Inspiration - A New Photographer
A new photographer I researched is Vivienne Mok. She was born in 1986 in Paris and studied fashion design, when she developed an interest in photography and delved deep into it. She is entirely self-taught, which I find very impressive considering her unique, dreamy, romantic portraiture.
When asked about what inspires her in an interview, she says that nature, beautiful landscapes, moody movies and vintage objects that tell a story are the main source for it. Growing up in Paris, it seems that the tranquillity and aesthetics of her birthplace also influences her style.
Her photos are very expressive, almost like a part of a dream where time has stopped and looking at them exerts a calm which not many other photographers have done to me.
One can tell that she studied fashion design, as all the clothes the models wear are made by her and are unique, adding to the overall vibe of the portraits. She styles and preps her models herself, accenting on their natural beauty and focusing on putting a lot of shine and peachiness to their skin. She uses very low apertures on her lenses to give the images a defocussed, soft look, even venturing into using vintage lenses for a more authentic haze. She uses a DIY filter made from a very thin fabric in order to give her images the signature dreamy look without affecting the quality of her images.
Her posing is very natural, usually making her models look very relaxed, carefree or even asleep. The poses seem to be inspired by famous painters and artists from the Romantic period, and she says she researches a lot and has Pinterest boards ready for every type of background and shoot. Lighting wise, she mostly uses natural window light, which she diffuses with different fabrics and objects. This gives a very soft look to her images, making her models look sun-kissed and ethereal.
Vivienne Mok’s photography inspired me greatly to DIY more props and be more experimental with the tools I use for my portraiture. In my opinion, her story shows that anyone who is inspired and motivated enough can achieve anything they want. If enough research is put into a photoshoot and with good pre-planning, even the most basic settings can produce ethereal results.
