Taradise: A Concrete Jungle

Kenneth Shinabery

During the spring of 2012, I had the opportunity to work on a collaboration with Lori Gassie, a costume designer. The project would be a confederation that would showcase our talents.

We met to discuss what goals we wanted to achieve. Lori’s main task was to create three unique costumes, that would be featured in the photo shoot. Having decided on a model Tara Bizub to be our muse, we had one week to prepare for the shoot.

While Lori was designing the costumes, I had that task of combining my creative skills and production skills. My first assignment was to do a location scout. I wanted to find locations that could emulate a stage, because Tara is trained dancer and performer. These stages would allow Tara to bring the costumes to life.

I did a test shoot of locations in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Dumbo has several amazing locations that were relatively close to each other and would enable us to create interesting backdrops and performance spaces for Tara.

On the day of the shoot we all met up early in Brooklyn. Like always, I brought some extra props and items that could be used. As luck would have it I had a pair of floral earrings from a previous shoot which were not used. When I showed them to my collaborators, they loved them and we decided to use them with this particular costume.

The following photographs are of the third costume that I photographed Tara in. The wardrobe was based on a tropical theme. Because New York City consists of course materials such as marble slabs, steel garters, glass and concrete; I decided to entitle this series “Taradise: A Concrete Jungle.”

The entire project was then edited after my move to Europe. With over 500 photographs taken of each individual costume the task of editing would not be easy. After narrowing down the number of images to about 60 per costume, I began tweaking each picture individually paying close attention to detail. Then I made a final selection of the images I would display.

I decided to release the project separately by costume over a period of time. Thus, keeping the project fresh to our viewers.

Because I spent 13 years living in New York City. The duty of creating an interesting visual series was very important to me.

And now may I present to you for your viewing pleasure…
Taradise: A Concrete Jungle

• NOTE: To view the entire series go to http://www.behance.net/kennshinabery