Paige Hassen: JRN

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Setup:

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My experience:

I was really excited for this photoshoot with X. Since I have done a little work with VERGE, the student-run fashion magazine on campus, I have seen X in a lot of their photoshoots. He was just highlighted on their Instagram page for being one of the creators of the month through his hard work and dedication. This really made me want to reach out to see if he would be down for a photoshoot.

I got in contact with the modeling director of VERGE to get X’s number, but she wasn’t responding in a timely manner. So, with my shoot with Ella Bussa, I was talking to her about these assignments, and she said she still had X’s phone number from a previous photoshoot. She gave me his number and the rest was really easy.

X contacted me back almost immediately, saying he would love to help. I have been doing a deep drive throughout Pinterest to look at some interesting photoshoot concepts, especially with fashion. I sent some ideas his way, and we decided on a neon-theme at-night shoot at a gas station.

I chose the gas station attached to Dunkin’ because I knew it wasn’t a 24 hour place, so we wouldn’t be in the way of anyone trying to get gas or go inside the business.

When we got there, the lights at the pumps were still on. I knew this could look nice since it would have been very well lit. But, after about 10 minutes, the employees shut the lights off on us. I’m not sure if they do that regularly, or if they just wanted us gone. Either way, the photos ended up looking much better with the lights off, because the gel-colored lighting stood out a lot more.

To most people, these photos (along with a lot of photos I take for that matter) may seem very underexposed. That’s on purpose. The style of photography I have found myself to enjoy is heavy contrast, heavy shadows. As you see with this photoshoot with X, a lot of the photos look really dark, and there are heavy shadows on his face and hair. This was on purpose. It’s just the style that we liked and decided to go with. In my opinion, they turned out great and are some of the best photos I have taken thus far.