A Photo Series by Julia Wimmerlin
Paint It Snail
What do you think of snails? Snails
– the soft-bodied, thick-shelled molluscs- which you must have seen in and around ponds, rivers or at sea. Have you ever thought of snails entering into the makeup wardrobe and becoming an inspiration to a fashion designer or a makeup artist?
Julia Wimmerlin
Well, it’ s very hard to put your thinking cap and create a story around such a matter but Julia Wimmerlin, a Ukrainian-born photographer, used snails to portray her creativity and imagination in her latest“ paint it snail” photography collection. She chatted with SHEETAL MANN about how she went on to create such masterpiece.
84 Vol 2
Sheetal Mann
sheetal @ chiiz. com
A silent tigress working up her way against the societal norms. One hell of an interior designer for your beautiful homes and thoughts, she is quite an introvert and serenity drips from her face.
Don’ t Touch My Shoes Canon EOS 5D Mark III 23mm F / 11 1 / 160s ISO100
“ Snails are known for leaving traces behind them, and in a fantasy world, snails and their traces could be multi-colored.‘ Paint it Snail’ is a series of snapshots of this fantasy world where snails would become makeup artists, fashion designers and jewellery,” says the award-winning photographer Wimmerlin, in an email conversation from Switzerland, where she is currently residing. Wimmerlin is a marketing professional turned photographer who loves photography as a whole and always brings something personal whether it’ s a business portrait or a famous landmark. She believes her strength is the creative approach with an amalgamation of true emotions in them. In her short but fairy tale-like career, she has pushed all the boundaries of photography to create images that are not only creatively enthralling but tell stories of their own.“ The snail story was shot in studio and the snail models come from around my house in Switzerland as well as from the rural areas in Alsace, France. The snails lived with me for a few weeks whilst the series was shot, and now I am an experienced snails’ feeder and cleaner”, she replies with a smiley face.“ All colors on the model – Anastasia Konetskaya – were painted with acrylic paints and all the snails were painted later in Photoshop. No snail was harmed during the shoot. All snails were let go next to a river on a rainy Swiss day after the series was finished”. she explains further on how she shot the story. Wimmerlin, who won a silver medal in Color Open category at International Salon of Photography PhotoArtist 2016 for her‘ Snow Monkeys, believes that, in her nearly self-taught career, she relied a lot on her advertising and marketing experience to construct an image.“ First there is an idea that can become a theme for the series. It takes time for an idea to settle and develop into a story that later becomes a series of photographs. Sometimes I make a detailed storyboard of a hat on how each shot would look like and other times I just go with a general idea and mood and let the model find her way,” she says while explaining how she works around a story.
Her fashion portfolio includes collaborations with famous Filipino designer Pia Gladys Perey who enjoyed an international uprising after dressing Angelina Jolie. She has worked with Pia Gladys Perey for her Junior Bridesmaids and High Tea Collections, and advertising images for Spring-Summer Collection 2015 which were presented at the World Fashion Week in Paris. Her celebrity fashion portfolio also includes collaboration with another Filipino actress and model, Rhian Ramos. The most prized accessory for her, while on the shoot, is her‘ compact hood loupe’ without which she can’ t live.“ I can’ t live without it as it allows me to see the shot on camera’ s LCD magnified enough to see some particular details, and shields the shot from any ambient light that might influence my perception of the shot,” replies National Geographic & Vogue photographer, Wimmerlin.
Wimmerlin has received 2 Honourable Mentions at IPA’ s( International Photography Award) in One Shot Climate Change Competition( 2016). Her travel, animal and creative photographs have been published in various travel magazines including National Geographic( USA), National Geographic Travel( USA), Digital Photo( UK), GEO( Germany, France),“ DJI Focus”( China), Animan( Switzerland), Travelife( Philippines), travel section of The Telegraph( UK), The Times( UK), The Guardian( UK), Daily Star( UK), Metro( UK), Le Matin( Switzerland), 20 minutes( France), etc. She is a regular contributor to the PhotoVogue site of Vogue Italia having several shots selected as“ Best Of” and“ Photo of the Day”. Before Julia signed off to prepare for her shoot, we managed to ask her if she had to define the world in a single photograph, what would it be? She took some time and replied after few minutes,“ Though I have never thought about it, but if I were to show the world in a single shot, it would be a macro shot of one’ s eye – you have the whole world there”.