Photography, Art Direction and Post Production: Andrew Robert Fox
Stylist: Emma Freemantle
Make Up and Hair: Heather B
1st Photographers Assistant: Massimo Petracca
2nd Photographers Assistant: Egle Trezzi
Set and production Assistant:. Lotti Brewer-Gmoser
Models: Vivi and Edward at Zone Models London
Location Supplier: Prime Shoot Locations
Bright Star was a research and development portfolio project that I had been wanting to shoot for some time, but the scale, cost and logistics meant it kept being put back. When I finally decided to do it, I was adamant that I did not want to set any preconceived parameters and ideas surrounding the shoot and it was to be completely experimental and collaborative, other than the building and architecture lends itself to the form, feel and light in the images. I scoured the south of England trying to find a venue to hire and stumbled upon a suitably modernist-inspired house in Surrey (in the feel of Mies Van der Rohe's Edith Farnsworth House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye).
Despite an open-ended approach to the shoot, it was crucial that I brought in a stylist who would add another visual element and viewpoint to the project and for this, I collaborated with the stylist Emma Freemantle. Ahead of the shoot, I gave Emma images of the building and the specific instructions that there was no requirement for this to be a fashion story, but to approach the styling in any way she wished, but perhaps more like a film (Jean Cocteau-ish perhaps). I selected five or six different areas of the building's interior and exterior for us to work against and we managed to do this over a very full and busy day. During shooting, I started to talk to Emma about ideas for a title for this experiment. At that time, she was reading John Keats (the poem Bright Star to be precise) and in keeping with the collaborative and experimental nature of the project, I kept Emma’s suggestion in mind. So it was destined to be a dark romantic affair before I had even started to work on the images in post-production. Bright Star is split into two parts - the monochromatic Part 1, and also the colour Part 2.
