This was such a fun shoot! Catherine, my client, and mind behind Isson, came to me with a new range called Bauhaus. I was instantly excited. While studying architecture in uni, Bauhaus was a constant source of inspiration for me in my designs. We chatted on handsfree for over an hour while I drove down Parramatta Rd in peak hour. We were both on the same page and pumped. Catherine wanted to give me creative freedom, and see what I came up with. I was able to explore and delve into areas normally restricted by a tight brief. To help the creative process, I decided to fictionalize 4 kooky geniuses who studied at Bauhaus in 1934. Loosely based on a few of my 20th Century design heroes, and a few of stylist Mikey Ayoubi’s muses, firstly I came up with some funny German names, and then wrote a small character summary for each. I decided to add quirky pets to the mix, like in a classic portrait sitting. The fictitious characters were a way for the stylist, hair and makeup artists to understand and then visually create these characters, and it helped the models get into character on the shoot. The team was amazing, it was such a fun day. My house was turned into a menagerie, and Pushkin has still not forgiven me for letting Fluffy the cat in the studio.
Below each portrait I have included the little character study of each. Since then I have used character studies for other briefs. As I am not so fabulous at drawing, it’s a great way to get ideas across to clients.
Client: Isson
Photographer: Cybele Malinowski
Post Production: Justin Malinowski
Stylist: Mikey Ayoubi
Hair: Verity Griffiths
Makeup: Rachel Montgomery
Models extraordinaire: Daniel @ 6wolves, Lauren Moody @ Chaddys
Pets: Thanks Morten, owner of Fluffy the hairless cat, Raoul Tackelberg, owner of the parrot Nevill, Rachel, owner of the cute little pug Audrey, and Dorrie, owner of our 2 guinea pigs.
Alberta is a jewelery designer at Bauhaus. She is stunningly beautiful, a muse of many of the other Bauhausians. Her image is reinterpreted in world famous works of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She wears a turban at all times. No one has ever seem it off. What lies beneath- no on will ever know. She carries her dog ‘Gunther’ with her. He eats and sleeps with Alberta and her numerous lovers. This woman is the pinnacle of chic- women want to be her, men want to fuck her. Woman go out and buy pugs just to be like her. Alberta eats like a bird, and is constantly talking about giving up food entirely. She listens to jazz while she works. She is a collector of tribal art and a lover of all things African.
Victor is head of the architecture faculty at Bauhaus, and one of the founders of the institution. He will go down in history as the father of modernism. A severe man, people revere and fear him. He is the sort of person you cannot imagine ever being a child. Born a man. Always in control, he runs and swims every morning, even in the bitter winter. Sadly he dies of a heart attack at the age of 54. Married to his work, he never falls in love, though frequently has affairs with his students. They never last. During WWII he exiles to New York, and never returns to Germany. While in New York he builds 3 of the most famous skyscrapers in the world. He is loved by the yanks. Politicians, movie stars, they all want to be his friend. But he is uninterested in the glitz and glamour. This just makes them love VeeVee (as the press calls him) even more. He hates that name.
Henriette is Alberta’s best friend, and rumoured lover. She is everything that Alberta isn’t. Shy, introverted and understated. An architect by training, she lives in a world of order and logic. In her later years she wins the Nobel Prize for literature- she writes groundbreaking works on sexual liberation through design and art. The book is later shunned for being right-wing. She is a conundrum. Shy and meek on the outside, her mind is a force of sexual and creative power. She is rarely seen without a cigarette in her hand. She has a raw beauty, a fire burns within. Men fall in love with her from afar. Attracted to her physical fragility (she has the appearance of a rare bird), they fear her mind. Throughout her life she has 4 hamsters. All called Rathaus.
Tierry is an industrial designer at Bauhaus. He loves to work with wood, smoothing it down to a modernist perfection. Only ever using natural materials, he turns them into an object of unnatural perfection. Every year he travels to Mongolia to hike the summer alps. He has to travel by boat rather than plane, so he can take is beloved parrot Heinrich along. He has had Heinrich since he was a little boy. Tierry is a true romantic. When he falls in love, he falls hard. With rugged good looks, the ladies love him, but being such an intrepid lover of life, he can’t be pinned down. He leaves a trail of lovers behind him. He always remains in contact with them, writing heart filled letters to them into his old age.
