ELEGANCE

I cannot know why I took the photograph of these shoes.
Perhaps it was the contrast between the elderly man in the background and their lit form?
Perhaps the reversal of perspectives? Perhaps it was their femininity and style?
Whatever it was, the image has been at the back of my mind since I shot it eight years ago, and it’s been kind of stuck there, waiting to see the light of day.

Last week we were on the home stretch of a long edit, yet something didn’t feel right and it wasn’t coming together as I wanted!

The end frames – where the credits appear – had to reflect the spirit and essence of the films, but I was thinking too hard about them, and it felt uncomfortable……..

We had cut seven short natural history projects in ten days and I was beginning to loose my way! The creative sensibilities had become dulled and editorial auto pilot had kicked in.

When I explained to Paul – my VT editor – what I was trying to achieve I remembered the shoes,

Suddenly the image which had lain dormant seemed apposite, and in a strange way, I knew it embodied what I was trying to articulate and achieve.

Elegance!

It’s a word, which apart from it’s often flagrant misuse, in the fashion industry these days, seems to have all but gone out of popular currency.

And this is a great mystery, especially when you consider it’s conveys such a beautiful, and potent, understated message.

In deed, in action, in mind, in character, in grace, deportment, solution, and most of all, in being!

It’s as simple as that.

And now we’ve completed our credits. They’re not “normal” and they don’t follow any conventional rules, but everyone who has seen them likes them.