In association with Project Educate I'd like to welcome you to Glamour Week here on deviantART. All week I'll be conducting a series of interviews with a few of the best Glamour photographers on deviantART. So far we've heard from both threelibras and DalaiHarma. Well sit back kids, 'cause today we have the fabulous duo that make up =girltripped. Ok this is a long one.....



1)First off introduce yourself? Who are you, where are you from? What are you wearing

WOLF : My name is J.M. "Wolf" Johnston. I'm originally from Sharonville Ohio, a little tiny suburb north of Cincinnati. Right now I've got a horribly torn up pair of jeans paired with a relatively old 82nd Airborne T-shirt on.

WINTER : I'm Winter Kelly.. wife of the boy with the hideous shirt.. and I'm from around Boston, MA. I've got on gray pajamas with hearts and a white tanktop. Bare feet, of course.

2)What first drew you to photography?

WOLF : My mother is a Realtor, and right around when digital photography started to become more prevalent I had the bright idea that the photos she needed to have done for handouts and publications could be done much easier than it had been in the past by using a digital point and shoot. So around the time I turned 17 I borrowed (stole) a 2.1 megapixel camera that my father owned and started using it architectural photography. They weren't the best photos ever, but the speed in which I could take them, then get them processed was pretty astounding for the time period. It wasn't really until much later however, when I got out of the Army and with the introduction of an affordable dSLR (Canon 300D) that I started using photography as an artistic expression.

WINTER : I was doing some professional modeling when I was 15, but I didn't really enjoy it, the only part I liked was taking my photos into a copy of Photoshop I had and messing with them. When I stopped modeling, I asked for a point-and-shoot so I could keep playing around with editing.

3)How would you describe your personal style? And when did you know you had one?

WOLF : The circus meets fashion photography seems to sum it up best. At least according to several of our fans/watchers. I don't know about Winter but I generally have a hard time trying to categorize our work, or style, because I don't feel that there's ever one underlying thought when we're going about our work. We generally just try to make things that we'd be interested to look at. As far as knowing when we had a personal style I'd say it was around the period that we first encountered wide-spread popularity with our image "The Welcome Parade". It was a huge shock that we had come up with something that so many people responded too, especially considering the accidental nature of that photo.

WINTER : We're told we're pretty avant-garde and I can see that. Our photography style tends to be borrowed from aspects of our real lives. Personally, I can't ever make up my mind as to where I fit in, and what style clothes I like. I just like what I like and reinvent myself every few months. I think we throw that into our art. I knew we had developed a style when people kept commenting they could always spot which work was ours before they saw the artist name. I think that's pretty cool when one day we'll take a sweet, soft photo and the next we'll take a really gothic one.

4)In your view, what makes a great glamorous photo?

WOLF : I know a lot of people seem to stress that a Glamour photo is all about the subject's physical beauty, and while this is an important factor I think the best Glamour photos inspire interest in the subject or the concept. I like the idea of glamour photography influenced by documentary style only in regards to the emphasis that you place on the Model/Subject's back story.


5)What do you look for in a model for your work?

WOLF : Someone that is confident in their look and body, whatever that look may be. We've worked with all sorts of people that on paper should make great models. In person however they were lacking some sort of spark of interest. Then there's other people that show up to shoots and you go "Oh boy, he/she might have been the wrong choice for this project" who get in front of the camera and just explode with talent. Dancers seem to do really well for some reason, even if the shoot has nothing to do with dance.

WINTER : My comments exactly. I like models that will move with their own grace. I love to capture movement, I don't enjoy a shoot as much if I have to have Wolf take all the photos because I'm stuck helping the model pose more naturally. If a model has a portfolio full of the same poses and expressions, I'm not interested, even if they're the typical photogenic tall and skinny type.

6)Describe a typical shoot for you..from concept on down

WOLF : We usually know which designer we're going to be working with before anything, so the first issue is figuring out which model will fit best (physically and look/attitude) in the design. After we've got that figured out we try and pick a location that's going to inspire some sort of concept, or fits well with the design we're getting. Hair/Make up is usually figured out the day of the shoot once we're actually wherever we're going to be shooting at. In general we try not to limit ourselves by focusing in on one concept so much that we don't try to be spontaneous.

