Cosmetic giant MAC put their in-store makeup artists to the test this Halloween to create the most compelling looks. Artists from stores in Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York will be judged by MAC’s facebook followers for their annual “Halloween Face-Off.” The portraits, which range from glamorous to macabre, were shot by photographer John Midgley. “The passion of each of the artists was a lot of fun, and it was infectious,” says John. They lived for it—they lived for the look. They lived to have their picture taken. It took it back to the simplest form of photography, which is flattery and escapism.”

This post was contributed by Feature Shoot editorial intern Jennifer Kaye.

via Stockland Martel

Henry Hargreaves is a New Zealand still life, art and fashion photographer working out of his studio in Brooklyn.

His life long love of taking photos took an unexpected turn when he was spotted traveling through South East Asia and was whisked off to Europe to work as a high end fashion model. After 4 years on the other side of the camera and the catwalk he gave it up to pursue his own creative pursuits. Since then, he has created a wide spectrum of work be it for commercial clients like Ralph Lauren, Stefan Sagmeister, Boucheron, V, New York Magazine or in personal projects like 3DD, a 3D Celebration of Breasts, The Death Row Last Meal series, Food of the Rainbow or Toasted Icons.

This work is from a beauty/jewelry series shot entirely on a scanner.

THE CREW:

Based in Paris, and partly New York, Rasmus Mogensen has been working professionally as a fashion & beauty photographer for the past 18 years. Mogensen had his first independent photo exhibition at age 17 at Gallery Photografica in Copenhagen. His fine art photography is now represented worldwide by Fahey/Klein Gallery.

Zoren Gold & Minori (aka MI-ZO) is a collaborative photographers and directors unit. German photographer, Zoren and Japanese graphic artist, Minori met in Los Angeles and started their collaboration together in 2000. They work in art, fashion and commerce and are represented by Artist & Agency.

Daniel Castro is beauty and fashion photographer, based out of New York and San Francisco, who often moonlights as a graphic designer. Of this series, he writes: ‘Having come off a run of interesting but commercial jobs, I was itching to create something more personal and unusual. ‘Curious Caps,’ a collaboration between hairstylist Preston Nesbit and myself, was my elixir. Preston is absolutely brilliant with hair- able to devise elaborate styles out of thin-air, and I wanted to make some slightly off kilter Tim Burton-esque images with an illustrative quality. So we threw some ideas around and landed upon several dramatic hairstyles that each would have an unexpected twist. I also had this image floating in my mind of a model wearing only the collars and cuffs of shirts, which seemed the perfect quirky and colorful compliment to the hair. We changed directions several times during the shoot, with Preston revising hair while I furiously deconstructed garments- but the result was even more intriguing than we could have hoped’.

Alan Powdrill is an advertising photographer who lives and works in London. This work is from his photo project, Tashmen, which explores “the huge growth in the numbers of men now adorning facial decor once considered nowhere near cool”. Tashmen was recently shown in The Times Magazine. Powdrill is represented by Friend & Johnson (US), Vue (UK), and Anne Marie Gardinier (France).

Alan Gastelum lives and works in New York. Some of his clients include Alberta Cross, Fabrica, Favorcraft, Metro Pop Magazine and Paris Atlantic Magazine.

The creative team Ioulex (‘yoo-leks) is Julia Koteliansky and Alexander Kerr, originally from Moscow and Boston. They met in Paris while studying graphic design and illustration at Parsons School of Design. Since they moved to New York together in 1998, Alexander and Julia pursued successful careers as art directors and graphic designers for some of the most prominent advertising agencies. Ioulex emerged as a photography team about five years ago and they have since built a portfolio of editorial and personal work reflecting an intuitive approach to the creation of poetic, graphically driven imagery. They are repped in New York by Josette Lata Inc.

Where do the inspirations for your stories come from and does it usually take you long to conceive an idea?
‘We look at painting, performance art and theatre; dance is a great source of inspiration. Cinema is probably the most important visual reference; we like to think of models as characters in a movie and often bring film stills to a shoot.

‘There are so many things we want to try out. We keep a list of ideas, so when it’s time to plan a specific shoot, we check to see what would be appropriate and how we could make it work for the magazine or the client. So we start with lots of visual references, then focus on a specific look and feel. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right angle’.

Have your backgrounds as art directors and graphic designers had any influence on your work?
‘Yes, of course. We love typography, and it’s always a thrill to see how the image interacts with words. We’re especially interested in the sequence as well, and we try to plan the story as a whole narrative entity. So we often use art direction techniques: storyboards and mood boards. Our background also helps us recognize good art directors and designers, we appreciate working with them and really enjoy the collaboration’.

Do you feel in that it’s necessary to have a distinct personal style in fashion photography or better to be flexible and be able to switch styles as the project requires?
‘Not sure about personal style, if there really is such thing. We think more in terms of approach and techniques. It’s more a question of personal perspective and context. Maybe if you look at a whole body of work of a great photographer, you could narrow it down to a specific style, but that’s not always the case either. The main thing is to develop a point of view and continue experimenting’.

You’ve been working as a team for about five years now. Do you play specific roles for each shoot or do you take turns with responsibilities?
‘We do everything twice. Being two people allows us to be more thorough. We both shoot and give directions to our team, discuss with clients, etc. We’re very different from each other, and often disagree, but that only makes the process more exciting. We live and work together, and it’s an amazing privilege to be able to talk through and share everything’.

You have a gallery show coming up at Audio Visual Arts in March revolving around death and the TV show, Dallas. Can you talk about shooting for a fine art project as opposed to shooting a fashion story.
‘The approach is different, when we come up with a personal project, we try to have an element of risk, we want to investigate something we don’t know, hoping to make a discovery. When we shoot for a magazine or a commercial client, we’re part of team and interaction with others is key. For our personal work, it’s just the two of us. On a practical level, some of the elements are the same, like research and collecting visual references.

‘In the end, our fashion photography does inform our personal work as we always end up dealing with the same themes: perception of beauty, decay, and creation of desire. The project we’ll be showing at AVA, called “Carpet Death” is about the iconography of idealized dead’.

Gray Scott Studio provides high-end photography and branding services to exclusive fashion, beauty, advertising, and editorial clients world-wide. The Studio is focused on creating iconic photography and graphics that define the modern moment. Gray Scott has photographed notable celebrities and personalities including Chloe Sevigny, Oscar De La Renta, Zooey Deschanel, Ivanka Trump, and Diane Kruger. Scott’s work has appeared in Vogue Japan, Surface, SOMA, Fly DVD, Noise, Picture, and Men amongst others.