Collaboration Project blog

I want to start off by saying how amazing it was being able to be around such artistic, creative, ambitious, intellectual individuals. It truly was a dream come true, something I had been wanting to do for some time. Like a spark of lighting, so it began. With the intention of creating something greater than I. Being able to have brought this together not by my own might, but with the presence and essence of each individual who partook in this, this is how it was able to come into fruition, as if so per say; a dream manifesting itself into reality.

Let me tell you how this collaboration project came together. I started to reflect on what exactly I wanted to bring to reality. I aspired to photograph a fashionable clothing brand, while co- branding with jewelry. This is not just your ordinary clothing brand. About the beginning of December I had met Johnny an art director, producer, production designer. I got to know him more as he shared more about his life experiences. I was really inspired by his work, and just being able to get to meet a fine artist was amazing. In the midst of things, I decided to text him one day, and asked if he’d be interested in collaborating? He agreed. I was filled with internal excitement and gratitude. I wanted to start the project on the second week of the month, things got pushed forward, and we agreed on December 27th, 2022. Johnny had a business meeting with me week prior, and he was really professional with me, informing me how a business should be ran in the legal sense, and I felt like I become more informed.

I want to elaborate more on these very special individuals. Want to say I’m sure they have many more skills that I am not aware of; but I would go off based towards what I know. I had my sister Esli, a makeup artist. She’s getting her Associates in business, and will expand into her BA. Originally I wanted to have 2 makeup artists, but unfortunately the second makeup artist called off. Alba is an actress, model, video editor. She’s currently working on her own film. Alba passed down the invitation to one of her actor friends named Lola. Now Ria she is a model, artist, sewist, and was lucky to have Marcy an artist, musician, and designer of Flexico World Wide. Mark is a hairstylist, and he joined on last minute notice and really went on and beyond styling the girls hair, and even giving the models haircuts. Clen does video editing, and is going to jewelry school. Jamie is a good friend of mine, who has a passion for modeling, and has done LA fashion week catwalk, she also got some of our work on a fashion magazine. Odalis assisted me, brought her digital camera, and filmed a bit.

So it is now December 27th, 2022. The big day. It’s about 7:00 AM early in the morning, and I find myself making my way towards the grocery store on my electrical bike; supposed to get fresh produce to prepare breakfast since the small catering business that was supposed to be there had a last minute emergency, and had to go to Colorado. I now had the responsibility of preparing the food. As I’m making my way, I was strolling down a main street, as I’m speeding up since there’s a green light, having my right of way; A white car suddenly hits me from my left side as he attempts to make a right turn. Unfortunate enough he keeps driving as if he didn’t see me, the bike flips to the right, I fall the same way the bike does. As he keeps driving; I start to see my left leg slide towards the bottom of the car, my mind suddenly reacts, he brakes, and I immediately shove my way up. I thought my leg was broken or at least fractured. I hear him say “mijo are you okay?” I”m actually feeling really infuriated, I don’t respond back, like of course I’m not okay. I observe my bike, it seems to be damaged. I lift up my pants on my left leg and observe, and couldn’t bare to put pressure on it. I limp and hop with my right foot, hop back on the bike, turn it on. It’s not accelerating. About 15 seconds in, it starts to accelerate, then I venture off to the grocery store. I didn’t bring my phone with me, so I didn’t end up taking a photo of his license plate, instead I thought? If I were to proceed to call the cops I would have to wait, then make a report, then that would prolong my venture towards the.hidingplace business location where I would proceed to prepare the smoothies, fresh juices, yogurt with granola and fresh fruit, and bring some Mexican bread. It takes me 5 minutes to make it to Food for less. But man, those 5 minutes felt like a gruesome eternity. I would estimate the pain to have been at least 7/10 pain level. I approach the front entrance, I see there’s a security guard out front, I decide to inform him on what I had just experienced, and if I could place the bike inside, he tells me “sure”. I thought it would take me at least 10 minutes max to be out of the grocery store. I think because of all the limping, it totally slowed me down like a tortoise. I get oranges, pineapple, raspberries, bananas, and yogurt. I’m out of the grocery store and it took longer than I expected, plus by then the line grew longer.

Start making my way towards El Globo Panaderia, the hiding place and my grandmothers bakery are right next to each other within the same location. So I see my father is working at the bakery, I proceed to inform him what had happened to me, he told me, “tomaste foto de su licenscia?” I told him no, that I didn’t bring my phone with me. He was very displeased, at this point all I had in mind was making it to the location towards 9:00 AM because that’s the time I was told to go set up the backdrops. I got to the bakery about 7:46 AM, I start setting everything up, but again I’m moving like a tourist, usually I would be more fast paced, but physically I was kinda dealing with some damage.

