Tag: Leah Hawker cape town photographer

The Pinup Series, 2012
Part 2

Post author By Leah
Post date April 23, 2015
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Part 2

This is the second half of the shoot I did for the Pinup Series which was broken over two days in August 2012. On the second shoot date I worked with South African Playboy Playmates Wendy Du Toit, Kate Lovemore and Jade Fairbrother. Samantha Brownell did hair and makeup.

Catalogued here are a number of behind-the-scenes type shots from the shoot as well as the final images for each of the three Playmates.

Wendy Du Toit (pictured in the above images) was flown down from the Northern Cape for the day for this shoot. We met on the morning for a brief interview on MuthaFM before going straight into the shoot. Wendy is definitely the traditional “girl next door” but as far as the Playboy history goes she fits into the early 60’s with her look.

Kate was great to meet and shoot. She’s totally self-assured, enthusiastic and natural. Her partner, Twiggy or Grant “Twiggy” Baker, an SA champ surfer and all round cool guy, joined us to shoot some behind the scenes footage of Kate.

Of each of the Playmates I shot a semi-nude (for exhibition as part of the Nostalgia Now exhibition which I curated in 2012 at Exposure Gallery) and a nude which went on to be featured in a pictorial about the Playmates in a follow-on issue of the Playboy South Africa print mag.

The make-up references were reasonably straight forward but the hair was definitely quite a challenge. I spent a fair amount of time trying to re-style some areas in post-production,- a lesson learned about preparation and research before shooting if there ever was one…

Lastly of the six Playmates I shot Jade Fairbrother who was also the first Playmate I ever shot for Playboy SA and went on to Playmate of the Year (which we later shot in beautiful Zambia).

The exhibition “Nostalgia Now” was the 3rd in a series of 4 small group shows I curated at Exposure Gallery during the last 5 years. It was tied in with the Cape Town Month of Photography and invited emerging and professional photographic talent to participate by submitting images for exhibition that related to the body and that reflected nostalgia in the now via a rendered nostalgic format be it homographic, hipstamatic, polaroid, cynotype, tintype, faded out, bleached etc etc. The concept was correlated to that of the main festival and asked the viewer to reminisce about the now.

Below is the invite and a shot from the end of the opening evening.

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Women I've Shot

“The Housewives”, Private Commissions:
This is Amy

Post author By Leah
Post date April 19, 2015
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This is Amy

(Note: “The Housewives” was a term I fondly coined in 2006 after I started getting shoot requests from private, individual women who became my clients. Many of the women who contacted me were married and in their mid 30’s and were doing the shoots as gifts to their husbands. The folder in my archives is still called this and so I’ve stuck to it, in part just for the irony: most of these women are not “housewives” at all, but strong independent and forward thinking women who I have had the honour of documenting.

All are private commissions and the demographic has changed substantially over the years. Some I’m still in contact with, others I’ve totally lost contact with, some have become friends, some may wish not to have their real names used, others don’t mind, some may have their faces obscured for privacy reasons, others have generously shared their experiences of being photographed.)

This is Amy. I photographed her at Roodebloem Studios in 2008. We shot quite a few different looks during her 2 hour shoot, ranging from more conceptual, to more traditional nudes, vintage inspired boudoir-style images and series which had a harder more domiatrix type feel to it which incorporated the rope I had used the previous year to shoot the rope-bound girls for the Alan Walt Architects & Associates’ client end of year greeting card.

Amy’s shoot came at a time when I was really utilising the props I had already collected during my first 6 years in photography. I was also still quite connected to many of my initial references which I’d been incorporating into my ideas during my graduate body of work and so many of the themes seem prevalent in this shoot.

Amy was easy going and fun during the shoot as far as I remember, and with the usual touch of anxiety about parts of her body which she may have felt self-conscious about.
In all the years I’ve been working this closely with women there have been very few times that I’ve come across someone who is outright confident about the way their bodies look…

Since the time of this shoot Amy has been very open and happy for me to use the images in connection with other projects,- this fact (one I’ve found strangely common with my clients) is, I feel, like a vote of confidence for how such images can lend themselves to being empowering about ones self image.

Tags B&W nude, cape town boudoir, cape town nude photography, cape town photography, commercial nude photography, leah hawker, Leah Hawker cape town photographer, Leah Hawker photography, nude studio shoot cape town, The Housewives

Projects Women I've Shot

The Pinup Series, 2012
Part 1

Post author By Leah
Post date April 15, 2015
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Part 1

In August 2012 I initiated a new series of work, using the Playboy South Africa Playmates, to go alongside a group exhibition called Nostalgia, which I was curating at Exposure Gallery.

The series was shot over two days with six different Playmates. The images catalogued here come from the first shoot on Womens’ Day, 8th August with Yolandi Malherbe, Mpho Tsila and Yolandi Wiggett, – hair by Chantal Morgan and make-up by Colleen Van Rensburg.

A series of shots on the side for Yolandi to post on social media... — A series of shots on the side for Yolandi to post on social media…

The approach for the shoot took a while for me to plan, I wanted the final images to really look like old originals and thus decided to layer the processing of the images.

I shot in studio against a mid-tone grey back-drop roll using two lights; a strip soft box creating rim light and a beauty-dish with a grid as the main light. After retouching and quite substantial colour manipulation (to adjust backgrounds and props appropriately) I overlaid the files with previously documented textures and then had them printed out onto cotton-based Hanhemulle.

