MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS AS AN AUTHOR
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| Author Keli H holding up The Four Hundred Club |
One of my guilty pleasures is watching fabulous reality TV... Ladies of London, The Real Housewives, Dubai Bling. I don't think this will come as a surprise to readers of my 400 series. The whole franchise of books is set against the backdrop of glamorous reality TV.
Carole Radziwill, journalist and author who joined the cast of The Real Housewives of New York City in season 5, put it perfectly:
The pull to reality TV is because writers are attracted to spectacle.
Carole was instantly my favourite character on the show - witty, composed, calmly detached from the drama, but with a sharp commentary on it in confessionals. She observed everything with eloquence.
Season 6 of the show brought Book Gate - the scandal where another housewife accused Carole, a bestselling author, of using a ghostwriter. It became the running storyline that carried the season. Now, I don't think Carole - who had an entire journalism career based around her skill with words - needed a ghostwriter to pen her memoir, but it was interesting to see the quite visceral reaction the word 'ghostwriter' provoked in the author community. I, as an award winning author, have been pretty vocal about the fact that my non-fiction book, Creating Literary Art, was initially written for me as a ghostwriting project. Personally, I don't feel ashamed to say that someone else could have worded my thoughts in a better, more communicative way. Fiction, after all, is my forte, and I would absolutely recommend a ghostwriter to anyone who is writing outside of their genre or - even - never written a book at all before.
Still - I don't think Carole used a ghostwriter for her bestselling book.
Book Gate wasn't all that happened in season 6 - the first episode opens with Carole getting her author photos done. Author photos are stylized pictures of the author, used for book covers, press kits, portfolios, media submissions, and book marketing. The author photo needs to capture the essence of the writer. It is different from a headshot, which leans formal and uniform - business-like rather than artistic. Author photos need to have intentional styling and creative direction because the setup, the clothes, the makeup, the angles need to make a statement about the writer's energy.
In South Africa, we very much have 'n Boer maak 'n plan culture. It's really our national ethos. So for years, I - and most authors in the country - never genuinely needed author photos. We made do with phone selfies against white walls, and our press worked whatever magic they could on it, and it sort of became commonplace to pull together to make do with what we already had available. But watching Carole Radziwill - technically a princess by marriage - get her photos professionally taken, ignited something in me. The intentional choosing of an outfit, the makeup brushes moving over her, the curated set. As an author, being treated like a superstar. Of course, I too want my written works to feel like exalted art, rather than a crafts project. Well, home made pictures were not going to do that for my career. I became determined to get my author photos professionally shot. It was time to take this journey with a bit of seriousness.
My personal author brand has always been an elegant intersection between words, fashion, art, and business. This would factor into the choice of photographer. I received over 100 recommendations of photographers and I took the time to look at all their work. I ended up ruling out anyone whose work was based mostly around wedding and couples photography. These photographers had a standard style of work, that was whimsical and soft. Not my brand at all. I ended up selecting a photographer who had a clear knack for adapting to her subject in every session - in Nidene Jacobs' portfolio every photograph looked unique and full of personality. No 2 photos looked the same.
Nidene Jacobs Photography and Makeup is based on the KZN North Coast. She selected a stunning location for the shoot. All I had to do was let her know my vision for the photos, and she took the reigns and suggested a beautiful house as the set.
The house I went to for the shoot was situated in a top of the market estate in Sheffield. I would describe it as having a sort of Camps Bay feel: set along the sea, homes with bold architecture, luxuriously peaceful. It wasn't only the building finishes and large furniture pieces that made this home iconic; it was the detail in the decor. As an artist, I can appreciate that there are little things that make a space aesthetic - the exact placement of coffee table books, the small baubles on shelves, the specific colours of every tiny object in the home. I felt like I was walking through a carefully curated piece of art. Nidene Jacobs had done a fabulous job already and we hadn't even started the pictures yet!
The good news for my readers is that the home is available for short term rentals if you'd like to take yourself on an incomparable holiday. At the time of writing, the 5-bedroom premium destination home is currently listed from R14,000 per night on a spring special (via nightsbridge). Here is a video of the property:
The other important part of an author photo is the clothing. The outfit should reflect the author's personality, while still working with the colours of the set. Again, I had aced the photographer selection because Nidene Jacobs was such a wonderful guide through the process. In the days before the shoot she helped with a lot of information and inspo imagery of the kinds of clothes I could wear. She took into account what my social media and blog portrayed about me, and considered my personal requests, to come up with ideas. We settled on a solid colour black base of structured shorts and a wool knit top. We would have interchangeable blazers over that to get different looks.
I'm a fashionista but I am certainly no model. I don't quite know how to place parts of my body in shapes that can showcase an outfit. Nidene was very patient with this, helping me adjust little things like the hem of my coat and the position of my fingers (small things you wouldn't even think about) to create beautiful silhouettes in the images.
There are over 100 high quality images from the shoot, but these are some of my favourite. These capture all the different facets of me:
The Intellectual Artist
These photos are cozy and cultured. Doesn't it look like you've caught me at home, ready to pick up up a fountain pen, and sip on an Earl Grey tea while I create my next masterpiece?
The Fashionable Blogger
These images highlight the part of me that loves to dress up to attend social, bookish, and top tier events. As I always say - the way you dress shows the world how they're allowed to treat you!
The Literary Mogul
I am, at the heart of it all, a powerhouse overhauling the book industry to be fabulous again, instead of boring. These images capture the businesswoman in me - the CEO of The KREST House - while still being playful.
There are many more pictures that will be slowly fed onto my Keli H Facebook page. Too much of Keli in a single dose will be a lot to handle!
If you would like to book a photoshoot of your own, I would recommend Nidene Jacobs Photography and Makeup based in KZN. You can contact her on Facebook and Instagram.
For more articles written by Keli H, the author, visit this blog's home page on keli-h.com
Keli H is the award winning author of the 400 series, which includes The Four Hundred Club and Splitting an Empire. The 400 series is high brow contemporary fiction revolving around the lives of wealthy circles. Keli's other works include Creating Literary Art. She is also the founder of The KREST House, a storytelling empire.
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