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instep
overview
New age SHUTTERBUGS of fashion
By
Aamna Haider Isani |
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Fashion is all about the image and it's the image
that can make harem pants look obsolete one season and highly desirable
the very next. It's the image that carves trends into mindsets and
shifts them in the stores. And the photographer is nothing less
than the genie that turns these images into powerful vehicles of
communication, taking a designer's vision to the streets where it
is at its effective best.
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The
last two decades of fashion photography in Pakistan were all about
pushing a nascent industry into birth and then evolution. The
power of the image was realized in its commercial form and with
it, came the power of the fashion photographers. Akbar Rizvi,
Rooha Ghaznavi, Asif Reza, Tapu Javeri, Arif Mehmood and Amean
J rose from Karachi with a keen understanding of luxury that fashion
demanded as well as an underlying passion for photojournalism.
They were considered the lens men with intellect.
Photographers like Ather Shahzad and Khawar Riaz put Lahore on
the fashion map; they were also responsible for propelling the
careers of many supermodels, which made them ever more influential.
Khawar Riaz became the single man source for recruiting male models
as well as the man who gave many a Lollywood babe a tidy makeover.
In the second tier of time followed Deevees, the talented husband
and wife duo that broke the Ather Shahzad stronghold on bridal
fashion photography.
With
the turn of the millennium there arose a desperate need for fresh
perspective that has come with the new age of shutterbugs: Rizwan
ul Haq, Guddu & Shani, Fayyaz Ahmad, Maram Aabroo and Ayaz
Anis Khan. These five names have come in at a time when fashion
in Pakistan has grown beyond adolescence and is ready to shed
insecurities to make a much stronger statement. They are at the
right time, the right place and needless to say they have the
right eye for the job.
Rizwan
ul Haq
Based in Karachi and trained by veteran photographer Nadeem A
Khan, Rizwan came onto the fashion scene in 2000 as a ray of light
that has cast fashion in a much needed new perspective. While
fashion photography had become all too much about beauty and sexuality,
Rizwan ul Haq has turned it back to what it is supposed to be
about: style. He is one of the few photographers who have the
vision to focus on the image, nothing else. He shoots his models
often in a harsh light, sometimes even dressing them as men as
in Ismail Farid's shoot with Nausheen Shah (printed in Instep).
To Rizwan, fashion can be about sensuality and style, never about
sexuality.
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"My
photography is not about promoting the models or about promoting
the clothes," he tells Instep. "It's about promoting an
image. A fashion image."
With his label Light and Shade, Rizwan ul Haq won a much-deserved
Lux Style Award for Best Photographer last year. And he truly deserves
it. His black and white photography has tremendous impact. And what
we appreciate most is that being a photographer, the thing that
interests him most is the lens and he hasn't branched out to hair
and make up or grooming the shoots that he does. He limits his commercial
success to ad campaigns (Olpers, Tarang for Engro and Telenor amongst
others) and claims to be one of the most expensive photographers
to work with. But when it comes to fashion, it's all about his passion.
His shoots for Ismail Farid, Maheen Khan, Sonya Battla and Deepak
Perwani amongst others have proven that. As for his favourite shoot,
he modestly states that he hasn't done it yet.
Guddu & Shani
This husband
and wife duo came onto Lahore's fashion landscape in 2004 as the
perfect answer to Ather Shahzad. One fine difference was that they
remembered to fit an '&' in their name to distinguish their
identities and the sweepstake was that they came onboard fully equipped
with a degree in Fine Arts from Lahore's Punjab University and a
major in graphic designing. Guddu and Shani meant business, which
is exactly what they established with their company, 360 Degrees.
They have
come in with a very artistic take on fashion and a brilliant hold
on technology that helps them mold pictures to perfection. And they
have never feared Photoshop, claiming that digital enhancement and
tweaking is an art on its own. Not afraid to experiment, they made
a ground breaking debut with a summer lawn shoot in which –
instead of showing a model waving a flowing dupatta – they
cradled her in the fabric, very much like a hammock. It was a departure
from the ordinary and most definitely an arrival for them. |
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"We are very happy with Guddu Shani," Safinaz told Instep.
"We only have to explain our concept for a collection to them
and they translate it so well." That is a designer's dream
team and no wonder that Guddu and Shani are popular even in Karachi
despite the geographical differences.
360 Degrees is their company that covers all facets of photography
– from commercial to personal as in private weddings –
and they employ a vast team of trained professionals to run the
enterprise. But it is their precision (they are known for getting
into the finest detailing of photographs), vision and artistry alone
that gets them along in fashion; for that they are now famous. They
may not have been able to give the industry a fleet of models but
that also means that they have held a monopoly over none either.
And that, one feels is just as big a service to the growth of fashion,
if not more.
