Some spooky BTS, how I source my collage images, and a lil Q&A
An exhaustive BTS look at some new photos as well as a lil Q&A about sourcing collage images, collecting ideas, and some misc inspo. SPOOKY, OOKY, KOOKY, AND CREEPY
Hiiiii!
I hope you all are thriving and feeling good in this new FALL WEATHER :) I wanted to pop in during the best month of the year to share some fun new spooky work with y’all.
I’m currently sitting outside writing this listening to this La Roux album that I somehow didn’t know about until today which is a crime- I remember being soooo fascinated with the Bulletproof cover art when it came out (I was 12) and now when I look at it I’m like, of course you were obsessed with this person. She looks like electropop Tilda Swinton! But the point of me saying that is to communicate to you that 1. the album is really good and I recommend it 2. it’s CRISP outside and I’m about to start dropping so much haunted artwork. <3
BTS
The first of which is this shoot with my friend Karina Delbeau-Charles, who is a model and actress and glamazon and icon. I posted more pics on IG and they should be on my website soon too :)
The purpose of this shoot was to test out studio lighting- something I’ve been working on sporadically this year. I also just really love shooting with Karina- she’s an actor and thus gives FACE which I appreciate. So I knew we’d end up with something cool kinda regardless of my lighting ability. I mostly just wanted to feel out lighting and technical things (like shooting studio lighting on film, which I’ve only done minimally), I decided to keep the concept simple. I bought this amazing bonnet from Jender Anomie on Etsy- their stuff is so perfect. I also have their bunny bonnet which you can bet your ass WILL be making an appearance on my annual Easter card. So I decided to style Karina in the bonnet and a big zoot suit-esque blazer and some black tights. Easy enough. I also bought the tabletop Halloween trees from Joann and DAMN DID THEY DELIVER!!! I didn’t do any post on the trees- they literally just photographed beautifully.
nerd shit ahead…
I shot a mix of film and digital just for the sake of comparison but as per usual, I scrapped all of the digitals as soon as I got my film scans back. I shot Portra 800 and Cinestill 800T- I use Arri tungsten lights (mine are from Ebay) so I thought it would be important to use tungsten-balanced film like Cinestill, but it turns out that the difference between the two wasn’t huge. The Portra had a greenish cast, the Cinestill was grainy as shit, and both required significant color correction. You can’t win, I guess?!
The Polaroids SHINED with this setup- the ones in the final set are barely retouched aside from adding some blue into the shadows and pink into the highlights. I started using 600 film on my i-Type (as opposed to the i-Type film, which is…garbage) and it is rocking my shit. You should see the new stuff I have cooking!!!! They turned so yellow because my lights are tungsten (tungsten=yellow, LED=blue. Maffs, luv) and Polaroid film is super sensitive to color temperature. But I loooove the way they look- so demonic!
Basically I really like this lighting- I’m curious to try it with diffusion paper on the lights on the side but we had like 1.5 hours and I really wanted to tinker and roll within this setup and I can’t think of everything ok!!
I also went completely BUCK with these in post- I initially thought I’d leave them on the white backdrop (good try, past Savana) but instantly felt like they were boring, so I gave them environments to match Karina’s expressions. Muse shit!!!! I added clouds in Photoshop using a variety of blending modes- I recommend playing around and masking certain areas, etc, and flipping thru blending modes until you find one that looks good. This isn’t a Photoshop tutorial and I am somewhat of a shitty teacher so I will let you run with this info. If you have questions, please do ask!! Youtube can teach you Photoshop much better than I can- I can just explain how I make it look cool for me.
I used this perforation technique a lot in high school- you poke holes into a print of your picture and rephotograph it with light shining behind it. This one I did for Rookie is Savana Canon imo, and I also used it in a melodramatic as fuq (and not in a cool Lorde way) way on Flickr- see here and here. Feel free to peruse how corny my Flickr was 6+ years ago as proof that its get better :) I initially found the technique from artists Daniele Buetti and Amy Friend. They’re the only two artists I can find that use this technique- tell me if you know others please! I can’t remember how I found them but it was nice to return to the perforation idea now and see how it can mesh with my current work. I’m very excited about the possibilities! The little star flares are au natural- I used a bright ass 300W Arri Tungsten light to shine thru the camera which is why it flared. On the ones with heavier flares, I used a Cokin 8 Point Star Filter like every other photographer under age 30 on IG. <3 I say this lovingly- it’s a cute filter.
