New York–based photographer Steven Sebring has become well-known in fashion circles for his 360-degree photography. Sebring leads the Lower East Side studio, DSR Media Lab, a creative space where he installed a 360-degree camera rig (and other advanced machines such as a cylindrical photo booth).
This revolutionary geodesic dome-like metallic structure allows indeed to take pictures and shoot videos, plus 3D holographic materials, from every angle, thanks to the 120 cameras arranged along its perimeter. Photographers using the dome emerge from it with a variety of options, they can use stills, a series of photographs that can be combined together for a three-dimensional model, or that can be collaged into films and VR experiences (the technique is definitely best appreciated when it is employed to create films). The final effect is futuristic and calls to mind some of the scenes in The Matrix, even though Sebring created the technology moving from the studies of animals in motion by 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge.
The results are quite intriguing as the images shot with this technique can be considered as experiments between technology and art: the best pictures are produced when the subject portrayed moves or jumps as the image can be frozen in mid-air, something that creates a very poetic effect.
While the applications for the rig are multiple, the fashion industry may benefit the most from Sebring's idea. Most fashion images allow indeed to explore only one side of a design, but in this way a photographer can get a full image, something that could work wonders in the case of Haute Couture designs since it would allow to appreciate such creations in a more detailed and precise way.
Sebring's studio has for example been used for a project by Alexander Wang and for images of skateboarder Rodney Mullen doing flips in mid-air. Yet the same technique produces fascinating results when used to take images of dancers or athletes, so Sebring's rig can be employed for a variety of applications in different fields (think sport, science, medicine, biology, e-commerce, or even museum archives). Besides, the images elaborated by the dome can even be sent to a 3-D printer to make sculptures.
An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx were the latest designers who turned to Sebring's studio to make sure the lookbook images for their A/W 19 collection became more alive, with models framed from all angles, their hair covering their faces, their clothes flying around them.
A.F.VANDEVORST AUTUMN WINTER 2019 from A.F.VANDEVORST on Vimeo.
A video combining 360-degree footage captured by director Cass Bird (who also did the project for Alexander Wang) was presented in Paris to launch A.F. Vandevorst's latest collection. The camera added a sort of sense of movement to the clothes showing models dynamically jumping and then statically being frozen in mid-air.
There was actually a contrast, almost a dichotomy, in this collection that mainly featured wearable wardrobe staples: while technology was the vehicle to present and now promote it on the web, the main inspiration was an American girl freely running the countryside but wearing her parents' clothes.
Hence the zippers integrated in the sleeves of her suit coat and the buttons in her shirt sleeves (for that extra movement), plus high-waisted pleated floral skirts, sporty wide-leg loose pants with piping running up the leg and oversized blazers. The palette mainly focused on dark colours, but included occasional splashes of vivid red, yellow and violet.
The collection also features a series of accessories, such as hybrid ankle boots in zebra stripes and lizard skin with a chunky heel, sneakers and handbags (in a way the accessory section of the collection would have needed another 360° film...).
When it comes to fashion the best thing about this technique remains the fact that it shows all angles and allows to see how clothes really move on the body, while also freezing the frame so that viewers can appreciate clothes a bit better, slowing down the accelerated rhythms of modern fashion. While Sebring's system is high-tech, it is actually based on classic photographs, and this means we can live in our digital and fast times, while still taking it slow as if we were looking at a Polaroid.
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