Carly Gillis Photography

Photography like fashion must be tailored to the space’s particular idiosyncracies to ensure it looks its best – or in my case publishable.  If like me, you’ve fallen victim to the must-have trend of the season only to discover that it doesn’t best showcase your assets, you’ve learned to just say no.  I’ve stood in that dressing room wishing and hoping that when I arrive home some miraculous transformation will have taken place, imagining that I look like I’ve fallen out of the pages of Vogue Magazine and that I will be mistaken for a starlet sashaying down Madison Avenue in my obsession-worthy black leather leggings and four inch heels. I encourage a rich fantasy life, but not at the expense of looking ones best!

While I have learned to blur and obscure my little imperfections and highlight the favored elements of my form, when it comes to photography I must call in an expert. I’ve done a fair amount of architectural photo shoots in my day and can assure you they are a lot of work.  All the clutter of life must be banished from view, and like a movie set, only what the Director wants you to see is included in the frame.  Small spaces are made to look expansive and large spaces intimate.  Two rooms made to feel like ten with an intense focus on all of the elements; lighting and hardware, materials and texture, vignettes and close-ups.  With the advent of digital photography post-production work can have the transformational effect of sweets to party dress.  The addition of layers of light keep whites white and colors true.  It’s part art and part science and I admire what they see through their lens and what they create as a result of that vision.

It’s in the details.

This Quest for 10 Properties to transform is a bag of emotions.  At times it feels like it takes everything, and at others, like it gives everything….like it is my raison d’etre.  Working to get the properties published is a way for me to celebrate the hard in the process.  John F. Kennedy  said:

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Seeking out a publication to commemorate the effort that has been put forth is part of the fun for me.  Editorial Calendars do not always align perfectly with my plans, so it is necessary for me to take matters into my own hands.  Documentation of the work that has been done – the before and after – is essential as once you leave you have likely lost the opportunity forever.  Rest assured, the documentation is in the can and I can shop it at my leisure, hoping that my story, and design style, peaks the interest of the editors.  Fingers crossed.