under the bed? make-up bag? Toilet? Of course to no avail...
I then had a euphoria moment of what I can only describe as like being born again by good old Jesus himself. God, I'm so dramatic. There it was, in the Xbox from the other night after watching an illegal copy of The King's Speech, wait a minute, maybe that was some form of evil karma?
Anyway, the real reason for posting this is to inform all you lovely people that I now have an official website of my own - yep http://www.larahimpelmann.com/ has arrived and theres only one in the whole WWW. Pretty cool I thought. Check it out, feedback would be cool. It's just a starting point with the Wix template, but if anyone knows a cheap web designer let me know. Thanks.
Last week I worked with Next stylist and blogger, Stephanie Tanner and photographer Chris Aadland on a 'Midnight Madness' brief. The model cancelled last minute so Steph had to step in but i'm so glad that she did as she looked stunning! Perfect for the dark and mysterious theme for the shoot. 
