The Met Gala's Studio Setup for Photographs and Video

The Met Gala's Studio Setup for Photographs and Video

It’s amazing how photos and video have become ingrained in events, especially when fashion and arts come together. Art and Commerce, an agency representing Photographers, Hair Stylists, Makeup Artists, Illustrators, Creative Director, Set Designers, and Directors have documented the small ‘studio’ space at the Met Gala. Art and Commerce represents Gordon von Steiner, who directed and brilliantly executed these images and video.  

It’s made up of fluorescent tubular lights that flashed in a random sequence against a silver reflective wall, creating vivid moments. The lights also enhanced the dresses and outfits in the images and videos. 

This creative direction by Gordon von Steiner made for powerful imagery which added to the glamor of the evening in an almost futuristic sense. Furthermore, the images and videos were shared on social networks by the celebrities photographed. High fashion, celebrity, and a good lighting concept is what was used to enhance the event. Here are some of the Instagram posts of Gordon von Steiner's work on Art&Commerce's Instagram profile

These videos inspired me with regards to creative execution. It blurs the space between video and stills. Random lights flashing like these do would be great for a project, and I'm contemplating how I can use this for a project that suits it. 

The equipment I presume it was set up with, or a good starting point would be: 

- The Kino Flo 2 True Match Fluorescent Lamps

- A silver reflective paint

If you use the videos as a reference and set up your studio with these lights and paint, let us know in the comments how well it worked.

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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4 Comments

This was killer and I was super impressed with it. I was curious if anyone picked it up in the Facebook group, so glad someone did!

This was definitely creative and cool. Love the way they did this in a small space.

damn nice!

I'm curious the best way to actually make this a reality? I wonder how hard it would be to make basically a glorified surge protector with say 20 outlets that had a built in relay/timing device that would turn on/off each outlet with a speed dial. You could easily plug in 20 lights labeled 1-20 and set the interval rate to get a similar effect (it looks like the light is going in a circle). Pretty cool idea for sure.