Halloween Paris

On streets of the Marais yesterday afternoon!!! Happy Halloween. Carla x

September Issue

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a fashion photographer. Throwing in your day job and living in a world of models, magazines and beauty just like Richard Avedon, Craig McDean and Mario Testino. Of travelling to exotic locations and creating photos out of this world with the world's best stylists and most prestigious magazines.

If you do, my advice is NOT to see the new documentary September Issue. Even though I have been living in the photography world for the best part of ten years this movie made me feel like laying down my camera - it was like seeing everything you dreamed of in cold hard daylight and Madame Wintour's daylight is about as warm as a winter's day.

September Issue, follows American Vogue's Editor Anna Wintour and her collaborators as they put together the biggest September Issue in Vogue history. Anna Winter in the fashion world has rock-star status but it is her side kick Grace Coddington who breathes life and beauty into the fashion with her incredible style working with worlds best photographers. Whilst Madame Coddington is out at the coal face, pouring love, sweat and tears into creating the most beautiful fashion photos possible, Madame Wintour back at the office cuts through the results with a machete, passing over some of the most beatiful photos ever created as though they were rotten apples, reducing them to the cutting room floor because the garments aren't in 'colour', don't appeal to Madame Wintours taste or aren't pin sharp - emotion isn't something that interests Madame Wintour. We see hundreds of thousands of dollars hit the rubbish bin as Madame Wintour trashes entire photographic stories.

Madame Wintour was the famous inspiration for the film 'The Devil Wears Prada' and in someways I feel that the film was actually kinder to her than this documentary. We see the real story, the way jackets are featured in her magazine not because they inspire her but so the stores can sell more, the way she waves away entire designers ranges because they don't have any coloured garments in them and how she promises retailers she will 'talk to the designers' about paring down their ranges. Is Anna god or does she just think she is?

We all have our dreams, I have almost bought every issue of Vogue Italia (almost never American Vogue - can't bare the cheesy smiles) since I started photography. My dream would be to work for Italian Vogue. I don't think two editors could be any different. Franca Sozzani is known as the photographer's angel and she would probably pick up off the cutting room floor all the photos Madame Wintour threw out. Vogue Italia chooses photographers who put emotion into their photos, movement and blur is often chosen over pin sharp because it gives the story emotion. Franca Sozzani in an interview with Liberation says - that the photo and the feel comes first, it is not important if you can see the dress or not. She has supported and promoted photographers such as Paolo Roversi with his blurry soft focused images, who has inspired photographers like myself to search for something other than pin sharp. Peter Lindbergh's gorgeous black and white images of women have also been a regular feature in Italian Vogue, Ellen Von Unwerth has packed incredible spirit into her images and Steven Meisel has been allowed a free hand since Sozzani's inception (and the models don't have to smile)! Deborah Turbeville is allowed to create wistful photos in extraordinary settings.

I ask what wonderful images could Grace Coddington produce if she had another editor? What if Grace Coddington worked for Italian Vogue, what magic they could make?

RJ Cutler, the director does a brilliant job, September Issue reminds you that the fashion industry is exactly that, an Industry with a capital I. Anna Wintour shows herself to be closer to a ruthless Rupert Murdoch than a true lover of beauty, the bottom line is about bucks.

Maybe RJ Cutler would like to turn his camera on another Vogue, maybe Italian Vogue, something that will warm our photographers hearts instead of filling them with fear.

If you want to be a fashion photographer get this months ITALIAN VOGUE and get inspired!!

Goodbye Mr. Penn

Tonight I raised a toast to the passing of one of this century's greatest photographers. Not actually to his passing but a toast of respect to a man who has done more than his share for photography (and bothered to live to 92 years of age to leave us an even greater legacy of his gorgeous work).

Irving Penn, was the master of the elegant studio image in black and white. Renowned for stark, simple and engaging images of fashion, he created magnificent silhouettes of models and photographed an outstanding 150 Vogue covers. Penn rarely shot on location, he loved to photograph heads of states, artist, tribesman and the man on the street in front of his mottled grey backdrop. I believe Irving Penn has inspired many great studio photographers including the likes of photographic gods, Richard Avedon and Paolo Roversi.

