Russia Fashion Week.

Got assigned my fourth Fashion Week this year so far. Stockholm, London, Istanbul and now Moscow, yet another country I've never visited.  Again, there was a team of us on this to shoot house for the main sponsors Mercedes-Benz.

It's always ace to work as part of a team on a big job such as this. Having a couple of field editors to select, edit and transmit hundreds of shots a day out on the wire is something I'll certainly never take for granted. 

My field editor Brigit and I had a few nervous hours waiting for the Russian Embassy to dispatch our passports and attached visas back to us. Luckily they arrived just in time. A few hours later we found ourselves on the red-eye flight out of LGW to Moscow after squeezing in a couple of hours shut-eye in the neon subterranean claustrophobia of the Japanese Pod style "Yotel" Hotel.

Upon arrival in Moscow it was rather pleasant to be greeted by both beautiful sunshine and a driver with a new Mercedes to whisk us through to our Hotel with zero logistics. Just what you need after a red eye flight. 

Fellow Photographer Pascal arrived with his brand new field editor Fanny from our Paris office later that evening. We had a bite to eat and discussed the brief over a bottle of wine.

As we were shooting for Mercedes-Benz we had to cover every look in 37 shows including atmosphere, backstage and exhibitions. It really was quite a big job. Pascal and I opted to rotate every couple of shows. One of us would do an alternate set of shots of backstage and the show whilst the other would shoot each look straight up and down for the client from a central position at the end of the runway. With this methodology I had some time to get kinda creative with whacky viewpoints, long exposures, multiple exposures, and generally mix it up a bit and go looking for something different. I think it's playing off as I had my work play in The Guardian 24hrs in pictures a couple of times the last few days.

Ploughed through the work on my laptop on the flight home, did a little editing of my own on a few of the nice ones to share here...

I guess I need a break so, like a mentalist, I'm using up a stack of lieu days to actually go and shoot more fashion....

Yes. It's certifiable behaviour. Stay tuned.