JUSTIN HENRY BEAUTY: A little background behind the other Australian editor of Black Magazine...

Annabel Moore wears dress by Rachel Gilbert

Many of you would be aware by now that outside of taking fabulous pictures I am one of the Australian editors for Black magazine. For those of you who don't know, Black is a beautiful glossy publication that has an international team of top notch contributors. All of the content is assembled together and published from the New Zealand capital of Auckland then distributed around the world. I love working with Black as I'm always learning more about the business of fashion - not just the process of creating the pictures themselves. The photos I'm sharing with you now are outtakes from a beauty story I shot with the super lovely Melbourne based stylist Sophie Barker and my fellow Black Australian editor Justin Henry. We shot this story before our featured beauty editorial 'Is Anybody Out There?' which you can see in all it's glory in the latest issue of Black #19 - starring the lovely Annabel Moore.

Annabel Moore wears jacket by Manning Cartell

THAT'S A WRAP 2012: The year that was!

Adventures ahoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years darlings! I thought I'd kick the year off by sharing some pictures of Taren Cunningham - a talented artist and musician who mused for some of the biggest names in fashion including Tim Walker and Steven Klein. She is one amazing woman and a delight to shoot! Have a listen to one of her latest projects here - her music sounds like a magic spell. I think that's why the pictures turned out the way they did! Goodness gracious... so much got crushed right into the end of the year there! I've been state hopping as usual. Had a lot of fun, shot a lot of pictures! December saw me visit Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. By the time I got in to see my family I was well and truly ready to sleep for a thousand years. I had a really fun New Years Eve with my pals Sarah Birchley and Jovita Lee hanging out by a lake behind Noosa in a place called... Ccccooooorrrrrooooyyy... I can never pronounce it properly - but it was a good time! I woke up to sunrise in a field wrapped up in a picnic blanket! What a way to welcome in the new year!

The wonderful Taren Cunningham channels some magic

KIMBRA KRAFT TIME: Designing the Backdrop for her 2012 headline USA tour...

Backdrop Illustration by Jose Vigers

Earlier in the year, whilst on Kimbra's video set for her single Come Into My Head, I was asked whether or not I could help collaborate on something visual to add another stage dimension for her US tour. Always up for a fresh challenge I gladly accepted! We needed to create something with colour, depth, imagination but also practicality. It would have to be packed up every evening and because each venue had different stage measurements we had to have some flexibility. Detailed, durable and easy to compact. So it was decided that we would create a beautiful backdrop to extend upon the world created by Kimbra and her band. They're all pretty stellar musicians, so I felt the pressure to do something cool!

'Stay Hard' - Jose Vigers

NON, JE NE REGRETTE RIEN: Who doesn't love a moody atmosphere...

LAUREN MOODY @ VIVIENS

Hello gorgeous creatures! How are you? I've missed you! 
It's been a while since we've sat down and had a little chat together so I thought I would put on a little bit more of a show this time! We all know I'm a big fan of drama so I thought we would do something a little more quirky... a little more unusual... a little more Thom Kerr perhaps?

ABOVE:

Gail Sorronda polka dot button up
Vintage hand painted skirt, tutu and head scarf, stylist's archives

LIFE SKILLS 101: Time to concentrate!

Hello my beauties! I've been really bad with the blogging, I know! I cannot explain to you how much everything has been changing in the last month or so. It's been one of the busiest times I can remember as a photographer - but also equally as exciting. To keep you up to speed I've recently been appointed the Australian editor of Black magazine. I love those guys - they have been very supportive of my career ever since I interned with them six years ago. Making coffees and sweeping floors. We all start somewhere baby! I take pride in working with the magazine and I'm really excited for you guys to see the next issue and all the fresh content. It's going to be ridiculously amazing!

Sapphire @ DALLYS

Some of you may have seen the shoots I've been doing with kiwi super babe singer Kimbra. I've had some of the pictures pop up in places like Teen Vogue and Interview magazine (one of my absolute favourites in the world!) which I'm immensely proud of. I've also been contacted by more international  artists wanting to work with me, so it's been a delicate balance of slowly finishing up my workload and preparing for a big relocation soon. There were so many things that I wanted to shoot these last couple of months but I simply ran out of time! There will be more opportunities I'm sure!

Sapphire @ DALLYS

SPHINXES WITHOUT SECRETS: My Alice McCall Campaign

Winter has finally arrived in the great land of down under! I've been freezing it up in Melbourne as of late spending a little time hanging out with me, myself and I. We all need a little down time occasionally... Now that I've had a chance to slow down I wanted to finally share with you guys my Alice McCall campaign images. Featuring the always engaging Kaila Hart from Chic, I employed the services of my favourite girls, Lauren McCowan on hair and Jovita Lee on makeup. We shot at this amazing prop house where we sourced these fabulous statues. Click here to see a behind the scenes video put together by the very clever Dan Moon. I'm very happy with the final result. 

Working with Alice was great because she really encouraged me to really let loose creatively with the concept. I think she's been a great client who seems to understand the importance of creating hyper unique imagery that can captivate an audience. I think the market is so saturated with repetitive imagery at the moment that it feels like a breath of fresh air to see these images which are more like pop art then advertising. And if you happen to live in Melbourne or Sydney, get along to one of the Alice McCall stores to see these glorious images as giant billboards. Even more fabulous in real life darling!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE: Shanna is the question!

Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you some beautiful pictures of the intriguing Shanna Jackway from Pride Models. I always love my Adelaide adventures because there's a wealth of fabulous new faces to work with, some of which I'll be sharing with you shortly. You may recognise Shanna from her recent appearances in Australian Vogue, Russh and one of my personal favourites, Black Magazine.

I'd heard wonderful things about Shanna via kiwi photographer David Shields so when the opportunity came up to shoot together I setup a studio with the ever charming Becca Gilmartin on makeup and Ashleigh Janssen on styling. Shanna truly is a unique beauty who not only has massive potential, but the calm approach required to keep a steady focus in this somewhat chaotic business! And I think the final pictures speak for themselves!