Mamé in the West Village
Around this time last year, I had the opportunity to meet up with the super lovely Mamé Adjei in the West Village. She had approached me through an Instagram DM for a shoot and it came together incredibly quickly — I don’t even think we had time to secure a makeup artist. She fortunately brought along a really great stylist and we were able to shoot 4 looks. (Side note: for smaller street style shoots like this, finding a bathroom to change looks in can be daunting. I think we used Le Pain Quotidien!)
We started our shoot really close to sunset, and the light on the first two looks was incredible. Like a beauty dish with a golden crisp warm light. Minetta Lane, the street we were shooting in, has a gorgeous canopy of trees that went almost completely dark in the background for some rich, deep contrast. Love.
Switching my perspective toward the light gave us this really hazy, warm light too. Equally fun for me to shoot. I’m not usually able to shoot like this for my commercial clients — it tends to interfere too much with the product’s color. But for personal work, I’m always up for something a little more creative.
The last look I think was my absolute favorite. She wore this shoulderless mini dress with bronze and cyan streamers. The last pose (the last photo) — wow, Mamé made that dress come alive. She looked so graceful, powerful, like a human phoenix.
