Monochrome Photo Series

What is the Artel Salon Monochrome Photo Series All About?

Having the privilege of owning Artel Salon one of Vancouver’s best hair salons, is I get to create super cool photoshoots.  A few times a year we organize a salon shoot day, pick a theme, find models, and create portfolio boosting content.  For this photoshoot we chose a theme “Monochrome Photo Series”.  These salon photo shoots are among my favourite because we have full control and creatively do whatever we want.  This is our opportunity to do something completely different.  This is the place to take a risk and experiment because there is no failure.

The Hairstylists Are:

Owner Eliza Trendiak – instagram @elizatrendiakhair and @artelsalon

Melissa Taylor – instagram @mtbstyles

Shay Alexander – instagram @shaytopaze

Rosalinda Diaz – instagram @hairbyrosalinda

Angela – instagram @angelaloveshair

Carver – instagram @hairbycarver

The Photography Production Team is:

The video was produced by Justin Parenteau – instagram @justparvisuals

Makeup by Dani Fuentes – instagram @dfuentesartistry

Wardrobe styling by Cam Maclean – instagram cam._.mac

Photos by Rob Trendiak

Photography Assistant – Zenna Wong

The Hair Models Are:

Red – Rosalinda Diaz

Purple – Shay Alexander

Lavender – Lauren Kemp

Pink – Chelsea Brennan

Blue – Cal Chan

Hair Trends

Right now coloured hair is very popular.  We figured we would riff off of this trend.  It is very common today to see people of any age, gender, or culture walking down the street with purple hair.  Nobody even batts an eye.  Furthermore, coloured hair is acceptable in many corporate dress code policies  .  I think its really cool.

Why it is important for Creatives to Create Their Own Content

To this day I personally have not had an opportunity to shoot with multi-coloured backgrounds.  The majority of clients need a more conservative look to their branding.  As a result 90% of my photography portfolio is dark grey or white backgrounds.   So this was a real treat for me to photograph these colours.  My portfolio is now more diverse than it was before.  I am hoping to find new clients who are willing to create content that is a little more captivating.  Similarly, the hairstylists at Artel Salon want to diversify their portfolio and attract new clients.

What Went into the Monochrome Photo Series

First off is the preproduction.  We have to lock in a shoot concept and decide collectively what we are going to do.  Often it is hard to decide on a theme when 8 people all have their own ideas.  We then put a mood board together.  A mood board is a series of images we use for inspiration.  After that, the next step is to organize everything.  Find our hair models, book the studio, find wardrobe stylists, go shopping, make call sheets, create a shot list, create a schedule, the list goes on and on.

The night before the photoshoot, all the hairstylists we in the salon madly applying colour to their hair models.   Some of the hairstylist didn’t even have their model confirmed until 2 days before the photoshoot, Rosalinda and Shay both had their models cancel, and Carver moved back from London England, resulting in some high tension right before the shoot.  Everything come together nicely!

I would like to personally thank everybody who was involved in this photoshoot.  We could not have produces amazing content like this with out your help.