Welcome to theVanity.ca – our dark little closet away from home. Clint and I have always been intrigued by Tim Burton and things like twisted dark gnarly trees, magical ideas, Hallowe’en, Mardi Gras, and slightly surreal images that border on fairytale and myth. We knew we couldn’t just pop these up next to maternity photos and beautiful brides, on our more mainstream website, RenaissanceStudios.ca. We needed something different, that would compliment the imagery and concepts we wanted to create. We also needed a name that meant more than “weird slightly out there photos”. So, we have created our brand spankin’ new sister site at: www.theVanity.ca, to showcase our edgier photographic art, and we’re officially launching it today (happy Canada Day, by the way!) with our first collection of over 80 images: Salon L’Image 2009: VAMP.
The VAMP Collection was put together for Salon L’Image (hair salon) in Orangeville. They wanted something dark, edgy, and captivating to show off some crazy hair. It was some of the most fun we’ve ever had in studio: 17 models in 1 day – it was epic, but so very very worth it. Then – in heavy and intentionally obvious post-processing – we transformed the models into even darker versions of themselves, and in turn brewed up a family of vampire-next-door-characters (with great hair), each with their own personality, from “Exposed” to “Mod” to “Hitchcock” and 14 others in between. We can’t wait to work with Salon L’Image again next year on another shoot just like this, sans vampires.
The Vanity is named in honour of a place where you can sit and dress up, where everday can be Hallowe’en depending on how you use the tools at your disposal. Why use lipstick as lipstick or an 80’s prom dress just to go to the prom in the 80’s? Everything you see and touch and have the ability to use can be anything, if you hold it right and look at it from a different angle. So The Vanity was where we decided to build our new little home to house our make-believe and magical ideas – that overtime we’ve discovered so many people also share an interest in. Book publishers, musicians, artists and the like – they all reach to achieve something just beyond the norm. That’s what The Vanity is all about, and we’re happy to offer our photographic and design services to help craft mysterious and intriguing images – or light-hearted but thoughtful compositions – to the media at large, fellow designers of fashion, hair and art – or families just looking for a slightly different family portrait to mount above their mantle in true Renaissance glory.
We have great plans for The Vanity, and the website has been designed to grow with us. The music, colours, tone, and intro slideshow will dramatically transform every time we present a new collection – and we hope to bring a new collection to you every month. Behind-the-scenes video of our more dynamic photoshoots and creations will be posted in our “collections” gallery so you can witness some of the magic that happens behind the curtains. The Vanity will also be host to our quarterly “Newest Muse” contest, where a free ‘dream photoshoot’ is given away to someone with a great idea and story. You’ll be able to see all the photos from their dream photoshoot in the collections gallery at www.theVanity.ca.
If you have any ideas you’d like to work on with us, or a shoot that you think would be just plain fun – let us know and we’ll do our best to make it become reality…or, well…surreality. We hope you enjoy this new project of ours as much as we do. PLEASE post your comments below and let us know what you think of the new site and collection!
Shawn Van Daele & Clint Russell
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