Interview courtest of our friends at Alternative Apparel 

What inspired you to become photographer? 
I have been a photographer since 9.11.2001. I lived in New York, six blocks away from the World Trade Center, and witnessed the Twin Towers falling. I took images of the event, including the two buildings falling, and the aftermath. I walked the length and width of Manhattan to document the protests, the candlelight vigils, the businesses that opened their doors to strangers, the standing ovations for the firefighters and policemen. I was a photographer in that moment, and I knew that there was little else I wanted.

How would you describe your aesthetic and artistic philosophy? 
My aesthetic and philosophy are largely the same: honest and joyful. I began as a photojournalist, and found that my heart was too soft for some of the realities of the job. When I shifted my focus to fashion and advertising, I wanted to keep some reality in there with the fantasy. I like that honesty—I seek it out in the model’s expression and posture, their interaction with the scene around them. I think that fashion should be joyful. Alternative Apparel’s clothing and brand image has always seemed to me to have an ease, and fresh, joyful spirit about it that it very appealing to me. It turns out that that spirit is embodied not only in the clothes, but in the incredible, talented team that works behind the scenes to bring them to you.

How would you describe your aesthetic and artistic philosophy? 
My aesthetic and philosophy are largely the same: honest and joyful. I began as a photojournalist, and found that my heart was too soft for some of the realities of the job. When I shifted my focus to fashion and advertising, I wanted to keep some reality in there with the fantasy. I like that honesty—I seek it out in the model’s expression and posture, their interaction with the scene around them. I think that fashion should be joyful. Alternative Apparel’s clothing and brand image has always seemed to me to have an ease, and fresh, joyful spirit about it that it very appealing to me. It turns out that that spirit is embodied not only in the clothes, but in the incredible, talented team that works behind the scenes to bring them to you.

How would you describe your aesthetic and artistic philosophy? 
My aesthetic and philosophy are largely the same: honest and joyful. I began as a photojournalist, and found that my heart was too soft for some of the realities of the job. When I shifted my focus to fashion and advertising, I wanted to keep some reality in there with the fantasy. I like that honesty—I seek it out in the model’s expression and posture, their interaction with the scene around them. I think that fashion should be joyful. Alternative Apparel’s clothing and brand image has always seemed to me to have an ease, and fresh, joyful spirit about it that it very appealing to me. It turns out that that spirit is embodied not only in the clothes, but in the incredible, talented team that works behind the scenes to bring them to you.

Mutlu  uses a Canon 5D Mark III, Sea&Sea MDX 5D MK III, Sea&Sea YS-250Pro Strobe, Canon 14mm f/2.8, 24mm f/1.4, 8-15mm fisheye

Behind the scenes of Cosmic Harmony underwater fashion shoot with Hasselblad Master for Up Mag – TAP Airlines inflight Magazine .
Cosmic Harmony

Photography/Fotografia * João Carlos joaocarlosphoto.com
Photography Assistants/Assistentes de Fotografia * Pedro Nóbrega & Gonçalo Madeira
Post-Production/Pós-Produção * Pedro Nóbrega
pedronobrega.com
Model/Modelo * Sofia Baessa (Central Models)
Styling * Tiago Espírito Santo strazzera.pt
Styling Assistant/Assistente de Styling * Mónica Serrão
Maquilhagem/Makeup * Alex Mehttp://alexmemakeup.wix.com/2011
Behind the Scenes/Video * Maria Ritahttp://mariaritaimago.tumblr.com/
Thanks to/Agradecimentos * Casco Antiguowww.cascoantiguo.com
* Luís Rocha dos Reis – Ikelight Casing
* Nuno Fernandes

After his first underwater project shot in swimming pool, an advertising clip for the Swiss fashion brand BELOWZERO (www.belowzero.ch), Director Damien Krisl had the idea for an underwater shoot involving long, wide dresses and dark backgrounds resembling the deep blue see.

