Capturing fashion with Vogue photographer Georges Antoni

Georges Antoni is a renowned Sydney-based fashion photographer and Canon Master. His work regularly graces the pages of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, and Vanity Fair.

For me, the best fashion images depict a point in time in a given society.

What women were wearing, what the times were like, what the feeling in those times were like. That's really an important part of fashion photography.

I have been shooting with Canon for five years working on the 1DX

I really have changed my philosophy a little bit on how I shoot with the 1DX. It's such a liberating camera.

You can achieve a lot more in a much shorter amount of time because of the frame rate, the accuracy of the auto-focus and the ISO response. Focusing is much faster, and the frame rate is a lot faster too.

So when the sun is setting, you're on the beach, you've got two minutes to get the frames, instead of getting maybe 20 or 30 frames to shoot from, literally in two minutes I can get 300 or 400 frames and get a lot of variation.

And obviously, at that point, the client is really impressed because you've given them a great picture in a very short amount of time.

I've most recently bought a range of cinema lenses from Canon

What I love the most about those lenses is the bokeh – it is incredibly beautiful and creamy.

They've been a fantastic addition to my kit. I also love the fact that there's unclicked aperture, so you can change your apertures relatively quickly without any movement in your footage.

The end result of what we do is very glamorous

But what we do is not glamorous until we're taking that photo. We are usually in quite an industrial area where there's a lot of equipment, and it's a 4am start. Sometimes we finish at nine or ten at night.

There's no typical day. Every day is completely different, which is what I love about my work.

I don't think there are many careers in the world where you get such instant gratification, where you can see the results of your labour immediately, and I love that.

The most rewarding part of my job is the process and the people

The most important thing when you're photographing a person is that there needs to be a rapport.

What's very difficult to capture is the essence of somebody or an interesting situation. So I think in order to be able to have that, you really need to relate well to people. It is also challenging my own creativity. It's the battle against me that I find most interesting and most rewarding.

My goal will always be the same. I just really want to continue to take photos that challenge me that I enjoy.

I don't ever want to rest on my laurels. I always want to keep pushing and pushing to create something new.

That one piece of advice I give to up-and-coming fashion photographers will always be the same

Never stop shooting. Don't ever take your finger off the button.

The only way you become good at any photographic style is to understand your own aesthetic. The way you learn it is to be in a situation. Think, feel, and act in order to be able to get the type of picture that you want.

To understand your own aesthetic, you need to keep shooting

You're not going to learn it in a book. You're not going to learn it from being an assistant. You're not going to learn it from watching people doing it.

Image credit: Georges Antoni

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