glitter & grit

photographer horacio salinas could have gone the usual glamorous way to promote the various brands' deluxe jewellery in his photo shoot, but he didn't.

on the contrary, he put the precious glittering pieces in the most unusual settings, on the curb (top / paris-londres collection by chanel), on a bicycle (bottom left / balenciaga by nicolas ghesquière) & even on a gritty wheel (bottom right / louis vuitton).

as i am on the lookout for the unusual for my own work, i thought that putting a $10.000 necklace on a bike's front wheel was most certainly fitting the characteristics.

from the 20s

top: on the left is actress anita page circa 1928. her sultry smile speaks for itself, so does the jewellery...

on the right is an image dated from the 22nd of november 1928. i both liked the models' poses & the simplicity of the image.

bottom: on the left is a picture of actress ruby miller, as a fortune teller, taken from a scene of a play called monster in 1928 (strand theatre, london).

i thought that the intensity of her look was interesting as i am considering a "jewellery giving power & confidence" approach.

on the right is a picture of joan crawford being comforted by dorothy sebastian and is taken from our dancing daughters (1928). again, it is their attitude that interested me.

i definitely like these images and their very theatrical setting and face expressions.

it is something i will be looking for in my own images, whatever their substance or theme.

p.s. all images taken from getty images.

indulgence

this picture is part of a french revolution themed photo shoot by sharon nayak for indian jewellery brand zoya.

i like the idea that one can indulge in jewellery in the same way that one would usually indulge in food. plus, it meets my "cheeseburger" idea (see idea poster).

from the 60s

on the left, we have swedish-born actress anita ekberg pretending that she's going to eat grape-like a lovely bunch of cartier diamonds...

on the corner of corny & fairly endearing playfulness - all-in-all, a nice image.

on the right, we have a model named taiga, wearing a black catsuit and a face mask to make the van clef & arpels jewels she's wearing stand out.

this image is part of a 100th anniversary jewellery shoot for cartier.

it is part of a special book project that has been put together by the great bruce weber (who was granted access to cartier's archives & pictures).

having men wearing women's jewellery was an option (see idea poster), but if i were to go for it, i definitely wouldn't pick a six-pack model...

deadly chic

had a few creative thoughts including dead looking people myself, so i was delighted when i came across these.

here are a few images from a jean-francois lepage shoot with italian jewellery gioielli for le monde magazine (june 2009).

i really like the feel of the images, and also like the jewellery / pale skin & bloody-red lips combination.

research / ideas poster

i thought i would put up my research & ideas poster as it's got all the different possible directions i can creatively take.

i must say that i find it difficult to make up my mind and choose just one of them!

but i need to make a move quickly though and get cracking!

p.s. click on the poster to zoom in and read the text.

a bit of research - cartier

again, here is something i came across and thought was worth sharing and adding to my research.

when most brands and companies promote their products with standard sized brochures, cartier decided to take a different route, think out of the box, and put everything in one.

their little red box has its title "précieuses histoires de pierres" - which is a subtle french play on words meaning "precious stories of stones", but clearly doesn't work as well once it's translated.

the box is filled with little leaflets, pieces of glossy, matte or transparent paper and mini booklets, all depicting the origins and stories behind the precious materials and stones used by the jeweller.

i really liked cartier's iconically red-tinted box. it is both clever and playful and clearly stands out from the usual advertising and promotional materials out there.

i'll definitely keep that one in mind for my own work.