glamour

Virginia

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Virginia Prak came by the studio the other evening for a very informal photo shoot. Virginia is a college student, pageant winner, as well as a dancer, instructor and board member of the Angkor Dance Troupe here in Lowell, Massachusetts. This year is the 30th anniversary of the Troupe. Click here for more about this great organization. 

I hesitate to feature just one of the Angkor dancers over the other, very talented dancers. To be honest, I'd love to photograph many of them! So maybe this is a start. As it happens though, she and I had a little conversation starter as my wife, Amy, was Virginia's 2nd grade teacher :-).

Please enjoy the pictures!

This shot was done using a 4x5 inch paper negative. Photographic paper is 'orthochromatic', unlike traditional film, so certain colors do not register as one might expect. Her yellow garment is the same one as in the color image above, but reads alm…

This shot was done using a 4x5 inch paper negative. Photographic paper is 'orthochromatic', unlike traditional film, so certain colors do not register as one might expect. Her yellow garment is the same one as in the color image above, but reads almost black.

A Mill, a Radio and a Fashion Shoot

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The current issue of Merrimack Valley Magazine (May/June 2015) features a couple of pieces that I worked on that include a few people or places that are close to home, all in different ways.

Having moved to downtown Lowell last year, my wife Amy and I have become frequent visitors to Mill No. 5, a very eclectic destination in an old textile mill, (No surprise there!), with small shops and not so small events. Made in Lowell, a new initiative founded by Tobias Marx is located in Mill No. 5, and was started to “cultivate a movement to transform communities”. Tobi is incredibly passionate about the organization and its possibilities. Here is their web site to learn more: http://www.madeinlowell.org. Liz Michalski's story is well worth the read. You can find it on-line here: http://www.mvmag.net/?p=15211

Another piece is on a resurgence in local radio. I was really into radio when I was a kid. My father would build electronic things from discarded parts, at the kitchen table, using an old brownie pan as a chassis, after having sketched out the schematic from scratch. Seriously! But a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to snoop around 3 radio stations for this story, one of which was WXRV (The River). It is housed in the old WHAV art-deco studios where, if I remember the story correctly, my father actually worked as an engineer, probably right after the war. Seeing the old, discarded turn-tables and tape decks, one can imagine  the old-days of radio and the live performances that occurred there. While that station still has a wall of CDs (for backup), and The River does host live performances, all three stations that I visited now play streamed digital music day to day.

This story is a natural fit for writer Dean Johnson too. Dean is a Sunday nighttime fixture on WBZ radio.

And back in early April, when the snow was actively melting, we took over the Stonehenge Inn & Spa in Tyngsboro, MA, for a Couples Spring “Peek” Weekend fashion shoot. You may recognize Christa Brown, one of the models from a shoot that I did in my studio last year, and whose writing was recently featured in Seventeen Magazine.

This was a fun day. This piece is on-line too (http://www.mvmag.net/?p=15233). Thanks go to the rest of the team too. It was a real group effort: writer and style editor Alyson Aiello, Yolanda and Stephen for their creative direction, Regina for her hair and makeup work, and for Christa and Joel for looking marvelous!

A Photo-Shoot Full House

I can’t believe it’s been over a month, but on July 7th Grace, my stylist collaborator from Grace Professional Cosmetics and I had the pleasure of photographing Amy and Vee. It was a very warm, Massachusetts summer day, but they were good sports, and I think we all had a good time. At least I hope so!

These are another in my set of Fashion-Inspired Portraits. Since this kind of shoot is quite different from my editorial and commercial work, I have a new web site devoted to showing it off: http://www.adrienbisson-portraits.com

Also in the house that day was Liz, of Global Click Photography, who helped out by shooting some behind-the-scene shots. You're just going to have to go over to my special web site to see those though! Maybe next time she can do some video for us! Hint, hint!!

If you like this work, please let me know. I crave attention :-)

Photo by http://globalclickphotography.com

Photo by http://globalclickphotography.com