WINTER : It depends. He described our fashion shoots pretty well, those are based off the sizing, who we have to consider, and what concept it stirs up in our minds. We test our models in advance if we're considering them for future fashion projects, and sometimes we'll even use clients we liked. If it isn't for a designer, we figure out our concept/locations first and work our way down, hair and make-up usually being last. We usually shoot for a few hours and I edit the ones I like best.

7)Is there anyone that you wish to work with?

WOLF : Steven Meisel, probably the best fashion/glamour photographer alive today would be my first choice. Second, if we're talking people to photograph, Johnny Depp or Scarlet Johansson depending on which gender I'm picking.

WINTER : Oh he's just copying me, Steven Meisel is my favorite photographer. I think it'd be fun to photograph or because I think they'll both be very famous and I'd love to take some conceptual photos of them. I'd also love to work with Brandon Boyd from Incubus, and Gemma Ward.

8)I know for myself, music and my friends/lifestyle, movies are a big influence on my work, what influences you day to day? And does it creep into your work...

WOLF : Jesse Lacey, Frank Miller, Stephen King, Alan Moore, all huge influences in my life. I'm not sure if it's creeped into my end of our work or not, though if I had to guess I'd say it has.

WINTER : Hmm, well, I definitely get inspired by anything involving Tim Burton. The band Brand New inspires me, as well as just roaming around thrift stores. Some of our most popular photos have been inspired by random props from thrift stores and antique stores.

9)How did find deviantART, and why stay?

WOLF : A friend of mine from high-school was totally engrossed in dA, so I've been aware of it from almost it's inception. It wasn't until I started thinking more artistically however that I made a profile on dA. As far as staying now, we absolutely love our fans, and we're afforded many very cool opportunities because of the attention that our dA page receives.

WINTER : I made myself this Girltripped account when I was 15 or 16, based off my old nickname, Trip. I found DeviantART when a friend of mine and I were bored and IMing each other different links, and I believe she had sent me a link to a photo of . So I signed up originally just to browse and be able to have favorites. I'm now a horrible DeviantART addict and not a day goes by where I don't have to at least look at our stuff.

10) Any particular fav people on deviantART?

WOLF : ~four-eyes, `gilad, ¢mynti, and `zemotion immediately spring to mind as extremely cool/nice people to talk to who happen to have amazing work as well.

WINTER : Agreed. ~hellwoman has been producing amazing work lately as well. And of course on the model end, we love and ~miss-mosh, obviously.

11) What are your fav pieces of art on dA?

WOLF : Oh no, not why I like something, that's almost as bad as having to show your work in Math class. Uhm, in no particular order -
by *kris-wilson Makes me laugh every time, and reminds me of way too many people that we've run into.

by *koukei The lighting in this shot is exquisite, and the play on words in the title makes me smile.

by ~hellwoman This shot does a great job of making me want to know more about the subject and their story, also you can't beat spiked bondage collars.

by ~bluecut Amazing model captured perfectly.

by *papaspaulding Extremely accurate portrayal of today's society. Very insightful.

WINTER : I usually have opposite taste from Wolf. My all-time top pieces of art I'd have to think too long about, but right now, in general, I'm kind of digging


12) What's your favourite image of your own

WOLF : Tonight, sleep tight.
We tried to come up with a photo that captured our personalities and relationship. I think in the end we did a pretty good job. This took about ten minutes of experimentation with lighting, and Winter running back and forth to hit the timer and get back in the frame. Hardest part was trying to not giggle until after the shot was taken.

WINTER : "Study Hall" I picked this one because I'm in it and that was fun, but really any from this series. Working with real wolves is an opportunity we never would have gotten in real life if not for photography, and that's so exciting. They were adorable and hyper and stealing all our props and covering us in mud. We had such a great team of stylists and models, and considering all the random factors, that shoot went really smoothly.

13) Where would you like to see deviantART head in terms of it's Photography galleries?

WOLF : To be honest I don't think I have any thoughts as far as the direction dA should or shouldn't go with it's galleries. We're not very snobbish or exclusive about things, so I guess the one direction I'd like is for more people to realize that everyone has a right to developing their own form of expression/art. Yes, some people are going to suck/have horrible concepts/be technically inept. You've got to start somewhere.

14) What are you up to? Any projects planned?

WOLF : Oh nothing much... O

WINTER : Expect more corsets, more tattoos, more interesting makeup, and seeing us in more magazines in June!

And now some of =girltripped's incredible work: