27 Club
We love a photography spread that is so much more than a montage of pretty pictures. And if you love a good story, well look no further than our stunning tribute to some of the stars of the music industry, 27 Club, as featured in culture’s Feb/March edition. An ode to rock legends of the past and present, the talented musicians featured in this spread all had one tragic element in common – they died at the tender age of 27. Culture caught up with some of the creative team members who worked on this shoot to find out the journey they underwent to take such a cool story from concept to completion.
"With the recent passing of Amy Winehouse, it got me thinking about the influence she had on so many people of this generation with her music and her style,” says Silver Bullet creative director Ben Luker. “But it wasn't just Amy that left a dent on pop culture. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin also died at 27. They all had an individual style that set trends across the globe; they will always be icons to so many people.”
Ben says that he wanted to photograph all of these characters – as women. “I didn't want it to look like a carbon copy,” he adds. “It needed to be stylistic; it needed to be beautiful and not look like a dress-up shoot.”
When it came to casting the right models for the story, Ben says that he thought of each character in depth and tried to match up face shapes, length of hair and skin tones as close as possible to each hero so that the characters could be easily identifiable. It was also important that each of the models really played the part of their alter egos – an expectation they embraced with open arms!
“Bobby, our hair and makeup artist, really understood the concept and brought each character to life,” Ben continues. “And Elizabeth our stylist pulled some amazing pieces from labels such as Prada, YSL and Isabel Marant as well as vintage garments, which really helped to achieve my vision.”
Stylist Elizabeth Clarke really did her research for this story, examining each character in depth and compiling storyboards that painted a clear picture of who each of these people were and the key elements of their style. “From here, I hunted and gathered, looking for clothing and accessories that fit each of their personalities,” Elizabeth explains. “The main challenge in this job was for each model to look like their character and be easily identified as that person, yet not appear too 'costumed'. To achieve this, the hair and make up played a major role whilst the styling was a mash of that person and modern fashion.”
Makeup artist Bobby Bujisic agrees with Elizabeth in that the story required creative team members to inject an element of their own spin.
"For Kurt Cobain, I decided to put in some regrowth and flatten the hair, using dark eyeliner to create that Seattle grunge feel,” Bobby explains. “When it came to Jimi Hendrix, getting the Afro right was essential, so using the model’s own hair I made u-pins from foil, took sections and braided the hair tightly, then let it sit for an hour. I let the hair out and backcombed it to create the Afro, which was quite an intense job! I also changed the skin tone from Caucasian to Afro American using dark skin tone makeup and to finish off, I airbrushed masculine contours.
“For Amy Winehouse, I say the bigger the hair, the better! I used extensions and hair padding to create her signature beehive; her tattoos were created by stencil and freehand using a Sharpies marker.
“I worked with the model’s own hair for Jim Morrison, strategically pinning the hair to create the natural wavy curls that Jim was famous for – apart from his music – and kept a natural skin tone with contouring where needed. And for Janis Joplin, it was all about the hair using extensions to create that unkempt length. My favourite characters were Amy and Jimi, because of the technical detail involved to get it just right.”
Words by Jenny Burns
Images from culture Issue Vol 14 No. 2
See the full gallery collection here
Watch behind the scenes footage here