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People sometime forget why you shoot swimsuit models on remote beaches in exotic places in the first place. Pesky things like color, sky and light. As if tackling that wasn't enough, the truly great photographers must also master texture and movement, composition and emotion. Sometimes they even have to do all this while working underwater. Great photographers have powerful bookends, the stylist before the shoot and the editor after. The editor has the luxury of deciding which is simply a great picture and which is a picture of a simply great model. And here's the kicker. After you've accomplished all those feats of artistry, logistics and technical precision you have to put the emphasis on the suit. That's the essence of fashion photography -- attract attention but move the product. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue -- by its little old lonesome self -- illustrates every single point raised so far. This issue is a benchmark for overall editorial quality anywhere. This is not a good piece of work. This is a masterpiece. Here's an example. The Janet Jones foldout, page 136, is literally bound to the backbone of this magazine. This photograph cannot be cut out and hung up, which means that in no way can it be called a pin-up. It's fantastic work. Incredible styling. The high heels are skates, the hockey stockings are not exactly Victoria's Secret, the tie to her husband the star is obvious and the pig tails are just perfect. No editor's eye view of the Swimsuit Issue would be complete without a mention of Scavullo, who shot Jones, among others. My vote for best unit shooter would fall to Myers Robertson, from his totally Euro avant-garde opener to the well-composed and gentle Lorraine Pascale on page 172. Some specifics for those keeping score at home: For why they shoot on beaches, try the contents page -- the whiteness of the sand, the banded water colors, the ineffable sky. For another Beri Smither example, see page 116. In came a stylist with a banded Mondrian bikini and the result was excellence. For the age-old argument of beautiful picture or beautiful woman, argue it over Stacey Williams, beginning at page 79 and ending at page 87, which also gets my vote for best suit. Further specifics. For texture, try Chandra North on page 164. For movement, North, again, on page 171 (which is also a great illustration of the theory of the diagonal in photo cropping). For composition, try another diagonal, Pamela Wright on page 110. And for emotion, try the sweetness of page 31 or the playfulness in the Zero Latitude opening spread We'll close with two workshop-style observations. A common complaint in photography in general is that too many pictures are taken from five feet, six inches from the ground. See the power of the killer angle with Stacey Williams on page 91. Compare and contrast Denny and Jennifer Neagle versus Phil and Amy Mickelson on page 144-145. Jennifer, a real woman with real thighs and real age and, well, she just looks great -- and her husband could not look happier. There's a great sweetness in this picture, in this couple On the opposite page there's a Brady Bunch twosome apparently made of plastic. Sometimes a photographer can do his work too well. |
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