Behind the scenes: Sonya Battla

Designer: Sonya Battla
Photographer: Amean J.
Hair& make-up: Altaf@Nabila’s
Coordination: Kiran Iftikhar@18% Grey

Being driven towards the 18% Grey studio roughly around half-an-hour after the scheduled time for the shoot, I was met with the sight of the photographer driving away when he should have been in the studio shooting the model. Needless to say, I panicked. A quick phone call to the designer assured me that the shoot had not been rescheduled and/or the location had not been changed.

Once inside, his assistant Kiran, told me he’d gone to pick the model up from Nabila’s Salon where she had been for the past three or so hours getting her make-up done. The clothes presently arrived and so did Amean with the make-up assistant and the model, Annie. Altaf, who had done the make-up, had painstakingly drawn perfect black squares around her eyes, also taking in her eyebrows. He had delicately made small waves on one side of the perimeter and had fringed it with fine black glitter. Her hair was bundled high on top of her head and put into place by carefully-placed black ribbons tied around it. Overall, the look was definitely eye-catching.

Sonya Battla presently arrived with a bag full of different-coloured fur, a variety of hats and… the perfect earrings! When the shoot did start, one noticed that as a model, Annie takes direction really well. Taking her cue, she would manipulate her body into a pose, often playing along with the outfit as well. With each indication from the photographer to change this or that (often very subtle changes), one could see the way she would attempt to translate that direction. She also seemed to hold her breath while posing and would audibly breathe out every time she slid back into a regular standing position. Even when she’s not being shot, Annie tends to look as though she is still posing or is thinking of the next one.

Sonya stayed outside the studio for most of the shoot and seemed to prefer sitting on the stairs with one of Amean’s coffee-table books on photographers’ works. After making sure the outfit and the accessories on the model looked perfect and with the model inside the studio clearly visible from where she was sitting, she would often look up to see how the shoot was progressing, occasionally venturing inside to offer her feedback. One felt that she wanted to give both the model and the photographer space in which to work in.

As a photographer, Amean isn’t too wordy with his direction, often using keywords or small phrases with which to pronounce the look he wanted the model to establish. Not wasting too many frames on a certain outfit, when once satisfied with a set, he would move towards the next outfit. His manner was quick, but it wasn’t hurried. Everything he did seemed… planned.

“When you said you wanted something which was a high-fashion shoot that’s what intrigued me and I wanted something that gave a visual impact and showed some of the ambience that surrounds the clothes, and therefore came up with clothes that would enhance the picture more than just show the clothes,” said Sonya, after the shoot, talking about what she had in mind for it. “Then we discussed it, Amean and I, that we would do a black-and-white shoot with spot colouring. And then accordingly we would work with colours that would work with spot colour,” she added.

“I was thinking construction. I am very inspired by a very old idea of what Fritz Lang did in the movie, The Metropolis. It’s all about factories, machines, construction,” related Amean about what he had in mind, “I was trying to ‘construct’ my photo shoot together with a lot of ingredients. With this one, the cement was Sonya Battla and Altaf did a fantastic job because he was also a very important part of this shoot, without that kind of look and make-up I wouldn’t have been able to construct what I was trying to do.”

But how did Amean get Altaf to do the kind of make-up he did? “Sonya and I had initially brainstormed about what could have been done. We thought about various things, some of which couldn’t be done for a lot of reasons. One of the factors that were in our minds was the execution,” replied Amean. “What happens is that a lot of people don’t think about the execution of the campaign which is why a lot of our shoots look bad. Even though they’re fantastic shoots but just because tbehind2.jpghey’re not placed properly, they look bad. You have to think: ‘Can you build a certain building in a certain environment?’

“So for the hair and make-up we brainstormed and had an idea. It was related to a shoot we had done a while back with Nabila. It was Vinnie’s profile and that was a bit of inspiration where Vinnie did not look like Vinnie and there was a bit of construction into somebody else.” he continued. “Annie is probably the most popular model right now, she’s been photographed by several people in several manners, several looks, several themes, several you know… moods. And I wanted to give her something other than what she’s used to doing. And I thought she pulled that off really well.”

“I thought she grew into the character,” added Sonya about Annie’s performance in the shoot.

“We also thought about squares and things like that. We were thinking geometry as well,” said Amean bringing the conversation back to hair and make-up. “And that was one of the things I told Altaf and he took it as a brief and he constructed his, I mean his execution was obviously taking things on to another level.”

Talking about how the shoot was planned, Sonya went on to mention that “I showed him (Amean) quite a few outfits, he selected some and I didn’t realise how he was going to build it. When you mix two materials that don’t traditionally go together and then go forward, it was… I think the best thing about this shoot was that it was completely impromptu and there were no references, no magazines, just our brains and imaginations played with the given. It was completely original. I love the fact that there was no reference!”

When it came to Annie’s contribution in the shoot, Sonya said “I think Annie was a sacred part of it. Because we were working with a new personality and she’s carried it off.”

“Initially I was not happy with the facial expressions, but then she made bigger character innovations and in the end I did not have to tell her anything,” said Amean while offering a more insightful look.

The fact that this is the first fashion shoot for Images wasn’t left out of consideration either. According to Sonya, “the motivation factor was also that this was the first shoot for Images. It just made us feel responsible that we had to… ”

“…set a standard,” completed Amean for her, continuing, “we actually even discussed the idea that ‘should we do it or should we not do it?’ Because if something doesn’t come out right, we are not the kind of people who like to do compromising work. There is responsibility, there was pressure. We actually thought about it and Sonya said that ‘if you think we can’t do it, let’s not do it.’”

At this point Annie ventures in to comment, “The shoot was fantastic. They gave me so much more room to do stuff. If it had been regular shalwar kameez or if it had been regular, sort of opaque clothes, I wouldn’t have been able to do much. And Altaf was amazing.”

“You know, the first second I saw her I wasn’t too sure,” said Amean, adding the following with a hint of amusement “now I don’t know if I will be able to recognise Annie without it.”

What was pleasing to note was that throughout the shoot the photographer, designer and model seemed to communicate well and as a result, work well with each other. “I’ve worked with Sonya and Annie several times before,” said Amean, “there is something we’ve developed, not three of us together but simultaneously: If something’s not coming out right, we’ll tell each other.”

– behind-the-scene photos by Amean J.

First Published:
Images
October 28, 2007