Fine Art Color Abstract Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Models at Fashion Show

Abstract Photograph of Models on the Runway at a NYC Fashion Show.

Models on Runway

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

When I worked for Reuters I covered the fashion shows in New York City every spring and fall. After several years of practice I came to know when I had the images I needed for my client. This show was of a lower level designer and I knew I had the shot early on. So I set myself the goal of creating something really creative and interesting and conceptual (and yes, salable as stock). I came up with several images that I really liked, including this one (and yes, it has sold very, very well over the years).

If you have ever watched a fashion show it seems all glamour and glitz. That is because the people bringing that image to you are not photographing themselves. To get the images that fashion magazines want, you have to be sitting directly at the end of the runway. That means that eight or ten photographers are going to get that image and all the rest have to settle for second best. The New York photo press photographers are quite a competitive bunch to begin with, but when you add in the photographers from England and France and Italy and Japan and ..... you get the idea, all competing for those few spots, what you get is chaos.

I enjoyed the competition because I figured out a way to get around it, a way to satisfy my client and to create a image that was unique from what everyone else was getting and to avoid the horror of being in the front row. I would find myself a spot in the back row, off center, where no one else really wanted to be and use my creativity to get really good and really different images. I needed large telephoto lens to create these images. This one was done with a 200 mm lens, but I would often use a 300 mm and on occasion go as high as a 600 mm. Then I would try to be a journalist and create an image that told a story about what the fashion show was rather than just what a dress looked like. Reuters was a news agency so this approach went over very well.

It is so important to keep in mind that you try to create something different than what every one else does. If it is for news or art or stock, when you create what every other photographer creates, your product is a commodity and can always be replaced by another photographer's image at a lower price. If you product is different buyers will have to come to you and pay what you are asking. I tend to go back to this point a great deal as it is fundamental to survival in photography.