FashionPhotographyBlog.com is pleased to announce Alana Tyler Slutsky as one of our recent winners of our Photo of The Week competition. Alana is a fashion, beauty and portrait photographer located in Brooklyn, New York. As seen in her winning entry that was part of her “Painted Ladies” series, she is not afraid to experiment with light and color, as well as playing with the idea that “fashion is fantasy”. This has been the driving force behind the photographer’s journey.
So where did Alana’s journey begin? The mostly self-taught photographer revealed that the journey was not actually planned. She said that “My interest in photography started by accident. I ended up dropping a class in high school and needed to fill my schedule. I signed up for the photography class offered at my school and the rest is history.
My attraction to fashion photography was pretty instinctual. I had always been a creative person but I also love structure. I find that fashion photography is the perfect mix of the two. I had also always been a very practical person and knew that if I actually want to make it through life doing what I love, I would have to go into some form of commercial photography. As sad as it is to say, very few fine art photographers actually sustain themselves off of their photography alone. To me, fashion is the perfect mix where art meets commercial work.”
With her imagination let loose to play with color and light, how did Alana manage to come up with the inspiration for her original “Painted Ladies” series when she was first experimenting with lighting? I asked the photographer and she started explaining “From what I remember, it was just after Halloween and all the terrible leftover makeup was on sale at Walmart. I was walking through the aisles thinking that there had to be something I could do with all this random stuff. Turns out that there was! A few sets of extraordinarily tacky eye lashes, 2 bottles of white body paint, 1 package of self-adhesive rhinestones plus 2 really kind friends equal a mini series of images entitled Painted Ladies.” According to Alana, her winning photo (seen below) was taken with beat-up mono lights and a soft box.
When it comes to style the photographer had great opinions about the subject, she explains that “So many people are worried about developing a style. Yes, it’s important and definitely something that you need but you can’t force it, it happens naturally. I’d be a fool to say that I had found and locked into my style. I won’t lie, I haven’t. It’s continuously evolving. All I know is that I’m extremely comfortable working with harsh light and deep shadows and playing around with this is contributing to making my work look like, well, my work. But to anyone out there looking to push themselves and develop a style – experiment! Try different things, make yourself uncomfortable. It will all pay off in the end! Just stay true to yourself and you’ll find your way.
Alana continues to develop her style and evolve her work as seen in the photos posted in this article from her recent shoot entitled “Second Skin” that reminisce the essence of her winning photo. It just goes to show that style is an ever evolving process as are conceptual ideas.
To find more about Alana Tyler Slutsky’s winning photo and other photos from her “Painted Ladies” series, you would probably need to search deep in the depths of the internet on a post about it winning an amateur photography contest. However if you want to find out information about her recent shoots, you can check out her website, Facebook, blog or email her at alana@alanatylerslutsky.com
PHOTO CREDITS:
Photography by Alana Tyler Slutsky
Picture 1 2, 3 & 5: from her “Second Skin” series
Picture 4: winning photo from her earlier “Painted Ladies” series
Blog: http://alanatylerslutsky.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.alanatylerslutsky.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alanatylerslutsky
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanaslutsky
