Editor’s Pick: Punctuating Motion by Russ and Reyn

Ever since creative rep Art & Motion turned me on to Russ and Reyn’s portfolio, I knew I wanted to feature the New York City-based fashion and advertising photo team here. While it wasn’t easy narrowing down their awesomely quirky portfolio to just one image, this one ultimately won me over with its graphic quality, velvety tones and smooth yet crisp lighting (they swear by Broncolor). 

Photo © Russ and Reyn

This image was part of the duo’s “Punctuation” series for the Scandinavian fashion line Mjölk, which let them entertain their fascination with typography. Casting flexible, dynamic models was key (and nabbing a female model with an Irish-dancing background didn’t hurt). “The crazy thing is, she showed up to the shoot deathly ill and we told her what she would be doing,” Russ and Reyn say. “She said she would try, and then proceeded to nail the shot on her first take.” 

Leaping from a box behind the black beach ball, she contorted herself to form a question mark as the male model curved into a closed parenthesis. They set up a Broncolor Para 170FB reflector umbrella at a 1/4 stop diffusion, with the light inside the umbrella ticked down 3/4 of the way, just outside of frame right at a 45-degree angle to the subjects. “Then to get an even background, the cyc is flanked by white v-flats,” they explain. “That bounces all the spill light from the para back into the background,” creating an even tone throughout the scene.

“The types of shots that excite us are those with a sense of movement,” the photographers say. “There is something ethereal about capturing a body in mid-motion.”

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