Since
then Guddu and Shani have become extremely prolific in terms of
the work they do, which is just as versatile as it is prolific.
While Shani is the man behind the lens, Guddu his wife is the person
who waves the wand for make up and styling. And one has to say they
make a great team. Sana and Safinaz, two designers who are very
particular when it comes to images of their collections, have only
preferred to work with them for the past few years. |
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Maram Aabroo
Around the same time as the turn of the century, two college friends
got up and decided to step into fashion photography, a profession
that was predominantly male dominated. And chauvinistic too. Except
for Rooha Ghaznavi in Karachi, there was hardly a woman who had
ventured into this competitive arena and made it to the big league,
especially not in Lahore. And this was perhaps the biggest challenge
these young girls had to face; how did they tell clients that they
would be taking the pictures, not some 'better qualified, more competent,
male boss'!
It wasn't easy for them, Lahore being as hostile a territory for
newcomers as anything. It was not welcoming and they had to do double
the work to get half the job done.
But over the years - a good six years since they did their first
shoot for Alnara Al Yaum, an Abu Dhabi based magazine – Maram
and Aabroo are most certainly one of the promising photographic
talents in the industry. The shoot they did with Aamina Sheikh for
Men's Store (Niche magazine) last year had stunning vision and precision
and most certainly put them under the spotlight. When Atif Aslam's
brother Shahbaz Aslam prepared to debut his first collection of
menswear, he chose to work with Maram Aabroo. Needless to say, every
major photographer in Pakistan would have loved the opportunity
to work on a fashion shoot with Pakistan's biggest pop star as model.
As
with most of Lahore fashion photographers, Maram Aabroo have felt
the need for a wholesome set up: one that offers hair and make up
as well as photography. They offer both at their studio and have
even stylized one of Saadia Mirza's fashion shows. That was a challenge
they rose to; not every new comer would have the confidence or infrastructure
to.
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Extremely ambitious, though sometimes still having a bit of
a blurred vision, Maram and Aabroo are nevertheless an asset
to Pakistan's fashion industry in the twenty first century.
They are two bright and educated women trying to survive in
territory that is clearly marked by wolves. They play clean
and fair, which is also their strength and for all these reasons
they surely will succeed in making it big.
Fayyaz Ahmad
A
computer engineer by profession, it was sheer boredom that
shook Fayyaz away from his desk job and his technical hold
over graphics that led him into the most creative field around:
fashion photography. Fayyaz Ahmad began clicking at fashion
shows and social events and it was his love with faces and
expressions that gently nudged him into fashion; perhaps the
transition was very natural and
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unavoidable.
Fayyaz is quite green when compared to the
rest of his peers - he did his first shoot for a t-shirt brand Extreme
in 2007 - but he is most definitely one of the most promising fashion
photographers of this time.
Not that it was an easy transition for him. He faced a lot of discouragement
initially, with most people suggesting that he keep his desk job
because this one would be too instable.
"I had to face a lot of discouragement," he told Instep,
"even from fashion editors. I had to struggle a lot but I had
an unshakable belief in myself. I knew I could do it. And I know
my plans for my future are going to be tough to fulfill but I plan
to be shooting international fashion portfolios within the next
five years."
Unlike Rizwan ul Haq who has a cutting edge eye and dares to take
the camera away from the obvious, Fayyaz believes that the most
important thing in fashion photography is keeping the fashion aspect
highest in perspective. Everything else follows.
He feels that while the Gul Ahmad campaign he shot this year was
his most appreciated, the trickiest and most technically challenging
was a Sublime shoot he shot at night, "which not many people
would," he adds.
We like the fact that Fayyaz likes challenges and isn't afraid to
experiment. And that brings a brave and daring edge into his photographs.
He's slightly off centre and therefore unpredictable; exactly what
fashion photography should be all about.
Ayaz Anis Khan
The newest kid on the block in terms of experience, Ayaz Anis has
been around for quite a few years but it wouldn't be wrong to say
he made his debut as a fashion photographer as recently as last
year. This young kid, who used to be seen clicking away at society
dos suddenly picked up heavier photographic paraphernalia and stepped
into fashion with the intention of "doing something that looks
different".
Ayaz is still in an experimental phase, still in search of a signature
style. But his body of work is tremendous. His passion has driven
him to every newspaper and every fashion glossy in Pakistan. Equipped
with a few technical courses in photography, he believes he is learning
on the job and that experience is what matters at the end of the
day.
What's great is that while most newcomers aspire to work with top
designers as their ladder to success, Ayaz has chosen to focus on
new designers and fresh faces (models). His first shoot was for
the brand new label French Curve last year and since then he has
shot volumes with Jannat & Sadaf, Ayesha Hashwani and Labels
amongst many others.
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