Having joined the UKBFTOG (a Facebook group of UK based professional and amateur photographers that span from wedding to baby photography) I was lucky to take part in a travelling dress project* as suggested by one of the group members Tianna Jarrett-Williams.
*The travelling dress is a photography project where a small group of photographers are posted a dress for a week (hence the term travelling dress!) and each photographer must photograph it in their unique style. There are no rules except none of the photographers can see the images of their peers until the last photographer is finished!
Tianna (inspired by the recent travelling dress series taking place around the UK/US) floated the idea that it would be a cool way to include members of the group that lived in different places who could not get to regular meet ups by doing one of our own. The suggestion was to do a travelling dress project incorporating a little Ankara print. Hence the Sisterhood of the Travelling Dress was born! Ten photographers stepped up to accept this challenge including myself!
So how did my week with the dress go? Realised that my original plan (Plan X) to shoot dress as a self-portrait series based on Cinderella wasn’t going to work as the dress did not fit for a start! No problem, halfway through my week I got to work with Yaasmin who modelled for me and just freestyled with no plan (Plan Y). Luckily the weather was great (dry but maybe a bit too warm!) being the end of summer. We found a lovely secluded tree at Lesnes Abbey by accident because of entering the park by another route to the one I normally do. Yaasmin was great to work with and bubbly which was wonderful because I was feeling a bit meh about completing the whole dress week. The resulting photographs remind me of being on holiday somewhere exotic – maybe like Bali, not bad for a South London park in the suburbs!
Check out our top picks below!
After finishing Plan Y I wondered a few days later if I could try Plan X if I approached it as an experiment and tried to shoot it in an unconventional way i.e. without wearing the dress! I cracked off a few frames. I don’t know if the experiment worked and it might be something that I revisit in the future.
Hope you enjoy the photographs!
I haven’t experienced as much stress as trying to complete this shoot in a week. Done is better than perfection, right? I was glad to wave dress goodbye and post it onto the next photographer – I am not going to lie I sighed a huge sense of relief!
The coat was custom designed and sewn by the London based designer Thea Ayayi from the House of Tendai using the red, yellow and black umbrella wax print from Hitarget.
If you want to have a nosey at the images and biographies/links of the other 9 Ankara travelling dress photographers involved, you can check them out on the UKBFTOG website! The images range from bold conceptual high fashion to the impressionistic and represent a modern take on a classic material.
Do go and check out their other body of work on their websites and leave them a comment!
1. LA Creativity
2. Mellz Photography Ltd
3. Pause Push Click Photography
4. Tianna J-Williams Photography
5. Julietta Arden-Taylor Photography
6. Kica Photography
7. Lensi Photography
8. Pataki Photography
9. Toyin Photography
After I had it it went onto LA Creativity, a London based boudoir photographer – check her image on Instagram here.
Till next time!
[…] On Friday 10th January, we all shared our blogs and images to each other before our launch to the rest of the community. This was the most awe inspiring moment to see how diverse we represented the dress. One of the loveliest people Louisa Coulthard, was the lady whom I sent the dress on to, and it makes sense that she follows my story as she added in the one cultural element that I could not shoot, see her beautiful images here on her blog. […]