Transforming Sarah

I have recently had the pleasure of working with a very well known Vancouver Photographer by the name Jonathan Cruz.  I first met Jonathan over 9 years ago, when I had just finished makeup school.  Jonathan and I shared a hobby, salsa dancing.  At the time, mutual friends told me how well-respected Jonathan was as a photographer in Vancouver.  I was intrigued, so I looked into some of his work and fell in love with his style right away.  I thought “I am gonna work with this guy someday and make something amazing!”  Fast forward 9 years and I am doing just that. Jonathan recently came to me with the idea of taking one female subject, and as a team, working to transform her into several looks over a series of photo shoots.  You always hear how much difference photography,costume, hair and makeup can make, so we thought we would show you how fun and incredible the process can be.  We choose Sarah, a classic beauty. We decided for our first shoot with Sarah we would go back to the 1920’s.  The first step in transformation is picking out a few costumes for Sara, which were donated by celebrity costume stylist Sara Rakhshandeh.  Once the costumes, accessories and shoes were all carefully chosen, we started the next step in the transformation–Hair and makeup.  First, we started by prepping the skin and hair.

           Jonathan and I had a very clear vision of how we thought this 1920’s girl should look. What could be more 1920’s than the classic finger wave hair style?  Trish Ay was the hair stylist and she had a big job ahead of her, since the finger wave may be one of the hardest hairstyles to achieve.  All the while, Jonathan was snapping pictures for all of you to be able to see and enjoy the  step by step process as we enjoyed every moment of it.  Here is a great photo of the beginning stage of the finger wave.   

We originally decided to use Sarah as our muse because of her simple and classic beauty, but realized how much easier it is to work with someone who is so professional.  We had a time crunch and had to get things moving, so Trish and I double teamed hair and  makeup to get things moving.  Sarah was a trooper and just sat back as an observer, just quietly watching herself  being transformed.  Jonathan was still busy taking pictures for our readers to be able to follow.

After an hour or so in the hair and makeup chair Sarah had been transformed and was taken back to the 20’s.  She could barely recognize herself.  What happened to that sweet innocent girl next door?    Now it was time for a few test shots by Jonathan, but Sarah was a bit nervous on how to pose since she is an actress and not a professional model.  We had to bring in an expert on this kind of thing, so to show Sarah how to pose we brought a visitor.   It was Sofia, Jonathan’s adorable little girl and Sofia showed Sarah how it’s done.  Take a look at this.

So there you have it, our first of the series in transforming Sarah.   Stay tuned for the photos from this shoot.   I think you will all be amazed.  Sarah shocked us all with her comfort and natural talent for modeling.  Jonathan had amazing, creative ideas for photos and locations.  We hope you all enjoy this series and please keep us posted with your comments. We want to include you in our process, if there is a look you would like to see Sara transformed into, just click “comments” to leave your ideas, we are up for any challenge! 

Costumes by Sara Rakhshandeh

Hair Design by Trish Ay

Photography by www.jonathancruz.com

Makeup by Maria Rahmany

-Vancouver Makeup Aritst