One could think that photoshoots are the most glamourous thing ever but oh no, let me stop you right there. A photoshoot can be boiled down to two things: waiting and running.
Eons pass as you wait for your photographer to arrange his equipment in the adequate manner, depending on the location, the existing light and the atmosphere you are looking to create. And saying that a professional photographer has a lot of equipment is a funny euphemism. Indeed, my photographer doesn’t even need to work out given that he carries between 20 and 40 kg on his back and arms during each session.
I often arrive at the set location for the photoshoot with two big bags, or even a suitcase in which my five-year-old daughter could fit, and several garment bags designed to protect my clothes from creases on my arms. I run back and forth across Paris with all this luggage and often, when I take taxis, taximen think that I’ve just broken up with my lover and that I am leaving him hastily with only a few handful (try bagful) of clothes! This gives rise to some… interesting conversations, to say the least. I should also add that contrary to my photographer, I need to work out more.
And after the long wait comes the race. Time is, more often than not, short and one must be efficient: you have to run after the accessory you forgot, run to get your phone because you have a conference call, the topic of which is less cinematographic and more legal, run off and change into the next outfit as quickly as possible because, as you can imagine, we try and shoot as many outfits as possible during one photoshoot. The latter allows me to lead the other part of my double-life as a lawyer, which would be incompatible with having three photoshoots a week, naturally.
One could think that photoshoots are super funny but it’s not always the case, no, no no. Well, I mean, photoshoots with me actually tend to be quite funny because I don’t take myself too seriously and there’s always a moment when I lose it.
I lose it because I’m fighting with a cufflink or because I’m applying the 50th layer of lipstick on my lips for the purposes of a photo.
I lose it because I am using a shower head as a telephone.
I lose it and I look about as crazy as Jack Nicholson in the Shining.
Or because it’s 6pm and I’m unsuccessfully trying to negotiate the opening of a bottle of champagne with my photographer. It’s sad to see the glasses remain empty.
I lose it because I’m tired and I want to sleep, I lose it because I forget how to walk.
Sometimes I lose it and it looks okay if you’re standing in front of me but from behind you can see I haven’t tied my necklace properly and I’m hanging from a thread.
Things aren’t always as pretty backstage but they are always a more accurate reflection of life 😉
May 17, 2019
