Rachel Irving

For Utata Homages 2013

I wanted to take part in this Utata project paying homage to a variety of different photographers. It was summer, and I was busy, and I obviously wasn't going to make it to Paris to shoot like Brassai, even a brief trip to Montreal was fully taken up with embarrassing my kids at Osheaga, I couldn't make the On Route service stations look like Egglestones and seeing as our home is always spilling over with lovely, and ridiculously dressed teenagers, I figured that Lillian Bassman the enduringly romantic fashion photographer would be my inspiration.


The more I looked at her work the more I realised it wasn't only about her distinctive contrasty style, her classical composition, or even the dreamy magic she performed in the darkroom, it was about showing people who really "owned" their look. Her models might have been wearing extreme, outrageous, uncomfortable outfits, but they always look proud, elegant and graceful. Then we went to Fan Expo Toronto, I found myself surrounded by moments of jostling, surreal, fabulousness and decided that Ms Bassman would probably have had a brilliant time there. So my Bassman homage is almost all delightful Fan Expo cosplayers with a few lovely teenagers from home making up the numbers.