The Idea
Last winter I had the amazing idea to shoot with a blogger and generate some more range on my social media channels. I didn’t have someone particular in mind, except I knew which stylist I wanted to ask for the project. She immediately said yes and so we started contacting some influencer girls who seemed to look interesting for a fashion editorial. Luckily they all said no – so we had to look harder…
And so I remembered, that I had seen a newsletter from Vivienne Models months ago, showing a new model who was also a blogger and very beautiful. I wrote to the booker, asking if it was possible to shoot with Xenia Tchoumitcheva and he just called me back and said: “Sure if you have a good magazine for that.” And then he told me that he was also able to ask Caro Daur for me too. Caro is the greatest german fashion blogger nowadays and so I felt like the luckiest photographer in the world to get the chance to work with her. I started building a concept and asking magazines, all while keeping it a secret in front of everyone else because I wanted to surprise everyone on Instagram with my stories and posts.
After a few requests, I was confused that not a magazine was calling me back with a big “HOORAY!”, saying “yes, we want a story with Xenia or Caro!!!”, but I guess I was just asking the wrong ones, until one day I found a response from FACES Magazine in my inbox. They were interested in the story and especially in Caro Daur. So now the next step was to plan everything more detailed and with those details, the booker would ask the bloggers, if they’d even liked to shoot with me. Imagine the poker game we were playing, when communicating with both sides. It took months! But in the end, pushing our luck turned out perfectly well and when we finally had a fixed date and location in Munich for the shooting, nothing could stop it anymore…
Before the Shooting
… except that I got extremely sick the week before the shooting! I had been planning to go to Munich for the whole week and shoot a second editorial as well as meet some new people and some friends. So I had a lot of plans and a hotel booked for Caro Daur, all of which I could cancel by no chance! I had to go and as I’m not a person who lies in bed when sick, I didn’t even think of canceling the whole thing, but drank tea by the liter and took a lot of medicine. I felt really terrible – I couldn’t quite breathe and the pressure in my head made me feel dizzy and numb. When I started coughing it got better and I knew that I could indeed do the journey, but the problem was that the coughing sounded terrible!
Caro
At least that’s what all the people said to me in Munich. But I pulled myself together and withheld the coughing in front of Caro Daur and I think she didn’t even notice. But let me tell you about the shooting from the start. Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich was so kind to support us with a room, where she could change and get her make-up and hair done in the first place. They didn’t tell us before, but we were going to get the presidential suite! It was a bliss when we came in! I had never seen such a beautiful hotel room (or apartment) in my life – there were fresh flowers everywhere, the rooms were light-flooded and everything looked premium. I immediately regretted that we had only planned pictures on the street and around the hotel, but nothing inside. And as I had no lightning with me, I had to stay with the concept. Outside the sun was shining – it was too much for my taste because it’s better to have some clouds in the sky for shootings. Additionally, I got quite burnt by the sun that day. But it was still better than having rain and a ruined shooting or an even worse cold.
Caro Daur came at 8 am and she was really pleasant and funny. Her radiance was very strong and she seemed to know exactly what she wanted. She told us that she liked fast shootings with no pauses and that she had to leave in the early afternoon because of an appointment. So we had a little time pressure there. Luckily I got very fast in the last few years, so we had shot all outfits until about 3 pm. I didn’t quite get the chance to talk to her too much, but I found it easy to shoot with her because she was very experienced in front of the camera. I only had to take care of not shooting too blogger-like images and stay with the moods. The good thing was: the magazine wanted some real emotions in the pictures and so I’d say that we split the differences and the result was great. You can see her personality in the story – and I really love it.
To give you some insights into the shooting with Caro Daur, my assistant Maria made a making-of movie while she helped me – she’s a great multitasker. The result will be here soon…
When Caro Daur left, we still had time to enjoy the amazing suite, chill, and have our well-deserved lunch break. One day I’ll book the suite for another shooting. But that day we had to leave and after we checked out, Maria and I went to the Peter Lindbergh exhibition, which was very close to the hotel. Later I needed to get prepared for the next shooting with the same stylist, but another model – Verena. She was amazing! You can read about that one in the next entry (;
See the whole editorial with Caro Daur
Epilogue
If you enjoyed reading this article, or you found it helpful in one way or the other, I would love to know (reach out)! You are also welcome to support my work and writing by donating whichever amount this is worth to you. I will thank you with lots of telepathic love and more interesting journal entries. Cheers!