Now then my pretties! This is quite a shocker ay!
As you may well have read so far, i have been consorting with this 'ere professional music photographers of late, the company has done work for my web site and The Ya Ya Recording Company , they have given me back stage passes to several rather exciting music events and covered Betty's last gig with The Blockheads!.......all rather groovy, i think you'll agree but this latest thing they've asked me to do is just sooo cute!!
Matthew J Shaw Photographers have taken piccies of Goldie, The Selecter, The Blockheads amongst many other rather splendid artists ... but they don't just take piccies of bands.... they have done corperate events in the past, fine art shows in galleries, they capture images of urban and natural landscapes, portaiture to name but some several.
The particular branch of photography i was asked to help promote, in my capacity as wanton screen siren, is as you may have guessed! vintage!........ahhhh but what does that mean Betty...
Retro fashion has been around for ages Betty hasn't it? .....yes indeed it has my dears. Retro is a mode that does not just include clothing, but furnishing, cookware, furniture and a lifestyle to some people based on producing a look/style and feel that pays homage to previous styles but is made in modern times and out of modern material in the latest and newest way. Exponents of this lifestyle can take it very seriously and retro will be their whole life. I quite like it, it is obviously a load of old bollo but i like it.
Just recently a new wave of style has been becoming popular called steam punk, where modern technology, such as laptops and mp3 players are designed to look, stylistically , like machines from the steam era, the 1800's and Jules Verne type stuff. Exponents of this style will take it very seriously and never let the veneer slip, I rather like it, it is quite obviously a load of old bollo but i like it
Vintage fashion is all the rage is it not Betty?......well yes ,to some. Vintage style, is not for the feint hearted, there is no modern thing here, people who live this style collect ration books mate...Exponents of the style can take it very seriously and deck their houses with nothing but the kitchest hawaiian mini bars....the added bonus with vintage is the compliment of burlesque features associated with it...:-) I very much like it , obviously it is a load of old bollo but i like it :-)
Now I am not an exponent of the style, i have a collection of vintage dresses but i wear modern ones too, my vintage dresses range from the 1920's to the 1970's and i mix and match them with modern clothes and accessories, i do not style my hair and i don't have any of the right shoes or handbags.
What I am is ordinary like many men and women, I am ordinary........... but sometimes i like to dress up and make myself extraordinary.......and that's what my vintage frocks do for me.
Now what is it with this modelling lark? what is it for and why?...........i shall tell you my dears...
Matthew J Shaw photographers have a range of genuine, proper, classic cameras, they are lovingly and and carefuly restored and maintained, with all their original workings, from the oldest of glass plate cameras from around 1910 to polaroids from the 1970's , their office is full of glass cabinets containing , leather and chrome, satin and silk, cogs and keys, flashes and lenses, it is like an old curiosity shop!
It is true that in this digital age you can fake, a picture to look like a vintage photo, you can make them black n white, do all sorts with photoshop and the like .... but they do however never lose the digital look, they will always look like mock ups, fakes....
My modelling was for promotional shots for fanzines, magazines, catalogues, programmes for the booth they have at vintage weekends, festivals, tea dances, offering the services of Matthew J Shaw Photographers to the people who live this lifestyle but it does not just have to be for them.............it can be for me and you too :-)
You can dress up and make yourself extraordinary , you do not have to have every vintage accoutrement or be a vintage exponent... just want to be extraordinary, now and again :-)
When you have a look at these piccies, you will know it's me, you will know i am wearing the wrong clothes here and there you will know they were taken last month but you will notice this really uncanny quality, as if I have been transported through time and am dancing around in 1959, and that my dears is the date of the camera it is apparently an Edixa Mat Reflex Mod. B (1959) The lenses were mostly Meyer Gorlitz, and Scacht Ulm lenses from again 1959.......be impressed.
It is , the grain, the shade, the focus, the colour, , i have put some of the cast off's the ones MatthewJshawphotographers were unhappy with in my gallery page, i think they are groovy :-) they are all done mechanically, it takes skill to take the photo, you can't adjust it on the computer afterwards ay...it has negatives which need to be developed and Matthew J Shaw Photographers do that as well!...oh yes, they have their own vintage dark room too, chemicals galore , prints hanging up , like something you only see in an old bond movie now., having your piccy taken will not take just a second that can be deleted if you don't like it...........this mate is an experience.....a luxury item,and is so cool, ...nice.