Dream Girl 2010 Sydney Australia

20 Girls... From 15 different parts of the world ...

A series of 10 portraits I took of the participants in the inaugural Dream Girl Pageant launch last week. Full details about the pageant can be found below along with a link to the Dream Girl website. And yes I have reproduced the press release in full. Street Fashion Sydney had a lovely time at the opening at Bay Leaf restaurant in Crows Nest, all the participants seemed very well informed about the issues Dream Girl is addressing and then there was some very tasty food as well.

Dream Girl 2010

Australia's first ever multi cultural beauty pageant, Dream Girl 2010 is bought to you by Pratibimb (Indian Cultural Community Inc). Indian Cultural Community is a Non Profit organization that helps and supports cultural and multi cultural events to showcase diverse local and national talents. It is established to help discover, and promote different cultures around Australia.

This Pageant is designed to showcase talents of today's modern girls in Australia, who are well aware of their culture as well as their present surroundings. It will embrace the Australian culture, as well as other cultures involved to show the best of both the worlds. The event will be held on 23rd October 2010. We're looking for one girl who is diverse, refined and creative. She has to have a vision; she has to be out of this world, and of course, she has to be dreamy…

Our final winner, the Dream Girl 2010 will get the chance of a life time to visit Bollywood and meet the biggest stars and watch them shoot (all expenses paid), and that's not all, we'll also be giving her two days at the best acting school in Bombay, and the opportunity to star as a lead in an upcoming Bollywood movie!

Because Dream Girl 2010 is multi cultural and focuses on women from different backgrounds living in Australia, we would like to take this opportunity to promote crucial matters regarding women all over the world. Our 20 participants will be raising money for Breast Cancer, as well as creating awareness for IWDA (International Womens Development Agency) through out the next two months, until the 23rd October, 2010, which is when the final event will take place.

Dream Girl 2010

Best of luck to all the participants in Dream Girl 2010.

'Bro Tie Night' now with ACP & RSFF!

A well rounded night indeed. Nyc & I started out at a floor talk at the Australian Center of Photography (ACP). While not my Fav talk I have attended at the ACP it was as usual informative & I particularly enjoyed hearing about Robyn Beech's experiences as to how she went about creating her iconic 80s photographs with Make Up Artist Richard Sharah.  The front gallery is full of Robyn's wonderful and familiar work and as such, its a little confronting to hear her say, "I never got booked for a job because of this work". Or something just like that.

The current line up also includes "Zeitgeist Becomes Form German Fashion Photography 1945 - 1995". For those of you who have only experienced photography in the digital age this is a must see show. Well the whole lot is must see, tomorrow is the last day so go go GO!

After the talk we headed down to the Sydney Town Hall for a drink at the Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival & shot the last runway show of the night. Once again I only had my little G10 on me but it seems to have been more or less up to the challenge though I will let you be the judge of that. Although these are the same frocks from Fashion Week in July it was my first time seeing them in the flesh & there was some lovely pieces on offer from the designers.

After all that excitement it was time to retire to a bar and debrief the evenings events. We nipped just around the corner to Hotel Sweeney's on the corner of Clarence & Druitt Streets which if you can believe it I have never been in before.

So over a couple of beers and the sweet music of a road-saw cutting through the roadway on Druitt Street we discussed the awesomeness of the show at the ACP. Clients and money LOL! How well Sam Harris is doing as a model & the T&C on the Chic Models website...

Then out of the darkness of the night and through the pub doors strolled a posse of terribly well dressed Gentlemen in Dinner Suits & Bow Ties. It was a little like being plunged into an episode of Brideshead Revisited; only everyone had grown up and moved to Australia! My friend David Gofton used to say, "Culture, you want Culture, just go down to the TAB, theres plenty of Culture down there". And so it was and we were in the thick of it, Aussie culture, no longer the European Culture so many seem to hunger for.

Of course if you want a serving of Australian and European culture, be quick and catch the last two days of the show at the ACP in Paddingtion. Its well worth the effort.

'de MéXICO' at China Heights... Sydney!

A geographically confusing blog title I know.

Well who would have thought you would be able to attend two photographic exhibitions of Mexican 'landscape' photography in Sydney in one week! I certainly would not have thought it very likely. In fact I think its about as unlikely as turning up to a show at the very edgy indi China Heights Gallery in Surry Hills sans necktie only to find out that in this world of skinny jeans and tee-shirts as the shirt De rigueur the well dressed and cravatted male has made his return to youth culture. Its also nice to see hats and caps making a return, even that grey knit beannie is kind of dressed up with the addition of the lovely velvet jacket.

No doubt you can imagine my surprise (yes I say that all the time but I am easily surprised) when my new best friend in his red cap identified my hat as an Open Road, "and its a Stetson right". Completely right! Well he does work at the Strand Hatters as it turns out so there you go. Of course mine came from Gowings RIP sometime in the mid to late 80s but he knew that too. Apparently you can still get my hat by special order, same same including the narrow ribbon, not that wide ribbon that personally I find a little vulgar on most hats. Well worth keeping in mind for the next time I get too-drunk and sentimental and give my hat away to a friend...

Its so nice to see some young men dressed so nicely yet still retaining that artsy look. Even our artist Lance was wearing a tie, just as I did at my opening a couple of months ago. Men dressing with style is clearly back.

The Artist, Lance Richardson.


Some shoes!

Thanks to Grolsch for the beer, yum!

'de MéXICO' Photographs by Lance Richardson

OPENS FRI 6-9PM, AUGUST 6
CONT'D DAILY 12-5PM, UNTIL AUGUST 8
CHINA HEIGHTS GALLERY
LEVEL 3, 16-28 FOSTER ST, SURRY HILLS
www.chinaheights.com
www.freelancerichardson.com

Island of the Dolls - Beautiful & Scary at the same time...

