abifrail

abifrail.

abifrail.

An afternoon stroll on an early September Saturday with abifrail.

I told Abby I always thought of NYFW as the last weekend you can pull out a bikini and the first weekend you can pull out a scarf. We decided to go with both.

I met her outside a building that sat tucked under the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, where she had been helping her friends with a music video since early that morning. It was already a marathon day for her, but she showed no signs of letting any potential exhaustion slow her down. The same could’ve been said for me; I had a broken nose, and the combination of lugging my camera backpack through multiple train stations in the late summer heat while wearing a nose splint secured to my face with layers of medical tape had me sweating before we even started.

While Abby slipped into Golden Diner to change, I popped in and out of Chinatown convenience stores searching for bubbles (as in, soap bubbles) to use as a prop. Cash only everywhere. It took three or four shops, some panicked jogging, and a questionably unwise venmo transaction before securing the bag and linking back up with Abby and Grace.

“I don’t know… people get so weird during fashion week” Abby said while applying Grace’s black eyeshadow as a smudgy eyeliner in the middle of the sidewalk. We started walking. “They could be DMing you and responding to you totally normally the week before, and then when fashion week plans and parties come up they go totally silent. It’s like… why does it have to be weird??” Grace and I laughed and wondered who the hell would leave Abby on read.

We walked around with a vague idea of what we wanted and an open mind. This has historically been my favorite way to shoot: outside and half plan/half play. The photos from this particular shoot left me reflecting on the concept of a photographer’s ‘style.’ I shot half the shoot on film and half digital. I sometimes do this to provide diversity & options. I almost always prefer the film photos by a landslide. This time, that wasn’t entirely the case. Further, the film and the digital photos looked so different to the point of fully looking as though they were shot by two different photographers with vastly different styles. I guess that’s an inevitability that comes with wanting to use both. At the end of the day, your eye is your eye. I invite you to view each photo as a standalone, and- while you’re at it- take the walk to Seward Park with us in your mind. Envision yourself in the rapidly changing sidelight that comes with turning each corner during a golden hour downtown, surrounded by skyscrapers and bridges. I’d pass you the tube of bubbles if I could.

-Tori

Photographer: Tori Spadaro Weintraub

Artist: abifrail https://www.instagram.com/abifrail/

Assisted by Grace Faherty

Styled by abifrail