Delaney was a gorgeous model and so much fun to work with. I have a thing for all-girl crews, so my collaboration with her and photographer Shelby Ursu of New Orleans was a blast. I am convinced, southern girls are the coolest.
I picked up Shelby in the French Quarter in my rental car. This was the unintentionally dumbest thing I may have ever done. I had never been to New Orleans before, and the two-way streets are the width of my thighs. My navigation robot, Nigel, has a British accent and all the streets have French names. Also, it was 6pm on a Friday night in the French Quarter, which- fun fact- has almost no stoplights or stop signs at their intersections. The one that DID have a stoplight, took a photo of me while I ran a red light trying to beat it. Being midwestern, I'm a polite driver and wanted to let all the stumbling drunk tourists cross without getting blood on my loaner Toyota. A guy on a moped pulled up next to me, signaled for me to roll down my window and said, "You've gotta be more aggressive or you'll be here forever! Follow me!" He whizzed through a huge crowd of people holding cheesy plastic drinks that looked like test tubes (apparently this is called a Hand Grenade) I followed him and sure enough, the sea of morons parted. If I ever go back to New Orleans I want it to be at 10am on a Tuesday or something.
I spent the night at Shelby's after meeting her for the first time. Delaney showed up, I did her makeup, and both of the ladies were cool with me being touristy and picking up beignets and a vegan po' boy sandwich before we headed to where she wanted to shoot (by the way, the food there is the best ever).
Shelby's concept was inspired by Michelle Pfeiffer in "Scarface." I wasn't quite sure how that was going to translate- I thought of New Orleans as such a French-influenced, dark-colored place like the French Quarter. She had every location pre-determined and was meticulous with details- private homes that inspired her would be our backdrop, along with a health food store on St Claude that had a huge, colorful mural. Indeed, this part of New Orleans looks just like Miami or Cuba: old stucco houses with vibrant paint, nestled between palm trees and propped up on stilts to safeguard from hurricanes. Creating makeup concepts to compliment her vision was copacetic and exciting. Bright, flashy makeup is something a lot of makeup artists don't often get opportunity to do.
Shelby works for a boutique called Trashy Diva which supplied all the wardrobe for this shoot. Our first location was outside a defunct law office that was painted mint green and chartreuse.
Just for fun and to fully celebrate the late 70's/80's vibes of the shoot, we put Delaney in a pair of roller-skates in the middle of a greenway during rush hour traffic. The guys driving by in their cars made it very clear that she was making their day.
A few blocks away, those dreamy private houses were the perfect backdrop for the striped shirt and ultra-disco mini skirt look that Shelby styled.
Right before we shot outside the health food store, I browsed around inside for something that would be cute, local and old school. The store sold something called Swamp Pop, a soda made right in New Orleans. It was the perfect prop!
I went directly from this shoot to another one that was dark and spooky (you can read more in my previous post, "Xena Zeitgeist and The Legends of New Orleans"). Both showed two different sides of New Orleans and gave me such a well-rounded experience as a first-time visitor. I made great friends with the women I worked with. I love when plans turn out even better than expected.
