Happy Holidays: Retro Edition

My photography style leans toward the minimalist. OK, that’s a lie — my sets are bare-bare, y’all. Like, lunar landscape or Janet’s void in The Good Place-bare. I like to use texture, light and shadow to create interest, but props? Not so much. Which is funny, because not only do I have a metric shit-ton of them, but I truly love other photographers’ work with over-the-top fanciful sets.

Enter Nina, my new favorite prop stylist! We’ve already worked together on a couple of shoots and discovered our mutual love of Iris Apfel somewhere along the way, so we thought it’d be fun to do an Iris-inspired holiday test shoot with a bit of a retro feel. I didn’t art direct this so much as just discuss inspiration with Nina because I wanted to see where she’d go for maximalist set design. She’s a talented artist and window designer for Anthropologie, so letting her run wild was a no-brainer. 

Because Iris is known for mixing high and low and layers upon layers of jewelry, our sets reflected that. We started with a few variations of a decorated set without food because everything looked so great! I thought the round glasses were an inspired touch, and the bird statuette was adorable with its little flapper crown and sparkly necklace.

I took care of the food and drink, coming up with a list of fun appetizers like shrimp cocktail, rumaki, pigs in blankets and smoked salmon crackers for a festive setting, then mixed up some grasshopper cocktails topped with chocolate shavings for another set. With the help of press-on nails, Nina served as hand model for the grasshopper, too. She’s so versatile!

I really love testing with other creatives — it allows me to see how they work, and takes my photography to a new level. Remember: Collaboration, not competition, folks!

Happy holidays to you all. Cheers!