I was surrounded by women chatting, laughing, helping one another put the finishing touches on their hair, and generally elevating the atmosphere with camaraderie. Emotionally speaking, it was a different story.įrom the very start, it was clear this was not going to be a run of the mill shoot. Easy peasy, right? Photographically speaking, yes. There were two white -flats from V-flat World on either side to give me some light in the shadows and help make the skin glow. For light, I used two Elinchrom monolights in what I think of as a "stacked light" setup: the key light was directly in front of and above the model's eye line, modified with a 72 cm white beauty dish to create some spectral highlights and let their skin texture show. On the second light, I used the 39" Rotalux Deep Octa for fill, placed directly behind the first light. Paired with Susan's very clean, minimal retouching, we were able to celebrate the beauty and diversity while removing distractions. We didn’t want to glamorize or hide these ladies behind clever light tricks or excessive makeup, turning them into objects more than people, but to photograph them cleanly and let their features, expressions, hairstyles, and personalities tell the story. I knew I wanted to keep the lighting and style as simple and natural as possible. We were united on the goal, and now we just had to tell the story. We approached photographer and retoucher Susan Rockstraw, who was also excited to be part of the project. Aside from the fact that my visual style suited her vision, she felt that working with an outside perspective could create an open doorway for the kind of conversations and learning experiences we desperately need. ![]() Bridges reassured me that my reservations were part of the reason she wanted me for the job. Maybe these were shoes I had no right stepping into. As a storyteller, my job is to empathize, but I thought maybe my voice wasn’t the right voice to help her tell this story. I can do my best to empathize by listening and using my personal experiences as surrogates, but I’ve never lived with the social ramifications of issues like the ones these ladies deal with on a daily basis. “I know in my heart that she was finally recognized for what she accomplished,” she said.I was hesitant to accept her offer, not because I had any reservations about partnering with these incredible women to create the work, but because I realize that I’m an outsider to their experiences. Through “Donyale Luna: Supermodel,” Dream Cazzaniga said at last her mother’s legacy and contribution to fashion history can at last be seen and understood. Her daughter Dream was later born a decade later in the Italian countryside.ĭespite all the fashion world’s characterizations of Luna as a goddess, a fairy, a celestial being and a supermodel, Luna’s writings reveal the intense loneliness and depression she grappled with in the final days of her life. While in Rome, Luna met her husband, photographer Luigi Cazzaniga, in 1969. She would then make a cameo in two fashion films “Blow-up” based on Bailey and “Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?” As she began to move on from modeling, she explored her boundless creativity with more avant-garde films. A move to London surged her career forward and in a momentous feat landed the cover of Vogue as the magazine’s first Black cover model, shot by renowned photographer David Bailey. industry placed limits on who she could be and her career, Luna found more success overseas. ![]() ![]() Avedon had cast Luna to model for an infamous American Vogue shoot in 1966 known as “The Great Fur Caravan” where she was set to model furs in snowy Japan.īefore they flew out, Vreeland told Avedon that he could not take Luna because she was “nobody’s idea of what anybody wants to look like.” Perhaps, the most painfully shocking moment in the documentary is the revelation about how former Vogue Editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland put an end to what could’ve further skyrocketed Luna’s career. The Harper’s Bazaar incident did not stop Avedon from pushing for Luna even though others pushed back. “We just couldn’t understand why she could only make it so far.” ![]() “She was there and willing, hardworking, striking and innovative in everything that she was doing,” Jefferson said. While premier photographers wanted to work with Luna, Jefferson said they were not given the platform to feature her. Gideon Lewin, a photographer and Avedon’s former assistant, says in the documentary they were told not to “do it again.” The shoot would unleash a storm of backlash that cost Harper’s subscribers and advertisers. In 1965, Avedon would then feature Luna in a Harper’s Bazaar spread for an issue he was guest editing.
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