Irving Penn was said:

"Many photographers feel their client is the subject," he explained in a 1991 interview in The New York Times. "My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue. I'm trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her. ... The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader."

Thanks Mr Penn for trying to so hard to please that woman in Kansas! Along the way you pleased the entire photographic world and inspired thousands of photographers. Merci beaucoup. Rest in peace, you have done more than enough. Carla xx

Samson + Delilah

I had the great fortune to see a Parisian preview of Warwick Thornton's film Samson + Delilah. on Friday morning in the 5th.

Winner of the Camera d'or at the Cannes film festival, Thornton not only wrote the script he directed, produced and photographed it. The Camera D'or is the prize for best first film, so hats off to Mr. Thornton! What an honour.

When I think of words to describe Samson + Delilah, I can only think in Italian. Thornton's story is set in outback Australia, the story of two young Aboriginals living in difficult circumstances in the bush.

Elegante, pesante and bellissima. Elegante for the extraordinary photography, wonderful use of Australian light, composition of scenes, fabulous music and silence. Thornton portrays the desperate situation of Samson (Rowan McNamara) + Delilah (Marissa Gibson) in a way that becomes truly 'pesante'! Pesante in Italian means more than being heavy and sad, it is also used to describe an undertaking, something that is engaging and also a type of devotion. Thornton truly engages us in their story to the point you really understand the desperation and the 'no way out' situation of the two young aboriginals who play the lead - you live their desperation. Thornton's camera silently tells a part of Australia's modern history with enormous clarity and not much dialogue (which only adds weight to the storytelling).

Bellissima because it is more than just beautiful, it needs that 'issima' that it is very, very very in Italian for the sheer pleasure of looking at his film. It certainly isn't a feel good movie but if you are a photographer you will appreciate the extraordinary beauty of it all. Thumbs up to Mr. Thornton and Samson + Delilah. Go and see this film....

French Essence

As I am five thousand miles away, my mum and her private army of Sydney grannies hit the bookstores yesterday for the release of Vicki Archer's French Essence (the book not the blog). Unfortunately I couldn't be there in person to witness our second collaboration hit the bookstores but my enthusiastic replacements (Mum and her squad) were besides themselves with delight when they got their hands on a copy at 9.01 Sydney time!

You may know Vicki through her blog French Essence but the book is even more sumptuous, snaps of Vicki's beautiful home, artistic stylng and her favourite places in Provence. For all of you who loved My French Life Vicki's latest book will have you swooning, dreaming of la vie Francaise. and reaching for a chilled bottle of rosé. Ohh la la I can't wait to be in Sydney to see it in person. A big hug and thanks to mum and the girls.... Carla x

I See Red

My big sister told me it was drastic but I would have never imagined this! Today millions of tonnes of red dust blew in from the outback and covered Sydney in a red veil of dust. The photographers had a field day but I bet the farmers, housewives and clean up crews are crying. Wonderful images of an environmental disaster.

Ara Güler “Photographs of İstanbul in the 1950s and 1960s”

Yesterday I saw my first exhibition since returning to Paris. Turkish photographer Ara Güler's exhibition, 'Photographs of Istanbul in the 1950's and 1960's is showing at the MEP in Paris. Güler's exhibition is stunning, a series of photos that inspire you to hop on a plane and leave for his city tomorrow - his photos are breathtaking. Istanbul in Güler's photos is mysterious and moody and the elegant Santa Sofia is ever present in the background as is the Bosphore sea. I have long loved photos taken at night at Güler proves to be a master capturing extraordinary emotion. And a round of applause for the printer, the prints are strong, deep blacks that only add to the photos beauty. I first heard about Ara Guler in Orham Pamuk's Istanbul, where the author recounts an Istanbul that has disappeared, the Istanbul of his childhood. You have to be quick as it finishes on October 11. Highly recommended!!!