Have you ever wondered why all our red carpet moments have started looking pretty much the same (read: boring)? Well, part of the problem is the dreary sense of fashion some of our celebrities own;
Tom Parker, a professional photographer from London, poses with Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Khan.
UK-based photographer Tom Parker speaks to Instep about
working with local celebrities at the LSAs this year.
Have you ever wondered why all our red carpet moments have started looking pretty much the same (read: boring)? Well, part of the problem is the dreary sense of fashion some of our celebrities own; their inabilities to take risks and experiment beyond princess gowns and overly-embellished flared kameezes that can help them create their own unique fashion identity. But it also has to do with the way photographs are taken. Same old poses and expressions, same old black and white backdrops with sponsors’ labels splashed all across and same old front-facing camera angles – it’s like each one of them has been cut from the same cloth.
One rarely gets to see a shot that’s both candid and creative. However, this year the LSA team decided to bring about a much-needed change and spruce things up by inviting British photographer Tom Parker to shoot local celebrities. Photo booths were created with fun, geometrical backgrounds and celebrities were made comfortable so that their personalities could shine through the lens capturing them. The end result was interesting as well as memorable despite the fact that this year’s red carpet was a rather drab affair with more worst-dressed moments than best ones.
L-R) Rustic singer Mai Dhai, Amjad Sabri’s family and style guru Nabila in the customized booth designed for Parker’s work.
Tom Parker is a popular travel photographer, who has travelled to more than 80 countries across the globe including India. His images have been featured on magazine covers innumerable times and he has contributed to the likes of Vogue, Conde Nast Traveller and Departures. Though the man has also shot Bollywood celebs like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Sonam Kapoor, it’s Mahira Khan who has left a lasting impression on Parker. Hers was the only name he remembered well enough to pronounce it correctly. “Mahira Khan was quite fantastic. She was really down to earth, warm. She made a real effort with her dresses and was very generous and very easy to shoot with her graces and all, apart from being a lovely person. Also it was clear that she is very good at what she does and looked like she is at the top of her game,” Parker shared in a conversation with Instep.
That said, all of our local celebs seemed to have been on their best behaviour with Parker, who just can’t stop praising them on their professionalism and their welcoming attitude, perhaps even more than Bollywood celebrities. “On the whole they were a lot friendlier, more down to earth and equally professional. They were very generous with their time which was refreshing because some of the Bollywood celebrities are very mean with their time (I mean that in the nicest way possible),” he said, laughingly.
To those who don’t know, Parker’s trip lasted about four days in Karachi where he not only shot celebrities on the final day but also collaborated on designing the sets for the awards show, which will soon hit our television screens on August 20th, as well as both of the shooting spaces. And while his memories from the trip would have been many, what really made it exciting was the willingness of people to collaborate with him and their level of professionalism unlike UK where he feels “things can get quite bureaucratic”. In short, he just didn’t want to leave. This, however, isn’t Parker’s first trip to Pakistan. He first visited Lahore back in 2012 for a Vogue project. And it seems it won’t be his last trip either.
“I would love to see more of the country. On top of my list is going up North to the mountain areas, travelling through the Pak-China highway and probably visit K2. There is so much to see and I am sure I’ll be back very shortly,” he added.
As one reached the end of our short and sweet conversation, one couldn’t help but ask an experienced photographer like Parker about Photoshop controversies that seem to never die both here and internationally, the constant criticism on using the application that often takes away from the reality of the image like Kim Kardashian or for that matter many of our own models who may not be as toned in real life as they look splattered across glossies.
“Even when people shot in film, they used Photoshop; just that it was in the dark room back then. So the whole notion that one shouldn’t use Photoshop is completely incorrect because people have always changed the way photos look,” Parker responded. “The real question is how much you use it to physically change somebody’s appearance. You shouldn’t use it to the extent that it makes them look different from how they look in real life. I make sure to use it in a way that it doesn’t change the face, shape or the body of the individual but gently enhance their skin tones.”
