Month: November 2020

Phillip Wong Productions

Photography/Media

Männer Vogue – Nina Siemaszko

          The production company of Zalman King contacted me as they began the promotion of a new project they were working on. They wanted to use my contacts across international media to promote the production, the players, and whichever angle might raise interest with the public.

           I contacted editors at publications globally.  Männer Vogue in Munich, Germany expressed interest in the project and the star, Nina Siemaszko.

           On our usual tight timeline, we had arranged to shoot in Montauk, New York, but the day before our location shoot, a hurricane swept up the coast and downed trees on the road out to Long Island. We made it out to Montauk with only a few hours of daylight left. Nina had her Dalmatian with her, and when she let it out of the car, I found a building that had collapsed at the end of a pier, set up a chair we did our shoot there.

          I didn’t actually know anything about the production that she was in, so Männer Vogue’s angle was a profile of Nina Siemaszko.

Phillip Wong Productions

Photography/Media

Pellice Moda – Young Love

          The focus of this editorial story for Pellice Moda was a new generation of young fashionistas. I always had issues with the fur industry, and there was always a conflict between my moral values and what I was good at.

           Often, the values and content of what we believed in, did not converge with what we were commissioned for.

           Producing on location and raw empty space, focusing on subject matter, and directing attention of an audience was what I was good at.

          Young Love was used both in the Italian and Chinese media (as Simply Elegant). But it shows the value of visual imagery in crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries.

           The stylist was Persian, the models were British but of Asian descent and Italian, the make-up artist was Italian, the hair stylist was American, the photographer was American of Asian descent, and the media platforms were Italian and Chinese.

Phillip Wong Productions

Photography/Media

Blitz Magazine – Brands

          While I have worked for established publications and designers, I have also sought to work with smaller, newer, developing and potentially influential magazines.

          In London, The Face, ID, and Blitz came from the street to make influential statements in graphic design, photography and styling. The editors and graphic designers at the emerging publications shaped the publishing of France, Italy and New York as their work was recognized.

         Neville Brody, at The Face, commented on my choice of framing and composition, as editors from all three publications called when I went back to Milan, and they wanted content from the Continent.

              Branded was conceived by Blitz in London, but as all these publications were constantly on a tight schedule, they gave me a day to plan, shoot and send the material back to London.

           I was given a handful of branded items, booked friends who were available that night, shot everything on black and white Polaroid film, turned everything around in hours and had it going back to London by morning.  It reminded me of spot news photography in speed and production.

        The graphics on the vertical page sides echoed the the extreme sharpness of lighting and starkness of the black and white but was done in London.

Phillip Wong Productions

Photography/Publishing

Pellice Moda – Rail Yard

      In working with luxury goods, and in luxury environments, I’ve always been aware of contrasts between the most valuable of items, the people who wear them, the people who create them, and what creates the idea of “luxury.”

           Contrasting the luxury of furs and the Old World that embraced that idea of luxury, with the age and romanticism of that world – I convinced my editors at Pellice Moda, that the editorial story would have beauty, interest and appeal. They introduced me to Nadya Khamnipour, a stylist who’s work I loved – lush, whimsical, contrary, resisting cliche,  her combinations of accessories with textured clothing created a balance with my need to focus on the evocation of emotion, or a stark, textural landscape.