Monday night openings are a little unusual so thanks to Nyk for taking me along to this very interesting photography exhibition last night in Surry Hills. Sure it was absolutely terrible out in the wind and rain but once we arrived inside the gallery everything was fine. Nyk had told me that the show was documentary photography and as I took a first  glance around the walls I certainly had my doubts. It was pictures of dolls! On closer inspection however these were like no other dolly pictures I had seen before, strange, macabre, inhabiting a very peculiar and particular landscape.

As it turns out they are indeed a series of documentary photographs taken by the talented photographer David Maurice Smith a few years ago on a trip to Mexico City.  David had used his camera to frame the 'work' of one man who had left countless dolls over a period of 50 years, an offering to a child who had tragically drowned in a near by canal!

Its a beautiful series of images, the exhibition is on untill the 21st of August at  65 Foveaux st Surry Hills. Thats about 50 meters from Central, just before the Taxi service station, I am sure you all know the spot.

And something that has not happened yet...

Dutch Artists at SNO, opening this Saturday afternoon the 7th from 3PM, Level 1 175 Marrickville Rd Marrickville. if you like colour, lines, non objective art, this one is for you!

CARLiTOS Presents, Estilo at Soho

Well I nearly didn't make it to this event, what with doing what I do on Friday day and then heading home and settling in with a few beers... But then Kat from Design Federation txt'd me that she will be there at Nine... Well I just had to sort myself out and make my way to Kings X lickity split!
Anyway, or as American educated young blogging people say, anyways... It was clearly a great opportunity for me to slip into my newly acquired (new!) circa 1983 quarter silk lined baggy pleated Grey Flannel woolen trousers and team them with my circa 1983 New Romantic Full-Catastrophe leather jacket. Yes I was on my way to another fashion parade and free drinks.
Of course catching the train to Kings X is thirsty business and so the first thing I did after getting my name ticked off at the door was head to the bar and my free Smirnoff Black Label No.55 cocktail that had been promised in the promotional material. "Smirnoff Black Label No.55, the alcohol sponsor for the event will have their gorgeous promo girls to ensure that all guests have a French Martini in their hand to help party the night away." You can no doubt imagine my utter horror when I was told at the bar that I needed a card to receive my complimentary drink. "But they took my card at the door". "No you need a black one". Fortunately Carlos the promoter was on hand and kicked in with a 'Black Card' for Street Fashion Sydney and my first Vodka Cocktail of the night was mine.








It was a Nine O'Clock start for an 11 PM fashion show; Kat and Michael settled in with a couple of Vodka drinks from the bar and played 'where's the iPhone reception' (see how happy they were when they found it) while we waited for the mysterious Smirnoff Girls to appear. This however was not such a bad thing. As the club filled up, the temperature rose as well. On my way back from a ciggie break upstairs I discovered one of the rarest of rare things in Sydney this side of the Sydney Opera House itself... A cloak room! Well rather than risk having my oh-so-cool, New Romantic Full-Catastrophe leather jacket slip off my bag and be lost forever I checked it into the cloak room for the tiny tiny fee of $3! We need more of these in Sydney people, are you listening!
Finally the Smirnoff Girls did at last appear and we relieved them of three very tasty Pink Vodka Cocktails in Martini glasses. The Pink bit was Chambord and I have to say I think their marketing is really working and its only a matter of time before I crack the Chambord miniature I received in my Carl Kapp goodie bag last November and start mixing Chambord Cocktails at home myself.
But on with the show. The parade actually started pretty much on-time. I had been warned that fashion shows in night clubs in Kings X routinely started at least an hour late. This was not the case last night.
The crowd crushed in, the music played, the MC MC'd, the girls walked, the photographers fired their flashes & I waved my camera around over my head in my oh-so-inimitable-style to bring you only the best blurry fashion shots from the back of the room that several free cocktails can buy!























A lot of pictures this time I know! I am not really sure how well these night club fashion shows do in terms of promoting fashion but; if the name of the game is entertainment I think they are doing very well indeed. The crowd certainly had a great time and I did too. So by way of helping the designers and promoter out I am going to paste another line from the press release in here now and if you can see anything you like you can play cut-&-paste into Google and check the individual designers out.
"The highlight of the evening will be the runway fashion show that will showcase the latest collections from designers Thulie and Pennie M, who were both a part of Australian Fashion Week. Maria De Guzman, who showed in Fashion Forward Festival and Underwear of Sweden, who are launching there new shoe range, Sunday Shoes.

J Models will provide the models for the fashion show, makeup by the Academy of Makeup and hair styling by Christopher Hanna Platinum Stylists."

Thanks to all who made the night happen in such a big way. Till next time, enjoy!


Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Chambord Shine Award Sydney - Design Federation InDaHouse.

Lucky me!

I was asked by my friends at Design Federation to help them cover the 2010 Chambord Shine Awards on Wednesday night at The Loft bar in Sydney. It was a lovely evening with plenty of fashion, nibblies and Chambord cocktails all night long. Being in the company of lovely Design Fed ladies Jordan (Twitter operations on the night) and Kat Roth (notes and commentary) was of course a very agreeable bonus as well. As was; a chance to catch up with Carl Kapp (Judge), Shadie from Lulu in Chains (made it through to the next round) and Kath Purkis from online boutique Le Black Book (and publisher of Le Magazine).





















Design Federation have put up a complete set of my shots on their Flickr account here if you would like to see more of the fashion and selected portraits from the night. Design Fed's report from the Melbourne and Sydney parades is here. Or vote & follow the updates on the Chambord Facebook page here.

Till next time. Enjoy!