Big Stick Photography Portrait Exhibition Review

The client branding brief that resulted in the Big Stick Portrait Photography Exhibition…

Big Stick as many of you will know, is an advertising marketing and design agency …so why hold a photography exhibition?

Well, photography has long been a passion of mine and also an in- house Big Stick service. Big Stick has photographed imagery for websites and marketing campaigns for the last 15 years.
Including recycling campaigns for Dacorum, Three Rivers and Aylesbury Vale Councils and a series of portraits for the Audit Commission in London.
The idea for an exhibition began when a photographer friend of mine Marten Collins, asked me to design some branding and a creative platform for his boudoir photography,
I enjoyed the work so much I wanted to produce some creative portraits for myself which were conceptual, that expressed an idea behind the photograph that enhanced or re positioned the subject and provided a surprising result.

Cue Make up and beautiful model
I spoke to my make up and stylist Clare Watts if she knew a model who would be interested in doing some test shoots and she suggested her niece Remy Smith, a stunning looking girl with only modest model experience but with
amazing potential. I showed Clare some of the visual ideas I had and we discussed how to produce them. This included a studio shoot at Big Stick’s photographic studio and a location shoot at Hartwell House in
Aylesbury. Since Clare and Remy were directors of the Makana boutique in Berkhamsted we had a ready source of exquisite clothes to add impact to the images.

My daughter the Viking!
The first shoot was of the ‘viking image’ which was infact my daughter Ruby who was the nearest to a viking I could find! St Albans theatre provided the props and clothing for this one and luckily Clare was an avid fan of the ‘Vikings’ Tv series
and did a superb job on the hair, make up and fake blood! To turn Ruby into a warrior maiden reminiscent of Lagartha from Vikings. Ruby has modelled for me before and despite being rather modest in front of camera always rises to the occasion
and this was no exception, she threw herself into the role as ‘helmet clatterer’ ‘Rubna Carlsen’ and provided the first image which, inspired me to think I could do a collection of portraits and exhibit them.

A reluctant model
As I experimented with lighting and effects I needed more subjects…my son Clem was the next ‘victim’ and I have to say, he is a reluctant model at the best of times but again the results were very powerful!
His reluctance produced a look of defiance and disdain which made the image compulsive viewing and from whatever angle you look at the photograph there is no escaping Clem’s eyes. He wore a black turtle neck courtesy of the Big Stick wardrobe dept and in the final version the image was desaturated to almost black and white apart from his blue eyes and amazing golden hair. After this shoot I was buzzing and wanted to do more shoots… fast. Before each shoot however, I pencilled out concepts and ideas on which I would base my photographs. Th next subject was Remy and the idea to do a fashion/boudoir shoot, to create images which were sexy, stylish and empowering. Nudity but in a hide and seek way which sizzled and smouldered without being too obvious.
Prior to the shoot I showed Clare the ideas and she styled some of them with Makana clothing and I went on a shopping spree to find interesting clothes with which to dress Remy and allow her to sizzle. I bought a Diesel blouse, Leather jacket and Hennes white trousers and a River Island striped jumper which had clean lines, look feminine and striking on camera…I also bought hats, lots of them! I love hats so always have a ready supply in the studio to give a model a different look or simply to accessorise and outfit.
The shoot had me buzzing for a week afterwards! The make up was great and Remy amazing, she looked like different people in different images but always looked elegant and mysterious with the poise you would expect of an ex gymnast.
we used the assembled wardrobe and did a topless shot which, whilst not explicit, positively smoulder with sex appeal. I hoped to get one or 2 shots from the exhibition but in the end there were 10 or 15 shots I could have used.

T shirt shoot provides new modelling talent
The next shoot was as a result of a ‘real’ shoot for Michael Overy at Dae Ha T-Shirt films. In shooting T shirts for his website I used models which included an actor called Tom (who had been resident at the Tring Performing arts centre) and a dancer Charlotte (who is one of the Emerald Kitty troupe)
They modelled the T shirts and this gave me ideas for more portraits… Tom is an actor and so is versatile and has lots of different characters and moods to call upon and made for an interesting shoot which yielded some great photographs, Charlotte was more diffident in front of camera but had a natural beauty and vulnerability, which I think comes across beautifully in the photograph. (show pic). An unexpected model was 8 year old Milo, Michael’s son who had come along to model one of the children’s T shirts. Milo walked in with an unruly mop of beautiful blonde curly hair which emphasised his mischievous character and made him perfect for a ‘Big Stick’ portrait. Milo seemed to enjoy the attention and showed real potential as a model, having the patience and versatility to work with direction and change his look and expressions accordingly as a result another couple of shots were added to a now growing file of ‘exhibition possibles’ Kj was another young girl who shows a vulnerable side in her photograph and her huge eyes attract your gaze and hold you down until get lost in the luminous blue pools of her eyes.

