Hi Look Book

I really don’t know why I’ve never thought of it. I mean I know why I guess, I don’t have models. I don’t have clothes. No fashion. I hate this. Rochester, fuck. Hate you.

But I think with school coming to an end so soon (20 fucking days) the wires in my brain are sort of like fizzing and freaking out.

I rarely just bust out with ideas or concepts. I’m that like “long term project” person. And part of that deals with school meddling with creativity. Oh shit, I have this due Thursday, so I can’t do this. And so on.

I believe that knowing I’ll be done soon and realizing all the free time I’ll have, ideas are finally spewing out.

And I’m finally getting excited about attempting images I’ve never made before — projects that I assumed were unattainable.

I recently just photographed a girl for a class that works at Thread. Shortly afterward I realized, why don’t I ask them for a trade? I’ve actually never done that. I think I’ve been apathetic, like “”yeahhh they wouldn’t do it.” Or “who would model” and then just giving up. So apparently the dude agreed, and even spoke about huge window displays of the photos.

We’re shooting it Saturday at our apartment, Eric’s going to style, and I hope I can get Ryan Haigh to do some mock up design, illustrating it as a “look book” or “photo essay.” I want to make sure that even if they don’t use them, even if they HATE them, Eric and I can still use this in our books and on our websites. Adding text to a series of images suddenly make them stand out like crazy. It might not be the best fashion, but for it to look complete as a whole, I really feel that design really adds to the success.

When I came home that night, I was on such a like… art high. Yeah I just fucking said that. I think we had just discussed photographs and what we want to do for 3 hours all stoned and I came back really inspired.

And that’s when I messaged two companies.

Two eye wear companies, one seemed like they’d do it, but I didn’t know. The other I didn’t have the balls to write, but still did.

Han Kjøbenhavn wrote me back the next day saying they felt as if my work was “down their alley” (Oh Denmark) and “yea lets do a trade, what do you want from us?” I was just kind of like wait what. I didn’t even think they’d read my email. They are currently doing Copenhagen Fashion Week so they said the would send a package after those two weeks and that they were excited to see what I’d produce for them.

Uh oh. Yeah, scary. I’ve never done that. Like a client but, not really. There’s no real monetary pressure to succeed. But of course yeah I want to. My brains been imploding with ideas and images. There is a 90% chance I will shoot it in New York. I’m thinking of asking old modeling agency contacts to see if I can get some pretty emaciated boys for a couple hours. Speaking about the project with people, resources are slowly coming along. I actually have this amazing woman, Staci Child willing to do the grooming if it happens, she does hair for NYLON shoots all the time. She does hair like a mad woman. Excellent work. And excellent credentials/portfolio.
I’m not sure if I can really pull it off in Rochester. I don’t think so.

The second company, SUPER, that I didn’t have balls to write actually responded to me yesterday afternoon. It was a challenge. It seemed harder to pull off. Someone from their Press department contacted me asking what magazine I was with, or what affiliations I had. Suddenly I had to like… PITCH something to this woman over in Italy through an email. I’ve never done that either. Like, what can you do for US? I thought whatever, I’ll never see this person in my life, just go for it. I wrote some paragraph that I can’t remember. I just know I said I can make you a series of 15-20 images that can provide circulation over the internet and create a buzz for your brand and it won’t cost you anything. I also provided my website, etc, but explained I didn’t have current affiliations with any sort of magazine or publicity agency, I was merely just asking for a trade that would potentially benefit both of parties.
She was really appreciative that I was excited about their brand, (UH HAVE YOU SEEN HOW AWESOME THEIR GLASSES ARE?) and said sure, she’d send a package as long as I returned it and was thrilled to see the images.

So I guess that’s it. That’s where my head is at.

I don’t know. I’m excited, like really excited, but nerve wrecked. I have this weird fucking fascination with just seeing what happens when you put yourself out there. I get rejected a lot sure, and most people never answer me back — but if your ambitions are serious enough and you are driven, jump into shit — honestly, everything is worth a shot.