In a fantastic warehouse studio in the middle of Fitzroy 16 diverse photographers met to learn how to make a dress out of milk.
Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz (originally from Poland, now living in London) is the name behind Aurum Light along with his wife. Jarek has an energy and creative edge that makes him stand out from other photographers in the field. An architect by trade Jarek does his projects in his spare time and uses the workshops to traverse the globe sharing his passion and knowledge.
The two day workshop was held at Young Street Studios warehouse at 202 Young St Fitzroy - what a fantastic location for this shoot!! After a presentation on how he works, we get straight into the shoot. One of the models hired for the day was from Barcelona, so Jarek has used this to theme his concept. With the milk he will design a spanish dancers dress. Once the lighting has been set, focus and pose, the model stands wearing only a g-string, Jarek scoops the milk with a conventional kitchen mug and proceeds to throw fresh cold milk on the model. The models face reveals how cold the milk is and tries to maintain the agreed pose.
Jarek has one of us manning the camera, taking the pictures and without even looking at the tethered computer screen, knows whether the image taken was too early or too late. After 25 or so throws Jarek checks the coverage and the look of the captured splashes, making sure the aspect of the body are covered and he has enough shapes to complete the dress. Jarek uses conventional utensils from the kitchen to shape the splashes, everything from a mug, bottle and hose to a wok and a cutout part of a bowl.
Throwing the milk only take 10mins as the model gets too cold to stand it for any longer than 15mins. So then its our turn. We partner up with one other photographer and with 2 models we each take turns to throw the milk and take the photo. By the end of our session we realise, its not as easy as it looks. Theres a special technique and timing, that with practice will achieve brilliant results.
The second day we all setup our laptops and graphic tablets and proceeded to learn the techniques to design our milk dresses. It was a great experience, to learn new techniques and ideas. Jarek was great and very sharing of his ideas and techniques. Well worth it and I really love his work. Feel free to share, ask me questions and comment below.
AurumLight FaceBook Page (Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz)
