Wow!  How Urban New York is this image of a gorgeous Alvin Ailey  dancer twirling with the white leather shoulder bag from Clutch Bags?

When I asked Demetrius Fordham if he wanted to shoot his choice of a bag from the Clutch Bags Collection, he knew exactly  how he was going to approach it. I have to admit as well, I know D’s style of photography, so I could almost picture this image in my head before he captured it. Demetrius is a photographer with vision, perseverence and talent.  Aside from all of this, he seems to be dialed in to lots of professional dancers on Broadway.  And so the casting continues from here.  Demetrius told me that he was going to call around to the dancers and models he was connected with to see who was available to shoot an image.  This is the biggest challenge when trying to find a model:scheduling. A photographer needs to find the right model for the day, even the hour of the shoot, due to the importance of the location and weather permitting.   In this case, Demetrius had a rooftop in LIC, the westernmost hood of the borough of Queens.  He would be shooting this image at Attic Studios.

The next comunication I received from Demetrius was that he had found her.  He had found  Aisha Mitchell , the beautiful Alvin Ailey dancer  that he thought would be perfect for the image he had envisioned.  So he was off and ready to create.

Demetrius had a beautiful, mild, sunny winter day in January with Aisha as his muse.  What more could a photographer want?  New York City was served up as his backdrop for the canvas he was about to capture.  And so the creativity of shooting  begun.

It probably made the image that much more captivating due to the fact that Aisha liked the handbag.  Demetrius told me  she liked the bag alot, quoting her as saying, ” I love big bags because I always have my entire life with me.  You never know where you’ll end up or what you might need ;)”.  Demetrius also told me that his stylist on the shoot, Darryl Glover “loved the handmade quality feel and sleep durability” of the bag.  D said that he definitely agreed with this observation.

I just love the composition of this portrait.  I feel like Demetrius really captured New York City, with graceful movement, and a lovely pairing of a beautiful dancer with a Clutch Bag that complements her style quietly.

Thanks Demetrius, Aisha and Darryl for a fantastic image!