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Der Himmel über Brisbane

25/11/2022

1545

The Sky over Brisbane

This is a shoot I wanted to do for over three years now. Inspired by my favourite photographer, Peter Lindbergh, when he shot in New York City with Amber Valletta for Harper’s BAZAAR in 1993. Peter died on the 3rd September 2019.

It took me a while, but it is finally here.

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Peter Lindbergh’s Inspiration

When most of the pieces of the puzzle were finally in place for my shoot, I started researching Peter’s shoot a bit more.

To my surprise, my favourite shoot from my favourite photographer was inspired by one of my favourite movies from my favourite filmmaker: Wim Wenders. The 1987 film Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) also inspired a 1998 movie called City of Angels, With Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.

I came across an interview of Amber Valletta with Nick Knight, where she mentions that too.

Wim Wenders is not my favourite filmmaker by chance: I was introduced to his work at University and ended up writing a thesis about consumer behaviour using my favourite of all of his movies: the 1991 Sci-Fi Bis ans Ende der Welt (Until the End of the World).

The Process

The first thing I needed for this shoot, other than the right model, was a big set of wings. To find the right 180cm tall set of wings in Australia proved to be quite a challenge.

For that reason, I would put the project aside from time to time, always asking around and looking for it. I even tried ordering some from eBay, only to be disappointed.

The set you’ll see here – and that will be available for hire in Brisbane soon – came from the Ukraine. In early July this year, I finally ordered and, for obvious reasons, took a while to arrive (close to three months).

By the time the wings arrived, I already had my model: Angelica.

Angelica

Angelica and I met in April this year and she quickly became a very important part of my life.

Right after ordering the wings, I asked her if she would like to model for this project and she said yes. Her middle name also happens to be Sky, and Der Himmel über Berlin translating to The Sky over Berlin – and not Wings of Desire -, it felt so right!

B&W Film

This being a shoot inspired by Peter Lindbergh’s 1993 editorial, of course it had to be shot in B&W film.

The 35mm cameras had rolls of Ilford XP2 and the 120 cameras had a roll of Ilford XP5 and a roll of Ilford Delta, all of them 400 iso. I used four different film cameras and a digital camera, and out of the 27 photos selected for this editorial, only 4 are digital (two were supposed to be BTS photos and two happened at the end of the second day of shooting, after we ran out of film).

The Shoot

Shooting outdoors in different locations, with 5 cameras, different outfits and massive angel wings can be a bit complicated.

For that reason, we asked our friends Leyton and Angel to assist us. They also did some behind the scenes.

On the first day, we shot at the top of a carpark in Brisbane CBD, a demolition site in West End and in the streets of West End.

Angelica and I had to go back to Brisbane CBD to finish the shoot next day, as we ran out of light on day one. This time we didn’t have assistants and shot with two cameras and one outfit only, as it was what we were missing.

In my mind, shooting with the digital camera was like a backup, in case the film shots didn’t turn out good. But as I was expecting, they are BETTER (in my opinion of course).