Thomas Sing Photography

The main part of Hans-Peter Gerner’s new autumn/winter campain focusses on the aspects of tradition, craft and handwork that lie in every piece of his outstanding collection. We decided not to shoot with a professional fashion model this time and worked with Natalie Gerner who is the head of Gerner’s tailoring atelier.
Craftsmanship, authenticity, aesthetics, quality, and passion for the detail – that’s what this photoshoot was about – can’t await to post the finished pictures!

We were shooting the NORDENFELDT spring/summer 2011 lookbook yesterday in Munich. It was an awesome production using a “quick & dirty” ringflash technique that made the images look like accidental streetshots of a variety of typical city scenes. The focus was on the boots, so the pictures had to come across like anonymous “snapshots” (a pity we had to cut Val’s beautiful face). But at the same time they had to tell a story of a typical day of our Nordenfeldt girl’s big city life.

Here are just some impressions from the first couple of set, there’s a lot more in the actual lookbook which I’ll post here as soon as it will be printed.

Lee McQueen’s death in February was a devastating loss not only for the world-wide fashion community, but for everyone working in any creative field that’s somehow connected with fashion. During his rather short career as a designer, he influenced the 90’s and 2000’s with his unique aesthetics like probably no other.

To show how much his work had affected a whole generation of young creatives, Chiara and I decided to shoot a couple of homage pictures.

The 1st one was shot in my studio with Maria Justus wearing a dress that Chiara made from 40 meters of fabrics. The inspiration for the dress comes from McQueen’s S/S 1999 show. We wanted Maria to look not like an object of desire, but strong and untouchable, with certain historic references. Make-up and hairstyling by Maren Endraß.

The 2nd photograph was taken in a private chapel. Chiara is wearing a vintage Yamamoto dress that’s enlarged with additional layers of textile by Lorand Lajos (who also made the headpiece and the collar) and an Italian vintage wedding dress. Make-up by Maren Endraß.

The last one has become my new portfolio cover. I came across this fascinating dog during a walk downtown. The Xolo breed is truly controverse and altough it is based on a genetic disfunction it has been honored as sacred for thousands of years now. To me, the Xolo represents a certain kind of Otherness. Looking like a creature from culture’s unconscious depths, he seemed to embody the McQueen-principle quite well. And to bring the relation to clothing back into the picture, we decided to make him a coat from fur rejects.

Gestern war’s nun soweit: Ich habe die Modestrecke geschossen, die ursprünglich als Seminar an der Uni Augsburg geplant gewesen war und vor einem Monat für diesen Skandal gesorgt hatte. Nachdem ich meine Lehrtätigkeit dann als Konsequenz daraus beendet hatte (obwohl mir nach wie vor nicht verständlich ist, was an dem Projekt z.B. “hochgradig sexistisch” gewesen sein soll, so ein Vorwurf der Frauenbeauftragten damals in der Presse), habe ich das Projekt nun mit ca. 20 Praktikanten/-innen fertig gestellt anstatt mit ca. 20 Studierenden.

Special Thanks to:
- Martina Fromme & Jan Thiemann vom UNICUM Verlag (Bochum) für die Offenheit gegenüber einem innovativen Projekt
- Sigrid Kafka & Nazret Tecleab von kafka&tecleab für die tatkräftige praktische und kreative Unterstützung allen Konzeptions- und Realisierungsphasen
- den Stadtwerken Augsburg für  die großartige Location
- unseren Models Anja, Susanna, Wanja & Richard, ihr wart fantastisch gut und es war eine Freude mit euch zu shooten!
- Maren Endraß für für die umwerfenden Make-ups und Frisuren
- Chiara Padovan & Maria Justus für  die super Assistenz
- allen Studierenden / Praktikanten für die engagierte Arbeit von der ersten Idee bis zur Umsetzung

Die Strecke erscheint im November in den Lifestyle-Magazinen UNIQUEEN und UNIKING und wird an jedem Campus zu finden sein. Wohl auch in Augsburg.
^,..,^

Erstes Fotoset: das Ofenhaus im Gaswerk, optimale Location durch die enorme Höhe und die vielen Metallträger. Für die räumliche Aufteilung des Fotohintergrunds sorgen Baumwollstreifen, die die Praktikanten zwischen den Säulen spannen. Besten Dank an Strenesse für das Textil-Sponsoring!

Relativ einfaches, aber sehr spannendes Lichtsetting: brilliantes Fashion-Licht durch den Broncolor PARA FB mit Ringblitz, einige weitere Blitzköpfe (auf den Bildern nicht zu sehen) setzen Akzente im Hintergrund.

Das Glück der richtigen Stunde: wunderschöne Sonnenspiele auf Boden und Wänden durch die riesigen Fabrikfenster, die wir teilweise in unsere Fotos mit einbauen konnten

Visuelle Inspiration im Aufenthaltsraum:

Maren Endraß at her best!

Letzte Details…

Sigrid und Nazret beim Styling:

Maria und Maren nach getaner Arbeit (zumindest der Hälfte davon…)

… and finally… here we go!

Kurze Pause nach dem ersten Set auf diesem kleinen Sandstrand direkt vor unserer Halle…

Zweites Set: der imposante Gaskessel mit seinem Foucaultschen Pendel. Hiervon vorerst nur zwei Bilder, die kompletten Strecken gibt’s dann im November in Uniqueen und Uniking zu sehen!

