If the Lock Down of 2020 has had any silver linings for me professionally, connecting with Birmingham based Joseph Marchant of JMarch Photography, has definitely been one of them. Joe works professionally in Fashion, Street and Product Photography and after sliding into each other's DMs repeatedly fangirling over each other's work we finally managed to arrange a Socially Distanced Photoshoot back in mid-June.
Ordinarily location hunting is pretty easy; we all have spots we love, studios we favour and views that top our location bucket list. But things change when you're trying to work safely and successfully during a pandemic. We had to think about where would be easily accessible, where would work with our discussed aesthetic(s), and where we would be able to work at a safe distance from both each other and the general public.... on the day that the Countries biggest Primark (in Birmingham Bull Ring) opened for the first time in 3 months. And needless to say, when in Brum, there was only really one option.
With the location sorted, it was time to delve deeper into our collective mood-boards and really "pin" down some solid looks. For reference here is a snippet of the Pinterest Love Child that was born:
When shoot day arrived, we were both excited to finally be able to work again; to bounce ideas off each other, find spots we hadn't thought of beforehand, and generally just chat to a fellow creative that had faced the same artistic withdrawals over the course of the pandemic. Joe's partner Kaethe, also joined us, and as a Musician, she had much the same sense of creative loss. Even in times of trouble (at this point the creative industries had still not seen any government financial aid and things looked all too bleak) art really does bring people together in the most unexpected ways.
By the end of the session we had found 5 or 6 spots to shoot in, made 3 sneaky public outfit changes and we had broken 1 mirror. All in the name of art. It was a success all round. (Or at least, it was Joe that broke the mirror so if his 7 years of bad luck have started... it hasn't impacted his editing ability so the work has thankfully made its way to my inbox unscathed.)
The full set of each look will be loaded in due course, but for now, here's a little taste of what we created:
I can't speak for every person that's ever slid into another persons's DMs, but this is a modern day professional love story with an ending I'm both happy with and proud of. Joe (and his wonderful and insightful assistant Kaethe) created a really relaxed atmosphere to work in and the results are a testament to that. Joe shot with a Sony a7iii with a Zeiss 55mm f1.8. I look forward to working together again soon, and if you want to know more about Joe you can find his work here:
Instagram @jmarch_photography
FaceBook @JMarch.Photographer