Peter Lindbergh is one of my all-time favorite photographers. I often refer to his work for inspiration not only for the technique but for the amazing beauty that exudes from his work. Not too long ago I found this little clip of Peter shooting Amber Valletta (a legend in her own right) for Vogue Italia. What I've found interesting about this video is the level of production that goes into a shoot like this, when the final image appears so effortless. Not only did he set up a gigantic box of blackout fabric (kind of his signature thing), but there are lights, fans, flags, nets; he basically brought a studio to the beach. The lesson I learned from this video? Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Too many gear, a huge team. And the results aren't so impressing to be honest!
one b-dish, fan and a 2k is too many gear!? lol
if you saw the result in the magazine you will knew, that the whole concept of this shoot is too show gear and set! another lol.
and the results are great because its his style, its recognisable and it fits the clothes (don`t forget its fashion mag we`re talking about. who cares if the pictures are your taste or not, they do the job for Vogue! btw, what job have you done for Vogue? painful lol)
so if you actually thought about this shoot a little bit - than you knew, that the results are impressive. the team is great! and the gear is right.
I'm really sorry to say that, but my friend all of what you said up there is really just empty.
I don't like the photos. However, the way to judge them is to think of how they fit in socially within the fashion photography scene. Lower level fashion shooters always try to make things too perfect (over-retouched, over-styled etc) while at the same time only having access to shoestring budgets. The combination of trying too hard with inadequate resources is exactly what makes them pretentious. Lindbergh is making an avant-garde attack on both of those things. In his pictures, fashion is about "ease." He's announcing that he's higher tier by showing that he has a pretty good budget (excessive gear etc) and still doesn't care about making things look too perfect. He's relaxed and does what he wants which is A.K.A. unpretentious. Do I like the photos?.... No. But I wouldn't consider them to be empty. The social message they are sending is to a small audience that understands it without needing it to be explained.
I think you understood what I said wrong, I didn't say the "photos" are empty. I literally said that what "Tim Gallo" was attacking with and said is absolutely empty talk.
And if you really read what I said, none say anything about the "quality" of the photos whatsoever, I said that they aren't so impressing.
Hi Ihab,
I totally understand... You didn't say that the photos were empty but that Tim's talk was empty. I was trying to show that his talk might be more intuitive than empty.
Well for me I'd say that I could never value a person's opinion when they talk with his attitude. I understand what you are trying to say, but I made my point clear.
"I don't like the photos. However, the way to judge them is to think of how they fit in socially within the fashion photography scene." I don't understand that point of view, actually. There is a lot of expensive and cheap whine out by me, and the standard of quality - even by the wineries themselves - is, "if you like it, it's good."
If that's the case, then redneck wine-tasters are equivalent to connoisseurs.
Yes. They are.
Agreed I was just saying to myself how all that really was not needed. I
Yea exactly!
sometimes you just gotta impress the client.... with gear and your production.
Hahaa, yea I guess!
Im agree!!!
I was not really impressed by those photos at all
and this is and article because.....?
dear Rich, why don`t you put some other stuff from this shoot?
Here are photost from this shoot:
http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/fashion-stories/2013/02/amber-valletta-b...
and still, I dont get it :/. But maybe because this is not my style.
OH my, some of those are nasty and the model looks hung over!
i`d say its a lack of taste and understanding of how the images should be selected :).
but than of course its boring, its a job that costs and brings tons of money :) based on selling artificial values and clothes. and its professional :). not your average-amateur-i-shoot-a-wedding-with-one-strobo-and-how-to-get-more-likes-hdr-insta-images kind of topic :)
btw, if its boring, than helmut newton is just bullocks :)
you need a cross, my son? :)
They made the model look like she's on drugs, I thought the whole heroin chic look was done and long gone.
After seeing the video, I was a bit disappointed... Set is cool, maybe a bit too much for what I shot. Model, mmmeh, not a fan of her expression at all!
Maybe you could do a piece about the BTS of my 3 day-15 location photo shoot!! contact me for all the details and info about who the shoot was for! epic!
Eric
nice dialogue Tim and Ihab, I absolutely agree with both but for sure the end result look more like behind the scene random shots. Definitely not what one has seen of Mr. Lindbergh in the past , I guess time things stop being sold coz of a certain brand name only and are more content driven. As far as Mr. Newton goes he was light years ahead of Mr. Lindbergh and the likes so no point of making comparisons here.
One suggestion to Tim , the idea is not to showcase how good the people commenting here with their work is or whether they have shot for Vogue before or not but just to have an honest opinion about the images purely on their merit not because they have names attached to them.
This is simply the style of Lindbergh. He did a similar shoot for Numéro Magazine http://www.touchpuppet.com/2010/01/31/anna-selezneva-by-peter-lindbergh/ (French) with Anna Selezneva in 2009. I love this style honestly. It's over the top yet bare-bones, it's dramatic and sensual.
Guys, calm down haha! I have this vogue laying on my desk here, and he used this setup as a decor, not for lighting purposes. The serie contains 16 pictures, and only 3 of them are shot with flash!
I think the whole "bringing a studio to the beach" thing is part of the shoot. There was no way he needed to go to that much effort for the shots that didn't show the studio set.
were those the resulting photos? Interesting that he kept the blackout fabric in the shots...
What ever he is looking for, he should keep looking.
So refreshing. If I see one more perfectly lit, shot, retouched and slick photo of a pretty girl I'll barf. People are watching too many Youtube Videos about lighting and Lightroom and Photoshop retouching. That's not what art is about, it's about communicating something, even an upsetting something. Want to see really "pretty" stuff? Go on flicker. Pause for a moment and see if maybe a gifted man with 10 times the experience most of us have isn't actually doing this on purpose, perhaps as an artistic response to the "shtick" we've gotten so used to. Yawn.
You've got a valid point there. In my humble opinion you have to master
the lighting, composition and post production and once you've proved
that you can do a photoshoot consistently to the highest standards, you
can mess things up and people will beleive it. If I'd do a photoshoot
with these results, no one would even look at them, they'd only think
"was this guy drunk on the set, why the hell did he keep these
photos?!?"
He makes me sick. The work is horrible and this "art" is a waste. These
images are poorly done and serve no purpose.
Its fashion and its sometimes shallow. I personally like Peter Lindbergh's earlier work, I have not followed anything he has been doing lately other than seeing this shoot but he is at the point where he is hired by his reputation.
Honestly, and no offense, these pictures are not that great entirely. Maybe they're very artistic and stuff, but if they weren't by peter lindbergh and shot by any other low profile photographer. Leave aside Vogue, Nobody from any magazine would give it a second look.
This really isn't too much gear, it's pretty standard for a shoot like this. It's easy to think it is, but when you work on big ad campaigns and fashion jobs you need to cover possible eventualities hence you over crew and take more than you need.
I hate photographers