Shooting for Next.

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.

Can a picture be rewound?

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 Idea Girl.

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...

Moving on up.

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.


P.s Pinch Punch and all that...

Yael Naim - New Soul

This music video is so charming. It really caught my attention the first time I watched it- not just for the happy-go-lucky sound but for the concept behind it. I think it talks about how reality can be a dream, or how dreams can be a reality. Materialism isn't the most important thing in the world and I think this video expresses that perfectly. The only two things that we should really focus on are friends and happiness :) Peace to that.

Shooting with photographer Lauren Catherine.

Have I told you already how amazing Lauren is? Well I might as well say it again. There it is. I'm really glad to be able to finally put these shots up. The concepts are quite in depth but they follow a consecutive pattern of the character's development as the screenplay develops. The first, Mallory INLove. The second, Mallory INsane and finally Mallory INdulge. I thought it was really important to consider that not only is Mallory a crazed serial killer, she also has human feeling. She feels love and pain just like anyone else and if this isn't clear, it would be impossible for anyone to relate to the story behind the pictures. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them.

Mallory INLove

Mallory INSane

Mallory INDulge

I would love some comments on what you think!

Shooting day...Oh the irony.

So today was the day that the past 6 weeks has been leading up to - the Natural Born Killers photo shoot! I have been so busy planning for the IMATS comp that I sort of felt like I had neglected the designing for the project BUT I have been pulling myself together over the past 2 weeks and I came up with some cool concepts for each 3 portraits. The shoot went so so well - working with Lauren Catherine is always a pleasure, she is such a fantastic photographer and younger than me as well. I worked with her in London too so I knew she was fab. Apart from nearly getting frostbitten hands and feeling like a retarded make-up artist doing the last look, I thought it went really well. The blue fingers were worth it anyway as the shots look superb. As soon as I get the final edits I will put them up to show the worrrrld - or 2 of my followers ha ha.

Mac is Back: Wonder Woman Collection

It seems that Mac can do no wrong recently with their advertising pull-ins. From the Disney wicked witch to Lady Gaga Hello Kitty and the Scottish way of the Tartan, it seems that Icons are working really well for the brand.  So why not go the extra mile and murge them all together to create the ultimate female - WonderWoman of course! I for one am quite excited to just have the packaging in my handbag but thinking about reappling a WonderWoman lippy in the loos on a night out would be pretty cool now wouldn't it?

All products are released in March this year.

Happy New Year!



Solange Azagury-Patridge - Chinese New Year Zodiac rings. 
www.solangeazagurypartridge.com

 Personally I can identify with the monkey as my email address since I was about 14 until now has been himpthechimp@hotmail.com but I wouldn't mind a poodle!

Magnetic Man - Getting Nowhere ft. John Legend

This video by Magnetic Man ft. John Legend was shot in London, directed by Adrian Picard. The source of the inspiration was from the biblical story of the Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, which the director has given a modern twist.

I loved the song anyway so when I saw the video I was even more taken aback by it's symbolism and meaning. I sort of looked at it like the transition of youth; with the children playing video games and then how they morph into the darker world of adulthood with the faceless men. One of the best videos I have seen for a while.

HeadSongs

Video of performer Jonny Woo shot and edited by Peter Podworski and the first in the "headsongs' series made by Woo and Podworski . I love the concept of combining music with make-up, as they both work together to excite on a visual and audial level.

faceCULTURE: There is only one way to achieve those devilishly ...

faceCULTURE: There is only one way to achieve those devilishly ...: "Christian Dior Spring 2011 Couture as seen on Style.com Face lift tape, seen here used to arch the eyebrows, has been used for..."

Clothing is language. Behaviour is the word. People make the full stop.

I had a lecture the other day about how "clothing is language" and it really got me thinking about the importance of our own personal style and what it says about our personality. I started to think about subcultures such as Goths and how their "language" is actually very limited. Or is it? Their dress is certainly limited in colour (the main colour scheme obviously being black) but does this make them limited as people? Are they conformists or activists? Are they trapped in their own clothing or are they free? I think the argument is very tricky to answer as they are clearly conforming in a sense as they are adopting a particular style in clothing, hair and make-up...yet by doing this, they are also making a confident political, social and cultural statement about themselves and the culture they are representing. I'm thinking of writing about subjects like this in my dissertation next year so any info/research/ opinions that anyone knows or has are welcomed with open arms!

"Guns can kill extraordinary people with very little effort"

This is a quote by John W Hinckley Jr that I stumbled across when researching for my new project at uni - Natural Born Killers. As I sat in the library with my headphones in listening to the dolsic tones of the This Is England soundtrack, I found myself stopping. Stopping typing, stopping to look at the possible extraordinary people around me. Extraordinary people that I do not know and probably never will know. I wondered about their lives, what they could be looking at on the screen and how this was be processed in their minds.

The only thing that makes us any more unique than the next person is our emotions. The way one processes an emotion is completely different to how another will deal with it which confirms the idea that it is possible to be internally unique. The external unique remains a case for debate...  

Image by Alephunky

Nail the Nail

You can tell a lot about a person by the state of their nails, I think. The colour, condition, length, real/fake are all tell tale signs of how that person views themselves. So you can imagine my excitement when discovering that it is now in TopShop in Oxford St! The company is still new having only started up in 2009 but they have become so popular really quickly - Next time i'm in London i'm definitely getting mine done but will probably have to rob a bank first no doubt.