We’ve seen a lot of great photographers come out of Portland as of late, and Jessica Weiser is no exception. She’s been in love with photography since she was nine years old, and studied photojournalism at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. “- I studied Photojournalism in college but I always had a love of portraiture,” she tells us, and explains “I took a few years off from photography and found my way back and started shooting portraits of anyone I could for practice. Eventually I wanted to combine a lot of my interests (fashion, art, portraiture) into fashion photography.“
“I love the idea of telling stories in that way and creating something that has never been done before.”
Her first story for Ben Trovato, Out Of The Shadows, is a sensual story shot in NYC featuring model Elen from MC2. “I really wanted to shoot something beautiful and evocative that played with light and shadow. I liked the idea of the story starting with her being sort of hidden in the shadows and emerging out into the light.”
Usually when planning shoots Jessica likes to have mood boards with inspiration in order to set the direction, but for this shoot she wanted to try something different: “- I really wanted to keep it really simple and let the model do her own thing as opposed to giving her too much direction or pose inspiration. And Elen is an incredible model and I love working with her. She moves so naturally and her skin looked so beautiful in that light.”
As the story shows a lot of skin, we took our opportunity to ask for Jessica’s opinion on artful nude, -a frequently discussed topic in the business. “I’ve always been a big fan of artful nude shots. When I first started out I was shooting a lot of that because I didn’t have access to stylists and clothes, so it was easy, but I also think it’s beautiful. I think taste is subjective so what some people might consider too shocking or provocative another person might consider art.”
Credits
Photography by Jessica Weiser
Makeup & Hair by Cari Duprey
Model - Elen at MC2
