Zack Rubin Creates Personal Photoshoots Over Skype
How did the idea of collaborating over Skype come about?
The idea came about in two ways, the first of which was after seeing one of my favorite photographers, the Italian Alessio Albi who was the first that I've seen that did the remote photoshoots while in quarantine. But on top of that, I recently got myself out of a creative ruts, only to have the pandemic slap me across the face. At first I considered doing photoshoots from a distance but realized this was a bigger risk than I could take given that I still have a day job as an essential worker around an at risk population. So I wanted to adapt and find a way to make up for all of these photoshoots I had to cancel.
I’m glad you got yourself thinking on how to be creative at home! How did you decide on Kira as your model?
I came across Kira (link) because we actually had plans for a photoshoot before COVID19 hit in Connecticut. We had canceled our shoot but I didn't want to give up. So I threw out the idea on a whim and we ran with it, same day.
How the process went and the experience of shooting through a webcam (any issues and what you weren't expecting in comparison to a regular shoot). Paint us a picture of the entire process!
Logistically, these shoots are a nightmare, everything you generally have control over is out the window. Everything that is, except for your composition and styling. We started our shoot with a tour of her bedroom, which thankfully was spacious, had nice hardwood floors, and skylight windows. One of the first things I spotted during my tour was the beautiful window light shining onto the ground. Naturally as I would with any other natural light shoot, I began to utilize the light beam as if it were a shape and a prop to interact with.
We went through a few different set ups, but each scene consisted of me directing Kira where to position the camera through the angle and framing. I had her move some objects in her room to give me an unobstructed view since I enjoy having clean environments with no distractions from my subject. That is however excluding her two goofy cats who spent our entire shoot photobombing as they chased a bug around her bedroom. I ended up incorporating them into a few shots, which I'm thankful to have gotten since I love cats so damn much.
Additionally, the biggest struggle with using a webcam or phone camera via FaceTime or Skype is the diminishing of quality and the lack of control over exposure. So upon capturing these images, I had to spend significant time manipulating them to a point where I was comfortable. This included using directional gradient filters & radial filters in Lightroom. As well as using the Infinite Black and White panel with some added grain to mask the poor quality with a gritty, almost noir black and white aesthetic. The biggest joy I got out of this shoot was the challenge of truly testing my direction skills. The act of posing my subject and setting up every aspect of my shot to get it just right using only my words was unbelievably tough. When I pose in a normal photoshoot, unless I'm working with a very experienced model, I tend to demonstrate the poses myself or physically pose someone (with explicit permission). So to have to describe every aspect without being in the room was quite the challenge.
The other major joy I get from these shoots is being able to work with people who I rarely would have a chance to shoot with otherwise. So far I've shot with people in Minnesota, Denver, California, New York City, Atlanta, and Boston. I'm currently working on setting up shoots with people in Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Israel, Italy, UK and more. While I'd love someday to do normal shoots in all these places, I'll take what I can get for now with these low pressure shoots that allow me to build a personal connection with people across the world experiencing the same isolation I am feeling.
Thank you to Zack for giving us a great insight into how this collaboration came to be! Here are some other photos Zack has taken from other sessions as well!