I’m happy to be greeted by Odalis, the first thing I notice is her how big her belly was, I wasn’t aware she was in her third trimester till like last minute. Odalis and I catch up she informs me she’s working with kids with Autism, and I thought that was so sweet, we got to catch up. She proceeded to help me prepare the fresh juices. I started to prepare the smoothies, made some dairy and non diary ones. I at least had 10 individuals I needed to prepare things for. Before I knew it, it was 9:00 AM, by that time I’m freaking out, I thought worse case scenario I can start setting up the backdrops, and C stands as I get there and the models are getting worked on I thought. I get Ice and start setting the cups of fresh juice, yogurt with granola and fresh fruit, and smoothies into plastic gray trays, oh yeah, I forgot to mentioned I prepared this sweet heavy creme with strawberries, in espanol it’s fresas con crema. I cover the containers with Aluminium foil. It’s a quarter till 10:00 AM, I start packing everything into the car, I was planning to make crepes, but I had to buy more fresh fruit, and night of I prepared the crepe mixture, it was late and I was rushed in getting there at least by 10:00 AM. I have my camera, and computer to pick up. Left them at home, so we make a quick trip, by that time we get there 10 minutes into 10:00 AM, Mark is actually the first one to get there. I check out our group chat on Instagram, he had sent a photo of the front of the location. I let them know that I’m there. I start getting the things out of the car, by that time I know I have to toughen up. I am greeted by Johnny, I start bringing the things upstairs.

As I enter the first thing I notice is Johnny’s Christmas tree, I place the containers on the table. I finally get to meet Mark for the first time. I hear from Jamie, I make my way downstairs to go pick her up, I’m excited to see her. Mark immediately starts working on Jamie’s hair and complements her on how lovely her hair is, that she has a lot of it, and it’s so pretty. Laura arrives, she’s quite wonderful, I greet her we chat, and make our way downstairs. Esli and my other sister Sarai arrive, I help her with her makeup bags, we chat, and make our way upstairs. Johnny has 2 makeup mirrors, but he informs her if she would like more natural lighting she could choose a separate location, she agrees with the location with natural lighting, so she starts to set up. I am then notified that Alba just got here, so I rush my way down stairs to greet her, it’s always a pleasure to see her. We make our way upstairs. Mark starts working on Alba’s hair. Marcy and Ria arrive, they are quite lovely individuals. We chat and make our way upstairs. Johnny helps them with a clothing rack which I though was really cool. Esli starts working on Alba’s makeup. Clen arrives, I get to meet him for the first time, we chat a bit, and make our way up stairs. Lola would get there about 2:00 PM, I had the pleasure of meeting her. I enjoyed our little moment where I tried to speak to her in Russian, and was really surprised by her outstanding Spanish speaking skills.

By this time it’s about 11:00 AM, Jamie is the first to get dressed, and so we proceed to photograph downstairs, outdoors. Ria, Marcy and make their way downstairs with me, Johnny starts informing us about the precautions, and ideas of what could be captured. We make our way towards a spot under a huge tree, it honestly looks so pretty, I start setting up the settings on manual, and start to shoot. Once that was captured we make our way back upstairs. So time passes by, I had Odalis start doing some vlogging towards the beginning but she had to leave around 2:30 PM because of work. As you can see the pattern continues from one model getting their hair ready, then makeup, to them getting dressed, and then us heading downstairs to shoot. I also recall a moment where it was sprinkling outside at one point.

Towards the end we start photographing in Johnny’s loft, then near the end Johnny sets up this warm light, in between his hall.

I would like to mention some things that went wrong. I missed out on lunch, I think that’s kinda a huge error, but I saw that we had extra food items towards the end, I could have brought more snacks before hand, but thought it was best to get the things morning of, sometimes leaving things last minute is not the best solution, preparing in advanced is. At one point my 124 gb memory card ran out of memory, and I had to go pick up a memory transferring device which I happened to forget at home. Alba and Clen were very helpful with me when it came to deleting data off my computer, and Alba helped me transfer photos selected unto my laptop, then we formatted thee card to proceed taking more photos. My goal is to learn and be able to create something greater. I have to say I’m truly grateful to have had all of your guys support, this could not have happened without any of you. I’m looking forward in sharing the results with you, and I have yet to release a small video of the project.