Giorgio Armani, the celebrated Italian fashion designer, died today aged 91 years old. Growing up in Hong Kong, his name was synonymous with fashion with A/X Armani Exchange being the first diffusion brand I remember coming across.
However despite never owning an item of clothing from any of the multiple brands, Armani became a photographic milestone for me. I first picked up a camera with intent after leaving the military in 2009 and had drifted into becoming a photographer; I had initially thought I would put my language and military skills to use by going into private security but had been put off by the notion of living life in conflict zones. As chance would have it a photographic door opened for me in fashion and one job led to another which I covered with the nagging doubt of imposter syndrome hanging over my head; as a self taught photographer with little to no knowledge of photographer or fashion, what was I doing, and was I good enough?
In June 2011 I found myself backstage at the Autumn/ Winter 2011-12 Emporio Armani fashion show, designed by Giorgio Armani, in Milan. I recall backstage being pitch black which made me nervous, working light with two bodies with a respective lens each and no flash equipment, how was I going to achieve success in this situation and not walk out of a privileged position, of being at a show, empty handed?
I found myself siding up to a photographer located at the back entrance to the catwalk, capturing images of the models as they ran into the backstage area in order to change looks to head back out onto the runway. He had a large, off camera flash, and was snapping away at every model. I realised if I timed my own shutter correctly, I could in essence steal his light. I had no idea what his technical camera and flash settings were so my efforts were akin to throwing mud at the wall and hoping it would stick. I was lucky, some of my efforts were terrible missed but some were not; none of the frames were correctly exposed and there was an element of motion blur in more than one frame but I did not leave the show empty handed.
I recall thinking to myself that I finally belonged, that I had shed my imposter syndrome and that I was good enough to be where I was. One of my friends later remarked, shocked on seeing the images, ‘When did you get so good?’ I’ll take the compliment.
