Interview with Sirota

This interview taken from 2000 is about Sirotas 'Guess Who?' book,  what this revealed to me is that Sirota came up for the idea whilst she was well into shooting it, she often asked her sitters to mess around, do silly things to loosen them up, so by the time she came up for the book she already had 50 images ready for it. This is one of my favourite quotes from the interview it tooks about when she photographs celebrities, but I feel it could refer to shooting anyway and is another thing I will keep in mind when shooting my own images 'Being comfortable enough with each other, striking a chord, being comfortable enough to be stupid and funny together and not be judgmental. And that’s been the most wonderful experience — making people laugh.'
http://www.salon.com/2000/11/17/sirota_22/

Other works

As well as shooting celebrities Peggy Sirota shoots fashion, beauty, advertisment and lifestlye photography.

Fashion-

I feel that her studio work is quite typical of a shoot that you would see in a fashion editorial, its main aim to show off the clothes, whereas her on location work has more of the typical Peggy Sirota 'elegant snapshot' feel. I think the main feeling I get from her fashion work is that it has been directed by a client than her work with celebrities.


Lifestyle-

 

Her lifestlye shots are quite playful, they often have a happy feel to them although I sometimes feel as though it is hard to tell how forced the happines in the images is.

 

Advertisements-

 

Peggy Sirota has also created various advertising campaigns for large companies. These are usually quite fun, and often she captures the models in action laughing, talking, walking etc. I particularly like the works she does for GAP.

 

Peggy Sirota- Shia LaBeouf

In this image of Shia LaBeouf I like the difference between the background and the messy food against the smart white suit he is wearing, the image looks more constructed than any previous ones I've looked at due to his serious expression and the way he holds the food as if he has simply been told to pick it up, but I still feel the different elements in the image make it interesting.

Photographers working in a similar way.

To aid this project I also wanted to look at some photographers who worked in a similar way.

Alexi Lubormirski-
http://www.alexilubomirski.com/photography.html

Lubormirski shoots lots of celebrities for editorial publications, I feel he chooses settings well often creating interesting juxtapositions between the backgrounds of foregrounds in his images, as well as this similar to Sirota he captures real emotions.

Perou-
http://www.perou.co.uk/
Perou often uses props, backgrounds to tell a story about the subject matters, I feel the images feel a little more constructed than Sirotas, but often the concepts behind images appear to be similar.

 



 

 

Guess Who

http://www.guesswhobook.com/

Another project Sirota has worked on is the Guess Who book for an AIDS charity where she asked celebrities, athletes and musicians to disguise themeselves. The book is 'a tongue-in-cheek homage to the celebrity phenomenon that seems to be present everywhere', it is quite humourous and engages viewers.



Review of the book from the guardian-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/aug/25/art

Peggy Sirota- Twilight Cast

This image was produced for Vanity Fair and comes from the video I watched earlier. I feel that Sirota may have told the group where to stand but then allowed them to do as they please, it looks like a family snapshot rather than a posed image and I like the fun element of it.

Peggy Sirota- Jenifer Aniston

Sirota quite regularly shoots actress Jenifer Aniston, often in quite simple settings, such as in this one of her sitting on a bed, by only having shorts on there is nothing distracting, and I feel the smile Sirota has captured feels like quite a real one, this fits the earlier description of 'elegant snapshots'

Magazine Work

Peggy Sirota does a lot of magazine work for GQ, Vogue and Vanity Fair.

http://www.vanityfair.com/search?query=peggy+sirota&sort=score+desc
Through Vanity Fair some of the shoots she has done have been recorded, watching these gave me an insight into the ways she works.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSbMgqRs8IA
She has assistants as well as make-up and hairstylists, she allows the subject matters to have fun on shoots, playing music and not directing them to much allow her to create real emotions rather than fake created ones.

Pretty Bird US

Peggy Sirota is also part of a collective called Pretty Bird 'a creative think tank that provides clients with distinct visionary work across the ever-evolving entertainment landscape.'

http://www.prettybirdus.com/creatives/peggy-sirota/reel/

Biography-

After moving from her native Massachusetts in the 80′s, PRETTYBIRD director Peggy Sirota found herself working at Fred Segal’s in Hollywood where she taught herself how to use a camera. She was soon taking headshots for her actor/model co-workers and a career as a photographer was born.