I spent a couple of days staining, soaking, burning, crushing, folding and generally damaging these originals until they looked sufficiently handled and then re-documented them on a white background. These files were again re-worked before final exhibition prints were created , again on Hahnemulle.

The shoot was fun and relaxed with bubbly and a few friends coming in to lend a hand or deliver koeksisters (thank you Leigh Van Den Berg, beauty-blogger-extraordonaire of lipgglossismylife) (and also thank- you for the blog post about the shoot!).

Bubbles, hair, makeup, refernces, shooting, nails and friends popping in (thats Yolandi M. top middle, Mpho bottom middle and Leigh Van Den Berg bottom right)

For each of the playmates I worked with I produced a semi-nude final image for the exhibition and a nude for publication in Playboy magazine itself. We also shot one or two fun closer up shots for each Playmate to use on social media.

Great pinup-style makeup done on Yolandi Wiggett by Colleen Van Rensberg.

Tags behind the scenes, cape town photography, leah hawker, Leah Hawker cape town photographer, Leah Hawker photography, Mpho Tsila, Pinup, Pinup series, playboy, Playboy Playmate, playboy south africa, Playmate, Playmate pinups, studio pinup shoot, vintage pinup, yolandi malherbe, Yolandi Wigget

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An Advert: Passionfruit.co.za
NuMetro Cinema Ad for the launch of
50 Shades of Grey in South Africa

Post author By Leah
Post date February 13, 2015
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NuMetro Cinema Ad for the launch of
50 Shades of Grey in South Africa

In October 2014 I worked on an advert for www.passionfruit.co.za as director of photography.
The online sex-toy retailer had cleverly decided to advertise during the launch and screening of the much anticipated cinema block-buster “50 Shades of Grey” (launching Friday 13th February, 2015, TODAY!).

We had 20 seconds of advertising space, the ad would be the last one screened before the movie showed across the country, a creative and fun project to be involved with.

Some behind the scenes moments captured during the making of www.passionfruit.co.za's NuMetro cinema advert last year. — Some behind the scenes moments captured during the making of www.passionfruit.co.za’s NuMetro cinema advert last year at Banksia Boutique Hotel.

Ross Campbell did a fab job of shooting all the video footage and managed the editing and sound while I co-ordinated location, styling, models, props, concept and dialogue, etc. We shot over one day at the beautiful Banksia Boutique Hotel in Rosebank, Mowbray with our male figure Daryn (not pictured here) and model Yolande Malherbe who I worked with at Playboy a few years previously.

The concept was simple, fun and clear: www.passionfruit.co.za is the place you’re going to find your inner 50-Shades as they don’t just stock the original range, designed with the author of the book, but also another 1000+ similar goodies to spice up your bedroom life-style in which ever way you choose.

The ad played loosley on the characters in the movies’ storyline as well as having a touch of a BDSM feel in a very low-key way.

I enjoyed the editing process which I’m not so familiar with since I only work with stills. The added elements of timing, movement and sound etc are so powerfully interpreted by a viewer…

I shot a few stills after the shoot for www.passionfruit.co.za to use as banner ads on their webpage or social media platforms if needed, and one or two pretty lingerie-ish ones just for Yolandi and myself.

Its the first time the negligee she’s wearing has ever been used from my lingerie collection….and its been in there for a good 10 years.

I mailed Yolandi these few pics a day ago and asked her what her thoughts were about the shoot we did together:

What did you think of the concept for the advert which was loosely based on the characters of the 50 Shades movie?

I thought it was a clever. I mean, selling sex toys is never subtle or discreet, but the way this ad was done, was brilliant! When I heard who all would be a part of the production team, I was totally at ease and knew it would be done super professionally.

Your thoughts on lip-biting “know-how” now that yours will be cinema screen size?

It’s all in the name of pulling off a great job. I had my shy moments on set and I blushed when I saw the final results, but everyone knows I’m not conservative and very open minded. People will probably be like “Of course Yolandi is in this ad. Wasn’t she a sex columnist at one point?”

How do you think the movie 50 Shades of Grey will be received in SA….do you think passionfruit is going to run out of stock? ;-)

I dont think SA is as conservative as before, so there will definitely be no protesters outside! Haha! People loved the book and now there’s a movie – recipe for success. And I most definitely think people are going to save the website link when they see the ad, just before they have to switch their phones off. And then when they get home….add to cart.

I reckon 50 Shades has done quite a bit for South African conservatism in the bedroom…which means passionfruit have probably hit the nail on the head with their ad space. This quote from the passionfruit press release:

Jörg Masche, Co-Founder of Passionfruit.co.za, believes that the global phenomenon of the 50 Shades trilogy has lifted taboos and shifted stigmas, allowing people to expand their sexual consciousness and unwrap their sexuality without fear of judgement.“Activities such as role-play and BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission) have become acceptable thanks to 50 Shades,” adds Masche. “Kinky is in and, as a result, many couples who were playing around with the ideas of role play or something a bit saucier, can now experiment and have fun without any negativity attached to their sexual preferences.”

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of press comes of the 50 Shades movie in SA media as well as hearing about how this advert effects www.passionfruit.co’s stock levels…

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