when i grow up...

...i wannabe a supermodel.

Or in my case, I find I don't know anymore. I want to try it all! Is it a case of career envy? Or is it simply that as a creative, you feel that urge to stick your hands into as many creative pies as possible?

I've always struggled to justify my love for fashion against its terribly vapid reputation and as a result, it is probably one of the key reasons I never pursued it as a viable career choice. I do however, remember trying and occasionally succeeding at making clothes for my barbie dolls when I was little. As I grew up I never did learn to construct life-size garments because I was more the dreamer and preferred to sketch my fanciful designs on bits of crisp white paper i snuck from the printing stash. It is probably a result of all that drawing and dreaming that I wound up in the field I am currently in but more on that later.

Having slavishly read Australian Vogue since I was a teen, I would marvel at the editorials. Back then, I saw them as a tag team effort consisting of merely the model and the garments. Eventually, I came to realise that there were many other players at work to create a successful editorial. The stylist, the creative director, the make up artist, the photographer, the set builders, the photoshop artist and many others.

The above image is one from a teeny tiny collection of photographs from my first attempt at trying to perform all the roles behind the camera. It was certainly an incredible amount of fun and my inner dictator relished the thought of having complete control, something which very obviously doesn't happen in the real world (unless you are perhaps, Karl Lagerfield). Ruth, a friend and my model of choice, possesses a quiet grace and innocence which was perfect for this set of photographs. She was also the most obliging and natural model- putting up with some of my ridiculous demands- even including climbing a tree in heels!

Having 'almost finished' these images for the best part of a year, I finally enlisted the help of our photoshop guru at work to identify those final minor tweaks that had me completely stumped. Sometimes you just requires a fresh pair of eyes to see the things you've missed.