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Fashion designer Norma Kamali personally picked Landis in
late 1980, to shoot the "image" shots for the launch of her fashion clothing
line made out of sweat shirt material. This collection was very
innovative for its time. It was the first time a top fashion designer
joined the worlds of sports and fashion together constructing everything
out of sweat shirt material. The results were incredible.
For the first day we shot the black and white photos in New York's Central Park.
The campaign debuted in January 1981 with a series of ads in WWD,
followed up by huge press coverage of her line.
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"Norma was great to work for. She allowed me complete freedom to do my movement style." - Steve Landis
See this shot larger here.
"This shot, along with several others, was done on a second day and was very important in termes of the clothes featured; it incorporated the "stripes group" which were not ready for the first shoot day. I planned what I hoped would be a special shot in my mind. This is the shot that was the result. I wanted something that could read urban and modern so after scouting for an appropriate location, I preferred something practically in my backyard on the upper east side. Norma had chosen some of the girls, but I was able to suggest two or three, which she agreed to.
Norma wasn't able to make the shoot that day. But I knew exactly what I wanted the girls to do. I rehearsed them several times, demonstrating what I wanted. I used a fairly long lens which meant that I needed to be a good distance from the girls so it was a bit hard for them to hear my instructions when I was at the camera. Just to the left of the frame, off camera, is the East river, and it is almost always windy there; often from the wrong direction. It took a lot of takes but we finally got the girls the wind and the timing just right for a shot that I am still very happy and satisfied with to this day." recalls Landis.
Steve
shot with a Nikon Fm camera body and a Nikkor 200mm F2 lens. He
used tri-x film developed by Gar Lillard at Lab One.
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