Our September cover with Coleen Garcia has no doubt dazzled the internet. (It's our most liked 2020 cover on Facebook so far!) The reception was overwhelming and humbling, and it’s all thanks to the creative team behind it helmed by photographer BJ Pascual, hair stylist Renz Pangilinan, makeup artist Robbie Pinera, stylist Adrianne Concepcion, and production designer Aren Dale Santos who were able to pull off such an otherworldly shoot in the midst of a pandemic.
“Maternity photoshoots are always very special to me, especially FIRST pregnancies, since it's a very special moment their lives. Coleen's was particularly memorable given that we shot during a pandemic,” BJ tells Preview. “Since she didnt want to leave the house, we brought the studio to her house (of course taking rapid tests and keeping our masks on the whole time) everyone was so chill it didn’t feel like work at all... It was just like us playing around having fun, no pressure.”
In BJ’s latest vlog entry, the fashion photographer documents how the cover shoot unfolded at Coleen’s home on August 1—from conceptualization to the actual shoot (with Billy and Coleen's furbabies participating and all!)
“Renz initially came up with the idea of 'Venus' because he wanted to do extra long wavy hair on Coleen. The first image that came to mind of course was ‘The Birth of Venus’ by Botticelli. But I didn’t want it to be just a straight up homage to Botticelli—if you watch my other vlogs you'll see I usually combine different references to create something hopefully fresh—So I decided to mix it with Rococo references, specifically two paintings by Fragonard, which were ‘The Swing’ and ‘The Meeting’ with the heavy foliage in the background and pastel colored outfits, but I didn’t want the outfits to look too extravagant or costume-y.”
“In my mind, I wanted her just wrapped in sheer fabric, and it just so happened that I found other renditions of 'Venus' by other artists like Eduard Steinbrück and Robert Fowler, which had sheer fabric floating around Venus so that became the styling references that Adrianne so expertly executed.”
Watch the full video on BJ’s YouTube channel here:
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