the colorful traveling dress

7 women, 4 countries, 1 colorful dress. This is my story with the Colorful dress for the Traveling Dress Collective.

I was so excited to be a part of this concept and creative project. If you are unfamiliar with the Traveling Dress Collective, each photographer in the group gets one week to photograph with the dress then the dress gets shipped to the next person. Only after all members have had a turn with the dress and finished editing can we share our final images. It is an exciting project, knowing you can be free to create what inspires you and knowing that each member will approach it differently. The reveal is always the best part! This dress wasn’t my first choice, however as my time with the dress approached I spent more and more time looking at it (an image of it) and I knew it would be lovely - and it was!

My original concept was to take the dress into our nearby forest and use myself as the model. Being no stranger to self portraiture, I tend to convey and express more when I photograph myself than I do with other subjects. I had a vision of the dress flowing, me running through the forest, the greens and slightly turning leaves (Moscow autumn comes early). However, the weather did not cooperate. Rain and cold conditions put a squash on this initial thinking. And, because I live on the other side of the planet - the dress took longer to get to me so my time with it was shortened a bit so I didn’t hold up the process.

And so I turned to my other muse, Ava, my daughter and decided to use the grand Moscow Metro’s as my backdrop. The softness and flowing nature of the dress juxtaposed with the hard lines and busyness of the metro… I shifted gears and began conceptualizing. I had hoped the Metro was busier the day we chose, but it wasn’t. I love long exposure and layering and wanted the hustle and bustle surrounding the dress.

I also asked a new friend, Yuliya Politova, to model the dress on the banks of the Moscow River. We got lucky that evening. The sunset was beautiful and it seemed to mirror the beauty of the dress. Although cold, the images produced a warm and inviting feeling - a feeling of freedom and grace. I wanted to incorporate an industrial yet fanciful feeling to this session with the dress.

I’ve organized my images with the Moscow River first and then the Metro. The boldness of outdoors ending with the subdued indoor Metro scenes I hope gives you a sense of Moscow - even if small. It’s a vibrant city, very much like the dress. It can be worn in many ways… quiet and reserved as well as open and free flowing. To see this collection, all images from all artists they are so creative and interesting. I am so lucky to have been creating along side artists I have admired: Jyotsna Bhamidipati (our leader who brought it all together and kept the train running!), Bree Friesen, Michelle Pellachini, Diana Hagues, Leslie Schoen and Christina McLauchlin.