When pho­tog­ra­ph­er Hen­der­son Noel asked me to art di­rect a pho­to­shoot for him us­ing neo­phyte mod­els, I had to wrap my head around a rea­son­able sto­ry­board. I thought it a great propo­si­tion to craft a provin­cial nar­ra­tive em­ploy­ing en­thu­si­as­tic play­ers, all gung-ho, to par­take in a pro­fes­sion­al yet pro­sa­ic pic­to­r­i­al.

I ap­proached Lon­da Young, an as­tute fash­ion buy­er of the epony­mous fash­ion hub, Lon’s Fash­ions to pro­vide wardrobe and ac­ces­sories. We pe­rused her bou­tique, ea­ger­ly, and se­lect­ed a cou­ple of looks themed to build rus­tic tableaux - folksy lan­guish­ing on a river­ine bench, wa­ter­wheel mo­tif et al; gaze­bo pos­tur­ing for an out­door jar­di­nage event, in­clu­sive of colon­nade; plan­ta­tion glam­ming up, jux­ta­posed with hogshead and urn; Afro-punk vis­ages, in a lib­er­at­ing lanai, set against Ar­chi­ton­ic stools.

We shot, on lo­ca­tion, in an un­al­loyed space, a for­mer co­coa es­tate, cra­dled in the low­lands of the breath­tak­ing north­ern range, with the cloud-capped El Tu­cuche moun­tain in Mara­cas Val­ley, glo­ri­ous­ly sur­vey­ing the vil­la and grounds at La Soledad. The proud pro­pri­etress, Marie Mil­lett, was elat­ed to have us shoot on the awe-in­spir­ing grounds.

My sto­ry cours­es parochial bliss, on a quaint wood­en lawn seat, as the girls share per­son­al anec­dotes, fea­tur­ing util­i­tar­i­an den­im and kha­ki en­sem­bles put to­geth­er with ‘ar­ti­san­sy’ ac­ces­soris­ing hand­picked by Lons and then shifts to con­scious poseuses, an­tic­i­pat­ing a tea-par­ty rit­u­al. In pic­toric, pais­ley, Pi­cas­soesque prints with bo­ho style footwear and wear­able art high­lights.

Then I gasped, ex­u­ber­ant­ly, at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of the por­traits, en tableaux vi­vants, ap­prox­i­mat­ing cou­ture sil­hou­ettes, in glitzy style, in sheer, silk, sheen and sen­sa­tion­al hues and tex­tures. The el­e­ments - the bar­rel, the vase, the balus­ter - served to rem­i­nisce on plan­ta­tion, colo­nial style, tinged, quite au con­traire, with a con­tem­po­rary edge. Then I saw the igua­na-coloured high stools, in the pa­tio, which pro­voked my make­up sen­si­bil­i­ty, lean­ing in the di­rec­tion of Wakan­da-es­que im­agery, prompt­ed by the stark com­ple­men­tary rose-based coloured fash­ions - bold, lib­er­at­ed, Nu­bian style, thrown in­to sharp re­lief by this psy­che­del­ic fo­li­ate wood­work.

On see­ing that ‘black-pride’ courage con­sume my new­bies, I knew we had told our sto­ry, con­sum­mate­ly, and I pro­claimed, “It’s a wrap!” The study was com­plete.

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Pho­tog­ra­ph­er - Hen­der­son Noel

Fash­ions - Lons Fash­ions

Mod­els Tehillah Moses, Pre­cy­ous Mcpher­son, Cherisse Shal­low

Make­up/Styling/Art Di­rec­tion - Richard Young

On lo­ca­tion at La Soledad