Modern Salon - January 2008 - (Page 14)

NOTEBOOK I Portfolio Piece n this issue, we feature an extraordinary range of work by hairdressers from all over the world. Some of these stylists are platform artists who have the resources of a manufacturer behind them to support their creation of hair fashion images. Some are hairdressers who present their own trend releases as part of their artistry. And some do collections as an extension of the work they do with their clients. Let me tell you about four people who I’ve seen do remarkable work, all out of their own desire to communicate to their clients. Of course, there are many, many more who choose to take on the additional work of photo hairdressing—just look at the volume of photos entered each year in the North American Hairstyling Awards—but I’ve worked with these professionals recently and had a chance to learn something of what they’re about. Frances London DuBose of London Hair in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, may be the most prolific photo hairdresser in the world. I remember when she first started shooting single models in the 1980s, working with local photographers and pretty young clients. Over the last 20 years, she’s taught herself everything about session work, including how to take the shots. Go to any newsstand in the world and you’ll find beauty magazines featuring more than one of Frances’ photos. Frank Shortino of Shortino’s in Erie, Pennsylvania, has built his entire marketing structure around his before-and-after photo work. He does consistent collections with a professional photographer and his own staff. Frank’s a down-to-earth guy who believes firmly that clients need to see what they’re getting, and he’s so confident in the skills of his staff, he says, that the quality of the work clients see in his multiple collections is enough to bring them in. Michael Christopher Hemphill came out of a competition background, where he naturally documented his designs in slides. The owner of an extremely successful self-named salon in Wilmington, Delaware, Michael started looking at photo work as a way to express his most purely artistic impulses. He, like Frances, evolved into taking his own photographs as a way to completely control the beauty image, with lighting, environment and composition. He’s just released his latest seasonal collection. Sandy Kurtzman is a colorist who owns an intimate salon in Austin, Texas, and photographs great client befores-and-afters in the studio, but I met her in the trenches, at two hair color shows last year. She was shooting the work on the stage for herself, she told me, so that she could build her own personal visual encyclopedia of color designs for reference at home. Her shots, which she shared with me after each event, were among the best beauty photojournalism I’ve ever seen, and more extraordinary for the fact that they were taken for the love of it. Go to the link on modernsalon.com below to meet these master stylists through their work. I know you’ll like them as much as I do. n “Some stylists do photos as an extension of their work with clients. ” Mary Atherton Editor in Chief E-mail Mary Atherton at matherton@modernsalon.com. Visit her blog at ModernSalon.com. 14 JANUARY 2008 CLICK! www.modernsalon.com http://www.modernsalon.com http://www.nioxin.com http://www.modernsalon.com http://www.modernsalon.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Modern Salon - January 2008

Modern Salon - January 2008 Contents Behind the Cover Notebook Contributors @Modernsalon.com New-Now-Next Modern Portfolio Modern Reports Color and Texture News and Trends Ask Beth Your Makeovers Ask the Experts The Verdict Doing Hair Transformation on Trend Modern Update The Goods Personal Style

Modern Salon - January 2008

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