Bal Harbour

PHOTO BY STEWART SHINING FROM ALESSANDRA, PUBLISHED BY ROME PAYS OFF Fashion icon Alessandra Ambrosio and photographer Stewart Shining met nearly two decades ago. Since then, their relationship has transcended that of image- maker and muse, to one of deep friendship. A snapshot of their creative collaboration over the last 20 years is captured in Shining's first book, Alessandra. We sat down with the photographer to talk about friendship, creativity and collaboration. When did you and Alessandra first meet? The first picture I ever snapped of Alessandra was a Polaroid at a casting. She was 17 years old and I responded to something right away. She was like this little, waifish diamond in the rough but I saw something in her eyes. Those eyes just draw you in. I snapped these Polaroids and I booked her for a job, which was a Wallpaper magazine cover. After that we were off to the races: we started shooting for Victoria's Secret and one day they came to us and said, 'Hey, we have an idea for this line called Pink. We love what you guys do together so we want to send you a bunch of clothes and let you have fun.' Pink went on to become a juggernaut so there's a big section of the book covering those years. Your photos are very colorful and joyous and have a lot of energy to them. How do you create that? We had fun from the get-go, but as I was working on this book and going through all the contact sheets I noticed that there was so much laughing. Alessandra laughs with without inhibition, she is goofy, she is always cracking up, which means I am cracking up. There's great joy in what we do. What motivated you to compile these images and document this creative relationship in a book? I arrived at this stage in my career where I felt like I needed to do a book. Most photographers publish an anthology of their work, but when I started looking through my pictures I kept coming across all these unpublished pictures of Alessandra. So I called Alessandra and told her what I was thinking and she was like, no way. So I said 'Come on, you've been doing this for so long, you need a book.' Finally she said maybe a tiny, tiny book. The book ended up being more than 200 pages because we had so much to choose from. BY R ACH EL M A RLOW E A NEW BOOK OUT THIS FALL CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHER STEWART SHINING'S CREATIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH SUPERMODEL ALESSANDRA AMBROSIO. How did the image selection process work? We are best friends so I wanted her to participate and tell me what she thought. We are also very aligned so it was mainly going back and forth over certain pictures—which ones I liked better or which ones she liked more—and then talking each other into it. The book isn't chronological, but divided into visual chapters. The majority of it is unpublished images with a few of our greatest hits thrown in and then we did several shoots specifically for the book. I think those pictures are some of the strongest we've done in our lives because we weren't on a job trying to show a back pocket or the texture of a piece of clothing. We were just out there to make beautiful pictures together, and I think we made some iconic ones. You say your relationship goes beyond that of an image-maker and muse, what do you mean? In this day and age, the word muse sounds very objectifying to me. We've grown up together and we've experienced life events together. We know each other's families. When I point the camera at her we have this energy that snaps back and forth between us. It's like fireworks. when she's in front of a camera everything falls away and she's fearless. Suddenly there's a different creature standing in front of me than my friend who comes to our backyard barbecues. Looking back at the finished product what do you see in Alessandra? The book is really a document of our friendship. It's my tribute and my homage to her beauty, her skill and what she's achieved as a model, because when you look at that first Polaroid of a little girl that walked into my studio and you look at the photos of her now, that wasn't an accident. She has worked hard. As for myself, I think I've gained a quiet confidence over the years. When I look back at the early pictures, I can almost feel the nervous energy and that's fun, but now, when I step out on the set and pick up a camera, I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm looking for. It's a more intentional and gratifying experience in a way because in the old days it was like 'Am I gonna get it?' These days, I know I'm going to get it. BAL HARBOUR 153

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