A Cross-Section of Victorian Heiresses: The Traverse City Shoot

Readers keep asking me to shed a little light on what goes into a photo-editorial such as this- so I thought I would give a bit of a look into our team...

Photography- Ricky Cohete was the major push behind this editorial. He is on a mission to do a major shoot in each city he visits- and this was a great chance for me to collaborate with friends in my summer-home. Together we created an inspiration board, and began sourcing vintage several weeks before the shoot. Ricky had worked with Margeaux Ramond before and wanted to feature her again. Margeaux mentioned that her friend Sarah Stafford would be a perfect "twin".

Hair and Make-up-
Logan Dillon was responsible for the hair and make-up in this shoot. He was a total champ and stayed with us on set all day- fixing the hair I kept messing up while styling or adding crazy hats.

Clothing and props- besides sourcing vintage, Cali's boutique in Traverse City was generous enough to loan us some of the most interesting garments in this shoot. My responsibility was to style the models- this meant contacting designers and boutiques, collecting vintage, dressing the models, returning clothes, and making sure that everything looked perfect in every shot- regardless of how well it fit. For this shoot I also got to style the location- which was a blast since the visual concept was a kind of floral/victorian/kitch... I had so much fun moving pieces around and creating vignettes.

Isabel Schuler- who in her own right is a brilliant model- agreed to be my assistant for the day. She was the biggest help, and as always, was a blast. I wish I could have her on every shoot.

Location- My friend Nancy Duff Billingsly was kind enough to loan us her beautiful home. Even though she was out of town she entrusted us with all of her lovely antiques and her friendly dog. For these things we are extremely grateful. We re-arranged the entire house multiple times, so I do hope that is resembled something of its former state when she returned from California.

For this shoot we wanted to create two characters- twins, perhaps a bit bored, languishing in a floral, victorian house. The whole concept was a bit "Grey Gardens" mixed with "Howards End". The results were just as we imagined and we could not have asked for a better team to create with.

Dexter Magazine will be publishing the entire editorial in a few months, but I couldn't help  give this glimpse into what we have been working on. Follow along with Dexter's features here.

Jonathan Randall Grant

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Culture Keeper