People of Inspiration
Today I’d like to share my thoughts about three individuals that have recently (as in within the last year) inspired me in one way or another.
Andrew Zuckerman
Andrew’s work is so well-done. It’s clean, minimal and straight forward–a style and approach I am definitely a fan of. His photography is absolutely beautiful and I just melt when I look through his books. I’ve been to the stores to look through his books, but I really can’t spend the money at the moment to have my own copy. But when the chance presents itself, maybe this Christmas, I’ll gift copies of his work to myself. lol
Anyway, I really love Andrew’s Wisdom Book. I watched the behind-the-scenes video where he and his team traveled around the world filming and photographing all of these wonderful people from different backgrounds and disciplines for one simple thing, wisdom. I was touched and blown away by that. Also, I loved the fact that he could travel the world for his project. I want nothing more than to be able to do that!
Grace Coddington
Last weekend I went to see the film documentary “The September Issue” which shows a lot of what went into creating the 2007 September issue of Vogue magazine. I consider myself fortunate to have a copy because it so happened that in late 2006 I got a free one year subscription to Vogue magazine. I said to myself, “Why not?” it’s high art in it’s own right. I was a bit callous with a number of copies that I got in the mail however, and have since thrown away or misplaced some of them. But I, for what ever reason, held on to ‘07 September issue and I love it!
Moving right along, I really enjoyed the film and I think that Grace Coddington came out on top in this film as an absolutely, powerful artist who’s name and face should be as prominent, if not more, than Anna Wintour’s. I’ll be frank and say that in the beginning of the film I really wasn’t too intrigued with the idea of learning so much about Anna once I began to learn about Grace. Thankfully though, the film seemed to spend a great deal of time on Grace and Anna’s working relationship for the most part at American Vogue.
Grace Coddington’s work comes across as perfect, completely and yet easily thought out in detail, and executed with such precision and beauty that it’s mind-boggling. The photos from the shoots she conducts are mesmerizing because of the detail, depth, color and overall beauty she puts into the total presentation. Grace Coddington is simply full of artistic grace.
I would love, in the very least, to just shadow her at Vogue and experience her magic up close. I’m no fashion person, but I can definitely appreciate great artistry when I see it.
Parris Whittingham
Now I have had the fortunate opportunity to sit down and speak with this young (just three years younger than me; he’s 24 and I’m 27) and inspiringly positive gentleman, Parris Whittingham. He is extremely good at what he does, knowledgeable and very well-spoken. For me, not only is his photography fabulous (See his work on Behance), but his demeanor and work ethic are what I took away from our first conversation one very recent evening. In fact, he reached out to me to speak on social media, but before we knew it there was a complete role reversal in terms of who was getting what from whom. If you ever get a chance to meet with Parris be prepared to be inspired and walk away beaming with motivational spirit. Parris, thank you!