Mishi and the kissing babies
My next model ‘Mishi’ runs a business producing and designing baby bamboo muslin swaddling cloths for babies. She commissioned me to produce some pics of babies wrapped in the swaddling cloths which were different colours and had cute motifs on them. The shoot went swimmingly and both babies (and mothers!) were well behaved. in one pic we had the babies laid on the floor and they began interacting with each other chatting and touching each others faces and then ‘Tommy’ kissed the baby’s cheek laid next to him, the mothers cooed and aaaahed and I had another pic for my exhibition.
After the shoot Mishi asked if I would shoot some business pics of her to use on social media. Mishi is beautiful and perfect to photograph, so I hastily agreed as long as I could do some portrait pics of her too. She agreed and Mishi found new found confidence in front of the camera as she worked her way through the Big Stick Wardrobe of designer clothes I had assembled for the occasion. A cool leather jacket gave her a fashionable, confident look and along with a smile which could’ light up a room’ she provided a further addition to my portrait portfolio.
Contemporary photographs in an historic setting…
Next I spoke to Hartwell house, a beautiful hotel and spa location on the edge of Aylesbury. They don’t usually allow shoots on the premisses as they need to preserve the sanctuary of calm for their guests and I thank them profusely for making an exception. The light from huge victorian windows is superb add to that the lavish furnishing and spectacular library and staircases and you have a great setting for a shoot. We planned carefully with 3 models involved, my photography mentor Marten Collins there to help control the light settings and Clare as usual for make up and styling. We only had a limited time slot and didn’t want to try the patience of the Hartwell house team who had been so helpful, so time was of the essence. As it turned out our models were so bathed in natural light from the large windows that we didn’t need to use studio lighting and the results were like some dutch oil painter, the light softly highlighting the models faces and spilling down into the folds of their dresses. The classic environment was a great contrast to the fashionable raunchy clothing worn so alluringly by Remy. She wore pillar box red underwear and a stately black and gold jacket from the Makana boutique which created a pleasing juxtaposition of old and new. Contemporary , fashionable and edgy pics in this historic hotel location.

Tattooed face anyone?
It was getting close to the exhibition now and I was working on the shots every weekend to tweak and cajole every last drop of impact from them…but there was one more shot i wanted which was a tattooed face.
Tattooing a face is not recommended and it is rare to find a tattooed face just walking around so I plumped for an award winning face painter called Juliet Eve who was interested in getting involved with the shoot and was enthusiastic and supportive when I told her the ideas. i found 2 young brothers as models for the shoot who had the approach of … ‘do anything you want Carl- as long as it’s a good picture we don’t mind!’ The younger model was 12 but i didn’t want to do a child face painting shoot but more of a fashion statement. We styled it around a ‘Clockwork Orange’ kind of look on his eye and then used some packaging I’d had from some Moo post cards as a ruffle around his next to give him an aristocratic and slightly dangerous feel. At 12 years old Logan showed remarkable model potential in the final shot he has this haughty disdain look that is perfect and I stuggled to choose a final frame as there were so many that looked quirky and impactful. the white face painted face and red cog over his masked eyes looked great. The ideas were beginning to evolve as Juliet and I worked together and the next face painted face on 19 year old Ewan came from the idea of the tattooed face but ended up being more of a tribe,l avatar kind of feel, which reflects a different aspect of the models personality and visually looked stunning under the lights. The shoot added the 2 final pics to my exhibition and now it was time to despatch the prints order the double mounts, order artists easels on which to place the pics and confirm my booking with Berkhamsted Town Hall that the exhibition was definitely ON!

Last minute preparations
My daughter Ruby, photographer mentor Marten Collins and myself framed pictures late into Thursday evening and then on Friday morning, Adrian at picture box created 2 more mounts for us and repaired a couple of frames and provided new glass in the broken ones
and we began to load up the cars to transport the 36 pics from my studio in Tring to Berkhamsted. The leg work was tiring but having got the framed images displayed in the room it was pleasing to see them looking finished at last.
Not even I, had seen all the pics together and Marten, Ruby and I wandered around looking at the pics…one of which was an image of some buskers i’d seen in Melbourne a few months previous and had added the picture in at the last minute. I was pleased I had as it received some positive reviews from the people who came in to view the pics.
We opened at 1.30pm on Friday the 9th of June and had a steady stream of visitors all afternoon and then the stream became a flood of people as it hit 5.00pm and people were leaving work to come and have a look, Some visitors had a vested interest in one of the images and others were business contacts and old friends. We asked everyone to rate the pics into the favourite top 3 and organised a prize draw (to win a bespoke portrait of course!). It was interesting and pleasing that so many people had different favourites. A professional architectural photographer Kevin Sandsbury came along and we immediately enlisted his help in judging the winner. He was very complimentary about the work and set about his task with relish. The only problem was that in the end Kevin’s selection didn’t match anyone else’s! Which shows just how subjective photography can be!

Brilliant show, wonderful imagery!
M.Collins

Such great shots!
C. Merritt

Amazing photography exhibition with beautifully captured moods
M. Bhandiri

A very talented photographer
H. McKenzie

So creative, loved the images
G.Evans

Really very good portraits creative but still reflecting the personality of the sitter so well
T. Terry

Some startling work, loved the face painted kids!
A.Philips

Very striking, powerful imagery, well done Carl
K. Sandsbury

Brilliant, brilliant pictures loved it- when can you do my portrait!?
Angus Grady

I was inspired by the work on show- would like you to do my business portrait.
Stephen Atelier

Loved the images, excellent work Carl
Vanessa Champion

Fabulous stuff!
S. Sawyer