Selling Fashion: the Digital Photographer Peers into the Shop Window

I was in Lille, France, with my wife, Liz, just after the Millennium, and saw an attractive window of a store selling wedding outfits. I saw that Liz's head and shoulders fitted neatly into the window, and photographed the composition. That image is not in this book, but that occasion stirred my imagination to notice windows in shopping-streets, and particularly the ones in which human life was reflected - namely those involved in fashion, peopled with display models. In 2004, I paid a visit to The London Eye, also with Liz, and, having taken a number of shots on that wet February morning, went home to discover how the use of filters in Photoshop can add excitement and interest to images which otherwise might be totally without merit. Some of the results of that venture are due to appear in a later volume, 'Painting with a Camera'. The use of filters is employed in the images in this book. Later in 2004, I visited my local city of Brighton, and spent a morning , exploring the Western Road shopping area, and had my first big haul of Fashion images. I had also been thrown out of Marks and Spencer for attempting to pursue my quarry off the street into the inner sanctum. Since that first morning, until 2007, in whatever city or town I found myself, I would have an eye open to capture the images available from brightly-designed windows. My favourite photography is that of wildlife, so the project may be quite complete, but I throroughly enjoyed the hunt during the four years when it was on.