Micah Bishop is a wardrobe stylist whom I interviewed last year on POP. She and photographer Brandon Harman recently collaborated on a personal project that was inspired by the place both she and Brandon grew up.
With SNAPS, I feature short Q&As with people I’ve previously interviewed as a way to keep track of what they are up to. Micah had mentioned this project a few months ago and I was excited to see the images and to hear more about the project.
With this collaboration, they traveled to Mt. Shasta for a week to shoot in and be inspired by nature. I’ve worked with Micah many times over the years and each time she embodies the simple, sophisticated elegance she is known for in her styling in the smart, intuitive and effortless way she pulls together looks in her work. With this project, there is a glimpse of where it comes from.
Thank you to Micah for the first look at their beautiful images and the story behind the collaboration.
POP: What was the inspiration behind this project?
It is a recent collaboration with NY/LA photographer Brandon Harman. It grew from a personal project I’d been wanting to do for a long time—to shoot in the area that was my backyard growing up. I grew up in N. California near Mt. Shasta, a very special, beautiful place. To create your own body of work in an area that I grew up in allowed me to tap into the freedom and sense of discovery that I had when I was growing up there. To revisit this place through an art project was really exciting and meant a lot to me.
Then there’s the unexpected inspirations that happen, like the people you get to work with. Brandon’s talent with the camera combined with his free spirit created room for spontaneity that is inspiring to me and pushes me, my work in new ways. Check his work out when you have a moment and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
POP: How did you and Brandon develop the concept for the shoot and the styling?
It was a true collaboration and a really great art project. We went back and forth exchanging ideas, concepts and images for months. We spent a week up there scouting locations and we were able to draw from our conversations. To take this place that I grew up in and pay homage to it and bring it together with my work was just magical.
Bringing my style to nature seemed right. There’s a rough elegance in nature that I am drawn to and with this project we played with the textures of the clothing and with elements of nature. There’s a simple gracefulness in everything we do and it definitely resides in nature and in clothing.
Environment is huge. When you’re in Paris, it’s your background. You have these beautiful old buildings and bridges made from old stones. The buildings aren’t very tall, but they have these beautiful doorways. There’s an elegance about how the women wear their clothes, their own sensibility about clothing against this backdrop of the buildings in Paris and it’s beautiful.
So strip a woman of modern buildings and nature becomes its own backdrop. Clothing and your environment have a dialogue.
POP: Why the title Earth. Sun. Moon?
I’m laughing because it started as a little joke. We wanted to give our efforts and concept a name so Brandon came up with Earth. Moon. Sun. Throughout the shoot we kept joking about it and somehow it became appropriate and stuck. And here we are!
POP: What other environments would you be inspired to shoot in?
So many places. It’s really the big picture and seeing it all the way from the article of clothing to the environment. The whole context. The space holds its look. The environment plays a role. A sexy t-shirt, jeans and heels is a great look anywhere, but when you have a centuries-old stone wall behind you it can turn it into something entirely different.
POP: What’s next?
Heading to Las Vegas soon for an HP Shoot and Brandon just texted me about another project….maybe right here in San Francisco.
