Oct 10, 20192 min read

PROM pt 1

This is the moment you've all been waiting for. And by all I mean some. This photoshoot was a long time in the making, and I had so much fun working with everyone who was gracious enough to help out. Everyone really got on board with my vision and brought their own creativity to the project which made it a really organic and fun process from start to finish.

The genesis of the idea came from the 1976 horror film Carrie. I'm obsessed with the art of the cinematography as well as the narrative, especially the prom scene which violently shifts once a bucket of blood rains down on Carrie White's prom queen crown. While planning the shoot, I focused on the key elements I wanted to incorporate into the photos; I was inspired by the idea of creating my own sort of breakfast club to play with and break down stereotypes. I specifically included different personality types in order to foster a dynamic atmosphere on set where people were forced to get outside of themselves to have fun with new people. I also wanted people to have fun with getting to dress up and play pretend for a night, the value of which I learned from my years of musical theatre and now find myself replicating whenever I can.

For the wardrobe, I shopped Goodwill, my favorite source for tacky, vintage prom wear. Not everything featured in the shoot is mine, but I coordinated everyone's accessories, hair, and makeup to align with my vision for the project.

For the set, I went to an abandoned building filled with old furniture to set up three vignettes for posing. We didn't end up using the third mini-set due to time restraints, but the other scenes, which I referred to as the living room and the throne room sets, worked perfectly. One major drawback to shooting in an abandoned building at night was the lack of electricity to plug in any lighting, but flash combined with a few iPhone flashlights can work wonders if your photographers know what they're doing, and mine definitely did. I was so fortunate to get to work with some extremely talented people, including photographers Lainey Kinneer and Stefanie Murza. Not only am I lucky to consider Stef and Lainey my friends, I can also trust them to deliver beautiful photographs. Because I want to give credit to each of these creative people, I decided to split the photos into two posts, one of Lainey's pictures and one of Stef's. The photos featured in this post were shot and edited by the lovely Lainey Kinneer, and one thing I want to point out is how freaking cool the fisheye lens shots turned out. Enjoy and make sure to check out PROM pt 2!