Sharing her original post as it’s fun backstory. It’s good to see Mattel showcasing the work of a small artist and supporting her.
You guys!!! This historical release!!! I’ve just been beaming all day. AG let me know late last year that I’d be in charge of all the lifestyle photography for the launch and I’ve never been so excited about coming up with ideas!! First up on my behind the scenes series we’ll tackle the process of making Samantha’s house as that’s the very first thing I started working on. I was at a loss as I had never, erm, built a victorian mansion before?? It couldn’t actually be to scale since it’d be the size of a real house (😅) BUT it did need to be big enough for the illusion. I ultimately constructed something 8 feet tall (it was an inch or so away from brushing our ceiling). Cardboard was my best idea since this thing had to be light weight enough to transport to my location. In the end it worked amazingly!! I made it foldable, so the whole thing is currently laying flat in my storage unit and taking up very little space.
The house has three sides, a roof, framed windows, and a detachable porch. Accuracy was incredibly important to me (especially since seeing the real house in person last year in NY), so I was pulling out my hair trying to decide which elements to keep and which I absolutely had to let go due to my canvas being so much smaller than the real thing. I’m ridiculously pleased with the outcome!!!
Some extra fun tidbits:
- In the photo of the house set up on-location, see that big tree to the right of it? @5hensmo and I added all those leaves day-of my shoot since I shot this the day before Thanksgiving. No leaves to be found (except covering the ground lol).
- It was very cold, windy, and wet, which means any sunlight you see is from my flashes!
- The tree Samantha is leaning against is from my mom’s courtyard; it had recently died and she donated it to the project. I covered it in faux leaves for the shoot and absolutely love it.