Twenty years later, Sirota is now known for her heartfelt, evocative, slice-of-life imagery and her “Elegant Snapshots.” Her candid and emotional images reveal much about her subjects as she captures authentic whimsy, playfulness, joy and introspection.
Sirota has photographed some of the most famous personalities in the world including Steven Spielberg, Madonna, Yoko Ono, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, His Holiness The 14^th Dalai Lama, Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Tina Turner, Cameron Diaz, President George W. Bush, Nicole Kidman, Tom Ford, 50 Cent, Jodie Foster, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, Jessica Simpson, Fergie, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Al Green. Athletes including Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Michelle Quan, John McEnroe, Nolan Ryan, Sugar Ray Leonard, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Andre Agassi, Kobe Bryant, John Elway, Laird Hamilton and Dwayne Wade. Her portraits have graced the covers and pages of GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Interview, French Vogue, Italian Vogue, Vogue Bambini and many others.
Sirota has created advertising campaigns for Burberry, Zegna, Nautica, Barney’s, Oscar De La Renta, Banana Republic, Pac Sun, Nike, Lucky Brand Jeans, LEI, Adidas, Keds, Levis, Roxi and Neiman Marcus. Beauty and fragrance campaigns have included Clinique, Guerlain, Dove, Lacôme, Maybelline, Revlon, Clairol, Stetson, L’Oreal, Clairins and Oil of Olay. Other advertising clients include Patek Phillippe, American Express, Kraft, AT&T, Sony Pictures, Apple, Disney, Match.com, T-Mobile, Warner Brothers, Microsoft, Tag Heuer, Club Med, Four Seasons Hotels and HBO. Automotive clients include Acura, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Toyota, Buick, Infinity and Chevrolet. Sirota’s 1998 Volvo campaign garnered much attention being the first to infuse lifestyle imagery into automotive advertising.
In 2000, Sirota’s first book GUESS WHO? was published by Steidl. An interactive book of celebrity-in-disguise portraits, GUESS WHO? challenges its reader to decipher, identity and search for subtext. The Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles staged an exhibition of images from GUESS WHO? soon after its publication. All of the profits from GUESS WHO? and its exhibition were donated to AIDS Project Los Angeles.
Since beginning her directing career in commercials, Sirota has has gone onto work with such clinets as: American Airlines, AT&T, Chrysler, Stetson, Coke, Coppertone, Dial, GM, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Match.com, MasterCard, Mercedes, NASCAR, Pantene, Sony, Toyota, Volvo, Youth Smoking Prevention and the widely celebrated “Happy” spots for Clinique. Most recently she’s completed campaigns for Banana Republic, Target, JC Penney, Chicos, Garnier, L’Oréal, and Famous Footwear.
Throughout Sirota’s sprawling career her work has been recognized with several awards including: multiple Communication Arts Awards for Excellence in both advertising and photography; Columbia University’s prestigious Alfred Eisenstaedt Award; American Photography Awards; Print Regional Design Annual Awards; and multiple Art Directors Club Awards; Sirota’s also been the recipient of Creativity’s Editorial Magazine Cover award and has been named one of the “Top Female Fashion Photographers” by British Vogue.

A photo editor review

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2007/10/25/peggy-sirota/

This webiste feautures this review of Sirota-

'The amazing thing about working with Peggy Sirota is the amount of effort and the level of detail that goes into the preparation for a shoot. As soon as she signs on, the phone springs to life with calls about styling, grooming, props, locations and then Peggy calls to discuss ideas, then she calls the subject to discuss ideas, then she calls you back to talk it over again, then you talk to the agent, then the producer calls, then the office manager calls… it’s awesome.
I don’t think many people realize how much effort goes into consistently creating images that look like you just walked by and quickly snapped one (she calls them “elegant snapshots”).'

I like how they describe her work as 'elegant snapshots'. This is something I will aim to create when shooting my own images.

Ken Jeong Photo-bombing

http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/08/ken-jeong-photo-bombs-peggy-sirota-in-gq/



This review on a photoblogging website Sirotas image for GQ looks at the humour of 'photo-bombing' as Ken Jeong stands in the background of a fashion shoot, it adds a funny element to the otherwise quite typical fashion shot. I also found this one from the same series on her website-

Peggy Sirota

http://www.peggysirota.com/

For my practical project I have chosen to look at the work of Peggy Sirota,she shoots celebrities, fashion, beauty, adverts and more.