I’ve posted a preview some time ago, now it’s officially out: MOCK magazine Vol. #1 featuring a futuristic fashion-photo-comic-editorial that we’ve shot last winter for Schön! magazine’s THE FUTURE competition which brought me the “Aspiring Talents” representation by SPECTACULAR STUDIOS (Stockholm, New York & London).

Credits
Photography: Thomas Sing (www.thomas-sing.de)
Art Direction: Thomas Sing & Chiara Padovan (www.pixerette.com)
Illustration: Andrea Padovan (andreapadovan.daportfolio.com)
Hair & Make-Up: Daniela Schatz (www.make-up-art.com)
Styling: Chiara Padovan (www.pixerette.com)
Models: Vero Jack @MostWantedModels, Miseong @MostWantedModels

Clothes
Ms. Trend Scoutee: vintage jacket, gloves & belt, swimsuit LaPerla, leggings H&M, shoes model’s own, hat IKEA
Scene 1: (left) pink gloves Armani Jeans, hat Hutcouture by Sylvia Müller
Scene 2: (left) leotard Aria, all white stuff made by stylist; (right) all stylist’s own
Scene 3: (left) dyed fox tail courtesy of Atelier Gerner
Scene 4: (left) all stylist’s own
Scene 5: (right) fur outfit made by stylist, mixed fur courtesy of Atelier Gerner
Scene 6: (right) lycra catsuit Fets Fash

CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM IN FULL SIZE !

Inspirations:

For this project we decided to mix media, combining studio photographs with black&white illustration. We wanted to create a not so far future between science-fiction and noir comics.
Inspirations for the city were certainly cult movies like Brazil, Blade Runner and the 5th Element and we had to think of Frank Miller and Roy Liechtenstein a lot!
The background was illustrated mixing hand-drawing, 3D and 2D graphics.

Our heroine should stay above the trend, we wanted her to be zen, futuristic and classy at once. Therefore the choice of the colours black, white and red. She should be determined like Star Wars’ Princess Leya, but also pure like the Childlike Empress in the Neverending Story.

The billboards in the city should reflect a technologic culture with a strictly coded style, so we opted for static poses and geometrical, stiff clothing. Suburbia should represent a contrast to this well-organized and mannered world. We chose metal and fur as the two main styling themes for the underground first to convey an aggressive attitude, either sharp or wild, but also to remind of recyclable materials in a world where resources are limited. (All fur used is recycled fur!)

For the beauty part, we wanted to emphasize hair as a distinguishing feature, using extensions or hats to blow up head proportions. (For there is a lot of brain work about fashion.)

We didn’t want to make a steady statement about the future of fashion. That’s why in the end we left the question open to anyone’s creativity. We hope the viewers will enjoy our little story and be inspired to an answer of their own.

I was shooting a huge photo story with four dancers last saturday at this wonderful place of Olli Marschall who does those amazing wood sculptures. It will take some time until the whole set will be published, in the meantime I’ll just post a few behind-the-scenes shots.
Among the models: Natalia Fioroni (from Toronto, currently at Stadttheater Augsburg); Lucyna Zwolinska (currently in Augsburg, soon in Saarbrücken); and my creative genius Stephen Delattre (Mainz), it was already the 4th time I was working with him.

Steph getting his make-up done by Maren Endraß.

Me and my cam.

Natalia waiting for her hair to be styled.

Lucy falling free.

That’s what kept us going for 14 hours

Our host Olli Marschall. Thanks for providing us such a great place! — Please visit his homepage to see the outstanding objects he’s creating from wood! => www.marsart.de

Getting back to normality (i.e. crazy fashion pictures instead of endless blah blah) with this respectable gentleman who will be on the cover of my 2010 print & online portfolio.

Listening to Florence & The Machine (“a kiss with a fist is better than none”), watching Steven Klein’s new Lady Gaga Video and preparing to go out for a drink with good friends.

CLICK THE PICTURE TO GET TO THE NEW PORTFOLIO!

Some pictures from a recent fashion editorial shot on a castle.

Model: Christian Ohlenroth
Make-up: Maren Endraß

Pic 1: Jacket: Burberry Brit, shirt: IMPERIAL, trousers: Absolut Joy, belt: Class Roberto Cavalli uomo, scarf: model’s own, boots: Nordenfeldt

Pic 2: pullover: D&G, tank-top: Intimissimi, trousers: stylist’s own, belt: model’s own, boots: Nordenfeldt, cap: stylist’s own

Pic 3: shirt: Absolut Joy, tanktop: Intimissimi, jeans: Guess, hoodie: Nordenfeldt, boots & gaiters: Nordenfeldt

Pic 4: jacket & trousers: Imperial, t-shirt: Thom Krom, scarf: Passigatti, boots: Nordenfeldt

Pic 5: jacket: Diesel, trousers: Absolut Joy, boots & gaiters: Nordenfeldt

There’s a 7-pages spread just gone online @ DIMENSION magazine. Click the preview to see the pics.
Model: Maria Justus
Makeup / Hair: Maren Endraß
Retouch: Chiara Padovan