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From
a bathing suit editorial for British fashion magazine COMPANY, shot
on a remote beach in the west African coastal nation of The Gambia.
The conditions were primitive in this small coastal African nation.
We
would drive south on the main highway, which was a two lane dirt
road, each day to get to the location that we eventually found after
much scouting. The beach that we chose was interesting because
of the large volcanic boulders there. They would provide a
powerful visual contrast to the tanned bodies of the swimsuit models.
Amazingly these boulders only existed within a very small area of
beach at a very remote point along the coastline, and almost completely
hidden from the highway. We found a dirt trail that
our driver Wally, (we had a station wagon each day for our location
vehicle) would carefully take about a mile in till we got to a cliff.
We would park there and we could carefully make our way down the
cliff. The cliff had very uneven steps cut into it, and was
extremely steep, more like a ladder than steps. Once we were
down on the beach it was great. No tourists there! No locals
there, it was remote.
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The
light was always sunny but hazy. It was explained to me that
the winds of the Sahara, blow so much sand into the air that much
of it mixes with moisture in the atmosphere creating the haze, it
even gives an amber cast to the light, which is quite flattering.
Alexandra
Brochen (above), and I worked together quite a bit over the years.
She was one of two models on this trip. Alexandra is half
French and half English. She has also been a Victoria's Secret
model. People seem to be crazy these days about pics of Victoria
Secret models. I've always preferred their look to that of
the extremely thin, more androgynous edgy fashion type. I've
had the opportunity to photograph several of those girls, including
also Fernanda Tavares and Gisele Bundchen, both before they became
well known.
About
the photographer . .
Steve Landis shoots fashion and beauty imagery on location across
town or around the world. New York based, Steve Landis
specializes in creating simple but powerful images.
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