stephdoran

Author: stephdoran

Steph first encountered photography in the form of her mother’s film camera when she took her first family portrait, in which every person posing was only visible from the neck down. She has since refined her technique considerably, excelling in VCE Studio Arts (Photography) in 2008, and completing the Advanced Diploma of Photography at Photography Studies College, where she majored in Commercial Photography. Steph is currently a freelance photographer, operating out of Blue Tree Studios in Port Melbourne. She shoots for a range of clients, including fashion designers, restaurants, and corporates. However her true passion lies in conceptual photography, where her love of working with narrative comes to life. Steph's personal work is creative and artistic, and often riddled with metaphor. With a background in drawing and painting, she is also able to incorporate mixed media into her work, creating quirky, eye-catching pieces that reach beyond the photographic realm.

It has been ages since I did a test shoot, as I’ve been busy moving countries! But I finally got the chance to do an un-structured, freestyle shoot with Mikio, a model that I met in Tokyo. He was in Kyoto for a trip, so we decided to meet up and do a test shoot for his book.

One thing that I really love about Japan is the light. Photographers, you will understand. The quality of the light here is beautiful, its much softer and hazier than Melbourne, which has a very hard, intense kind of light. I feel very inspired shooting in Japan.

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We shot these images at a university campus in Kyoto (I pretended to be an exchange student so that we could get free parking.) It was surprisingly diverse with many different textures and areas to explore, and a lot of the buildings were brand new, with gorgeous architecture. I really wanted this shoot to be about Mikio, and not about the location, which is why I opted for simple backgrounds. I also didn’t want it to be stereotypically ‘Japanese,’ which is why we didn’t shoot at a shrine or other similar structure.

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Japanese folios are so different from those in Melbourne. They really lean towards the smiley, happy, commercial look, whereas in Melbourne it is all about looking serious and slightly pissed off or bored. The contrast is really interesting. So I tried to include some more serious expressions in Mikio’s shots, so balance out his very ‘happy’ images. We got a few smiley ones in there too though, to keep his agent happy! Thanks Mikio for a great first shoot in Kyoto!

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I love working with models on more than one occasion, because it means that the initial ‘awkward’ phase is already broken down. If I’ve shot a model before, and get to work with them again, we already have an established level of rapport, and that makes the second shoot even more fun! After photographing Richie Barron in the studio a few months back, I worked with him again (literally the next day) on location. I think we got some pretty decent shots! 170630 Richard Barron 029 R

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Johnny Harris also came along to play for a while, and we worked on some doubles images. I think these two work really well together, and they are both such lovely guys! Thank you GTR Global for putting me in touch with such fantastic talent!