Monday, March 17, 2014

My Job As A Hair And Makeup Photo Stylist

One day last week I was going through my closet (and notice I said closet, as in single, not closet(s) because I only have ONE in my studio apartment) which kinda makes me a magician because I don't know HOW I fit all my shit into one closet.

It's called, "The Magic of Arranging."

And as I was rearranging my closet for Spring, I came across a portfolio which contained various photographs of some of the models and actors I did the hair and makeup for when I used to be a photo stylist in Florida.

I worked for several different photographers in the Central Florida area during the '80's and '90's. It was a side job that I did whenever photographers needed a hair and makeup stylist for their shoots. The money was great and I could pick and choose whenever I wanted to do it.

The photo you see above are some of the tools I used. I carried a makeup case which contained cosmetics, skincare and a ton of makeup brushes. I also carried a big canvas bag which contained everything I needed to do hair - curling irons, a blow dryer, hot rollers, hair spray and gel, combs and brushes.

I was literally a mobile...Hair and Makeup Will Travel guy.

And not only did I do the styling for females but males as well, because guys wear makeup and have their hair coiffed for photo shoots too.

In case you might not know exactly what a photo stylist does, allow me to briefly share the job. A stylist will not only apply the initial makeup and hair styling to a model, but they also stand behind the photographer during the shoot to make sure everything stays in place; doing touch-ups. Their job is to make sure that everything about the model looks good. And some photographers I worked with actually allowed me to look through the camera during a shoot, just to see how the hair and makeup appeared through the lens.

Back then they didn't have digital photography, so it wasn't as easy as it is now to do touch-ups in post production. Therefore, I had to make sure that there were little or no mistakes with the hair and makeup.

And I have to admit, some of the photographers I worked were very temperamental and demanding. But hey, that was part of my job, so I had to deal with it.

I would also like to add here that in addition to having a hair and makeup stylist on a shoot, there is also sometimes a clothing stylist and prop stylist. A clothing stylist is responsible for attending to all the clothes in a shoot. And a prop stylist is responsible for getting any item that is needed for a picture that is either handled by the model, or part of the scene of a photograph (such as specific chairs, tables, etc.).

Today, I would like to share several photographs which I had to scan on my computer and then resize them to fit my blog. All of these photos were shot with film (yeah, remember film???), so some are a bit fuzzy and grainy in the transfer.

Included are photographs that were either used as prints ads or professional headshots.

Lights! Camera! Hair! Makeup!

Shoot!