A project, as it turned out, that did not come without its difficulties.

First of all, a model had to be found that did not only have the necessary looks (e.g. red hair and pale skin to set herself apart from the dark background) but that could hold her breath long enough to stay below the water surface for some time and of course, swim. With Albe Hamiti of Tune Models (www.tune-models.com), a perfect match to those requirements was found.

Krisl and his team had to find a pool that was not only big enough to fit part of the crew with their divers equipment in, but that was deep enough as well for allowing them to film at multiple angles and allowing the model to have more than enough room for moving around. For filming with the Red One, a fitting underwater case had to be made. That task was fulfilled by Walter and Martin Baebler, who both worked for months on a prototype. They came up with a brilliant design that allowed them to fit almost any size of camera. Control functions as pulling focus, changing the f-stop and of course, start and stop were built in by Oliver Muff, who assured that the crew could both control the digital cinema camera from under and above the water surface.

A lot of security precautions were taken, as the project did not allow even small mistakes in that area: had the 4KW HMI light that lit the scene fallen into the water, it would have electrocuted the model and the crew inside the pool to death. To assist the model with its long dress, two helping divers were hired, which also fulfilled the part of rescue divers in case something went wrong.

Underwater camera operator Joel Cartier, who made his divers degree only weeks before just for the project, had to be in constant connection with Director Krisl. To allow this, an underwater headset was used, an additional item not easy to locate. The shots of the model took nearly 20 hours to complete, with several weeks of pre-production.

What followed after completing production was an immense amount of post-work. As only a few seconds per take could be used (if at all), the team had to wade through the footage to find those few but rewarding perfect moments. Because this was a self-financed project which did have nearly any budget at all, the whole post-production had to be put on hold for several times, as paid projects came in and Krisl and his crew had to make a living.

Over that period, additional footage was shot, including footage of a seahorse and close-ups of the model that had to be shot in studio, not without creating an unforeseeable atmosphere with a mixture of water, flames and fabric. At the end, everything had to be composed together and color graded so each shot would match the other, both time consuming tasks on their own.

Damien Krisl

Damien Krisl, born September 11th 1987 in Basel, Switzerland, is a passionate filmmaker and has been ever since he turned 14. His skills in making fashion and advertising clips are self-taught, resulting in him filming, editing and composing his clips mostly by himself. Damien has a unique way of bringing fashion and film together by combining the two in untypical ways.

In 2008 he founded his own film and photography production company Eclumes Studios along with his business partner Joel Cartier (Photographer). Together they produced ads for brands like ORIS, Police Watches, Tally Weijl, Schwarzkopf Professional, Paris Hilton Watches and Armand de Brignac.

I had the opportunity to work with a talented underwater photographer named; Michael Gleissner with Big Foot productions in a reality series called “Underwater Action” (Season 2) We had extensive workouts as well as preparation to be able to model underwater including being PADI certified. I share with you some behind the scene images and videos, hope you like. Enjoy!

So Iggy Azalea’s new EP is coming out very soon. Today she released the final cover image for the EP on her Facebook page.

She had done a previous underwater shoot for the EP cover, but was entirely unhappy with the results. She saw some photos i took of london Drag queen/ artist Daniel Lismore and requested i shoot her, saying that those photos were what she wanted her previous shoot to be.

 So without much prep we went to the same pool and shot during mid day – she had make up and wardrobe and no plan for exactly what shots she wanted but i just took her through a bunch of basic daytime angles and light and let her outfit and beauty do the rest.  She was a pro at posing underwater, unlike most people i have photographed. It was nice to just dig into shooting and not waste a lot of time teaching a model how to sink.

Kozy (who is my creative partner in our main profession – illustration and fine art/ painting/ drawing) was in the water assisting and had the idea to throw the fabric directly over her face in the shadow along the pool edge.  We feel for that look instantly and shot the heck out of it.  One of these ended up being the front cover of the forthcoming “Glory” EP almost straight out of the camera (i darker the top left corner but that is about it).

