A Newspaper Room - Fashion Editorial

Sabrina Wright @sabswright, Model // Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder

Magazines collect me. They draw me in and even if I don't read the words, the fact that they have words and images in a pleasing aesthetic inflates them into valuable artifacts awaiting a mysterious future potential.

That's just a fancy way of saying I hoard magazines for a rainy day.

Spray adhesive, two foam insulation panels from the hardware store, and 77 magazine pages mixed with Black Friday advertisements came together to form this newspaper "room", which was really just a corner in a studio in Salt Lake City. Ashley Gardner (my co-host at Wayfinder Photographer Collective) and I dragged our supplies into my freezing cold garage and stuck each individual piece of paper to the foam backdrop.

Tip to anyone who wants to build a backdrop like this: Use gloves.

We apologize to anyone out there whose hands we shook in greeting for this shoot. We didn't want to hold on that long. We're not weird; we were just sticky. (For DAYS.)

Technical Notes
This was lit with two speed lights. The main light was in a 43-inch umbrella soft box at camera left (or right, depending on the image--just follow the angle of the shadow if you're not sure) and pointed down into the corner. The newspapers reflected some light into the shadows but I wanted to see less of her shadow on the backdrop. To fix it, I bounced light from a second speed light straight into the ceiling. An unforeseen but greatly appreciated bonus to being in a corner meant that Sabrina could move anywhere within the space and still be well-lit.

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