The stop motion gif of Karina with wings literally could’ve been done in After Effects like everything else I’ve been doing lately but I missed handmade stop motion so much so I whipped it up in a few minutes on Saturday. NOTHING IS BETTER THAN DOING SHIT BY HAND!!! in my silly little opinion. If someone would like to commission me (or collab with me if you are my friend perhaps) to make a stop motion music video….you should do that.
Q&A
OK now that the Halloween BTS portion of this email is over, I’m going to answer a few questions from IG that I’ve been hoarding.
How do you source images for collages?
I’ve been collecting images for 5+ years now so I have a huge folder on my computer that I source from 90% of the time. There’s lots of my own pictures, scanned and altered things from old magazines/other ephemera, stickers, and things I’ve frankensteined in Photoshop. I often print out these files to use for handmade collages so I can use them again and again. It takes the fear of “oh shit what if I use this perfect picture in the WRONG COLLAGE!!!” because you can use it forever.
Unsplash is good for free royalty free things and I’m also a HUGE fan of the Met’s Open Access Archives (just be sure you check open access when you search).
When I’m doing commercial work, like my Fanta Astrology collages, I use a mix of my own things and assets from stock photo sites.
If you want to build your own huge collection of collage elements, I recommend collecting any and all ephemera that inspires you, scanning it in, and creating a file system where you can organize them. This is what mine looks like 😈
How do you keep track of ideas?
I literally have been so bad at this for the past few years, but now I write things in my phone (or record audios if I’m driving) and then transcribe them later into my tiny fancy Emilio Braga notebook. It’s cute as shit and makes me feel like I’m in a Wes Anderson movie which is actually scientifically proven to be great for creativity.
I hope to one day have an idea/archive organizing system as thorough as Joan Rivers’ file cabinets.
What set would you build if you had unlimited resources?
Either a full scale like, neighborhood in Hell (imagine a garden with a picket fence on fire? IDK first ideas here) or perhaps I’d just remake this for me to live in. Something sooooo stupid.
How did you start working with brands? Did they reach out to you or did you reach out to them?
A little bit of both- I’ve sent out a lot of cold emails over the course of the past few years. But at the risk of sounding woo woo, I will add that all of the coolest/most creatively fulfilling/lucrative jobs I’ve gotten have come to me not as a result of me sending a stranger an email, but seemingly out of the blue, and oftentimes from clients I never would’ve thought to reach out to.
I think for me, the less I try to white knuckle jobs into happening, the more space I make for the right jobs to find me (granted I’m always sharing my work online- putting things out there so that potential clients can find me if it’s meant to be). I’ve been represented by a lot of people who have had me create lists upon lists of “dream clients” so that they could try and pitch me to them, but the gag is that it’s never worked out when they said it would. The things that end up being great for me creatively and career wise almost always come by surprise.
So I think the answer here, at least for me, is not to fight tooth and nail to make a certain job happen- if it’s meant to happen, you’re not going to have to beg them to hire you. That’s for sure. Obviously keep reaching out to potential clients, get on their radar, follow editors and people you admire online, SHARE YOUR WORK ONLINE, and let things come to you. Work begets work, fun begets fun, so make/share things now that you want to get paid to make later. If you want it bad enough and can let it go, it’ll happen. <3 advice to myself too, tbh!!!!!!
OK really that’s all I have to say- inspo wise, I’ve just been watching a lot of 90s music videos (I love Garbage- Special, and most Hole videos honestly) and America’s Next Top Model which is SO MUCH WORSE than I remembered…I can’t even start. I’m reading The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper and also Killer in Drag by Ed Wood which I impulsively bought at Soap Plant / Wacko in L.A. last month (honestly can’t wait to do a newsletter about LA because woooow some much fun stuff to come!). And I’m getting a head start on Scorpio season by being really wistful and moody- listening to Chloe Moriondo, Brandi Carlile’s new album, and a playlist on Spotify called “Dreampop Classics” which I have renamed in my brain, “Savana’s Songs to Listen to in the Shower with Candles and Incense Burning”. And also my playlist called “Feral Girl Summer”. LOL
Thanks for subscribing and honestly for giving a shit!! Always let me know if you have any questions you want answered- I like hearing from you guys. love y’all bye!!
Savana