Bet you didn't know this, but I have been on television, more than once. Once, in a gig I won't easily forget, was for this trailblazing television revolution, 'Strut'. The brainchild of Whoopi Goldberg and my mate, Cecilio Asuncion, who also donned the mantle of the host.
Oh sure, reality shows around modeling and fashion - seen it, done it, bought the t-shirt. But here's the kicker with 'Strut', it brought to the fore models of a different breed, models who were all transgender, fighting societal stereotypes, and redefining beauty on their own terms.
Under Goldberg's wings, the show opened up the lives of these brave souls, letting us into their personal lives, their battles on the fashion front lines, their heart-to-heart chats with families.
You had Laith, one of the pioneers of the transgender male models, Dominique, a seasoned pro with two decades under her belt, Isis, a fashion designer turned model, Ren, a newcomer eager to reconnect with her estranged father through the power of her work, and Arisce, a model unafraid to strut her stuff at fashion week in NY, LA, and Miami.
My gig? Oh, just the small task of picking and capturing Spiegel Catalog's first transgender model for posterity. Quite the roller coaster, that.
This particular saga I'm sharing with you, however, didn't make it to the Strut airwaves. It was lined up for season 2, but a certain pandemic had other plans. I couldn't partake in that dance.
Yet, fortune bestowed upon me the honor of capturing the radiance of Jane Noury, an emerging sensation in the transgender modeling world, under Cecilio's Slay Model Management. This lass truly set the camera on fire.
Our set? My humble abode in Tribeca, awash with the ethereal glow of Elinchrom's ELC lighting system, and adorned with their exquisite Rotolux Octo light modifier. All brought to life with the precision of my trusty Nikon Z7, equipped with an 85mm 1.4g lens, 105mm macro lens, and a prism to birth the unique shattered glass effect against a white seamless.
In the wings, waiting to weave her digital magic, was Alex Growd. Her retouching prowess put the finishing brush strokes on this symphony, each pixel a testament to her mad talent.