Those veiled shots looked like they could have been shot at night, but the full body shots were very obviously daytime shots.  Azalea wanted the full body shot for the back cover to match the front cover so the background had to be dropped to black in post editing (along with some retouching due to the pool they chose being quite dirty).

Overall the shoot went well. Once we got in, Iggy had a lot of ideas and was game to try anything.  She was a real trooper, even on tough shots like looking up at reflection from the under surface of the water. A total professional and the immediate response to the images has been great.

Her music is a far cry from the style of the imagery – she makes pretty hardcore hip hop music, but went with this sort of traditional ethereal glamour look for the artwork.  She wanted to have a juxtaposition to keep the public guessing and i think we succeeded in this.

Most underwater photographers will be familiar with the work of pro underwater photographer Stephen Frink. He has been creating underwater images for over 30 years, and is widely recognized as the most frequently published underwater photographer in the world. He is also the publisher of the highly respected Alert Diver Magazine for DAN.

What many people may not be aware of is that underwater photography is his second water-borne passion, having started out as a competitive swimmer. The 2012 Olympics, and previously the 2008 Games, have rekindled this passion in a different form, as Stephen documents America’s Olympic swimming athletes in training. Wetpixel tracked him down to ask a few questions about his swimming career and his latest project.

Click here for the full article 

Music track: “Remember The Time 2″ by Gareth Johnson
http://us.audionetwork.com/production-music/remember-the-time-

I am not coming from any artistic background, my parents where bakers and my sister is a nurse, so I dont really know  by what gene It all starts .

I knew I wanted  to be a photographer at the age  of 14. I was looking at magazines such as PHOTO and MAX. Then I did a simple photo school, I started few domains such as live performance,  cars and family before to get back to what bring me to photography, fashion then underwater.

My first emotion with water was in Italy, I was 4,  I was in the pool on my godfather’s schoulders, scared and crying. After that and as far as I can remember, I can not find a moment when  I didn’t love water, and it causes me lot of trouble when I got some ears problems and I couldn’t go in water, even though I did and spend one month at the hospital with a serious infection.  When the problem of lot of people is getting water in their noses, my problem is that I can’t keep my head out of water, while all people are swimming on the top its’ like there is some other dimensions down there where I am not worried about trafic.

I started underwater photography 3 years ago knowing nothing about it, I first waste money with a cheap, plastic bag housing what is I think, the stupidest thing one can do if you want to work seriously. I used it once and was so pissed about it that I  gather all my money and went for an expensive hugyfot  who was not the smarter choice either, my tips would be don’t  spend  money for expensive housing if you are just shooting in a pool !! I use it maybe 5 times then I move in NYC where you need to pay for everything so I didnt have any pool to shoot in and once the Summer came back they kicked me out of the country because i didn’t have a proper visa^^. Once  in Belgium I get back very seriously in the game and  I get an ikelite for my 5d and here I am, shooting at least once a month and getting more and more exposure and interest from magazine and art buyers.

The biggest difficulty in my opinion is too find a good pool, I got lot of problems with private pools , not crystal clear enough, micro bubbles due to filtration system, not deep enough etc, and of course all people gonna tell you, yeah you can come at my place i have  great poool, yes it’s very clear but there are clearly not as picky as you should be about it. I work now in a public pool that I rent.

Next is to find good models.  That’s really what make the difference, then  come all the technical side,  as it’s not a popular practice yet  you dont really find the tips you need on internet,  there is plenty of  interesting threads but except if you want to photographs fishs you gonna have to  make your own experiences.

My technics is basic , I use my studio strobe out of water that I trigger with a Wireless system. I also have the huge chance to have a friend who is in the hydrolic business and help me a lotfor the heayier production  and diving equipment.

5D MK2
CANON 25-105 2.8 IS
Ikelite housing
Hensel studio strobes 500

http://www.dirtyharryphoto.com/