When I am big

Private View pix

2010-08-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who came last night to support us, it was a successful evening!

We now have a new website

2010-03-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

We're still going to have this blog but all content and news will now go on the site. Plese join the facebook group- just search 'When I Am Big'
http://www.wheniambig.com/

Part 22: LINK FROM LEGEND OF ZELDA • DESIGNER/ILLUSTRATOR

2010-01-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

At just 22, designer Olly Moss is leaving our shores for L.A. where he's been offered a job due to the recent online furore over his work. His witty visual responses to well known films and computer games seem to have captured the imagination of thousands. Being a self confessed computer game geek, we can't help wondering if this aptitude for problem solving has somewhat shaped his work today. Demonstrating heroic behaviour he agreed to freeze his leggings off for us in sub zero temperatures whilst wielding a magical sword....
© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 21: PRESIDENT OF ICELAND • SINGER

2009-12-18T05:25:00.000-08:00

Hafdis Huld met former Icelandic president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir when she was 5 years old and remembers being stunned by how beautiful and glamorous she was. She insists she was the closest figure Iceland had to a princess. Take a look at Vigdis and bizarrely she is part fairy tale princess, part 80s glamour queen.
Formerly the singer with Gus Gus, Hafdis is now a very prolific solo artist, she's toured the world, she even acts in films and when we saw her she'd just come from a gig and was about to catch a plane back to Iceland -phew!
We'd like to thank Jazz for lending us Dean St Studios for the shoot.
© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 20: PRIEST • FASHION STYLIST

2009-12-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

Everyone thought Dean would be a priest as he went to church every day and was a keen altar boy and member of the Legion of Mary. He was almost convinced he would become one too until certain distractions led him astray. Believe it or not Dean is an authority on fashion, he studied menswear at CSM and is now a stylist and designer. He insists socks with sandals are extremely stylish and said he would wear them any day of the week.
We'd like to thank Mike from St Augustine's Church in Honor Oak for allowing us to shoot in such a special location.
© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

When I Am Big will get a facelift

2009-12-10T08:48:00.001-08:00

Work has now begun on the new website and branding so we can take the photos off the blog and onto a sexy new url! We're also starting to plan our exhibition so we can show off all our brilliant participants and have a massive party to thank everyone who has contributed and helped out so far. K & E x

Part 19: TINTIN • VIDEO DIRECTOR

2009-10-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

We just photographed Bugsy Riverbank Steel as Tintin and never have we had such an enthusiastic participant! The costume was perfect and he happens to work in a cavernous Soho studio full of handy props such as guns, maps and old suitcases.

Bugsy says: "Everyone I told I was going to be Tintin, showed the same admiration for the children's book adventurer. If I look at the books now I still want to be him and live out the adventures he has. I was so excited to be Tintin that I nearly wet myself (not very Tintin) and the fact that there are three Tintin features coming out soon made me run around in circles like a dog on heat!"

Bugsy directs music videos and commercials, take a look at his work here

Part 18: JOEY MCINTYRE'S WIFE • GRAPHIC DESIGNER

2009-10-06T12:35:00.001-07:00

Krista - we respect you for admitting that your childhood ambition was to be the wife of baby faced New Kid Joey McIntyre. Fortunately Krista soon realised there is more to life than being someone's wife so she ended up being a designer. Originally from Sweden Krista made use of that lovely wide grin as she morphed seamlessly from psychotic fan in a fantasy wedding dress to sexy housewife in a racy early 90s number. We got a huge amount of NKOTB memorabilia which made this the funniest shoot to date as we couldn't stop laughing at all the posters, records and newspaper cuttings. Look at 'Joey's' tiny, eager face -just look at it!!

Part 17: MARIA • MILLINER

2009-08-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

'Greenwich was alive with the Sound of Music'... when we photographed milliner Mary Jane Baxter. She still knows every single word to the soundtrack and got into character with some singing and dancing. She is vintage mad and has a great collection of clothing, jewellery and of course hats. Building a set was easy as she works from her home which is already wall to wall with colourful props. You may recognise Mary Jane from BBC 2's Twiggy's Frock Exchange and in October she may be paying a visit to a town near you when she sets off to "Make Her Way Around Britain". She's setting off with a car, a tent and a sewing machine to see if she can literally travel around the country by making things. The trip's inspired by the nostalgia for Make Do And Mend that's currently sweeping the country. You can see Mary Jane's hats here and follow her trip here

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 16: LESLIE PHILLIPS • WHISKY EXPERT

2009-07-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ding Dong! Here's Neil Ridley all dressed up as that dashing rascal Leslie Phillips. When Neil isn't wiping lipstick off his collar he's a label and artist manager as well as a drinks writer for publications including The Chap and Whisky Magazine. You can see his blog here. We'd also like to thank the delightful Ginger Blush for coming along to pose as our saucy temptress. Check out Ginger's burlesque routine at a show near you soon.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 15: BRAIN SURGEON • PHD STUDENT

2009-07-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Tobie wanted to be a brain surgeon because he thought it would impress his parents' friends. We're pleased he's made use of that large brain of his in a less gory way (we're not sure they'd be so impressed by this). Tobie is currently studying for a PhD at Goldsmiths.

Kamilla & Emilie in Le Cool

2009-06-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank Josh Jones for the interview in this week's Le Cool. We asked Josh to pick his favourite images and he happened to pick the ones of us along with the ones of Sanna Annukka and David Foldvari!

Part 14: SAILOR • ARTIST

2009-06-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

We went sailing with artist Nick Roberts last night. Nick said he was always fascinated by men of the sea and remembers looking at pictures of great uncles who were in the navy when he was little. He invited us to his studio where we dressed him up like a war-time sailor, complete with amateur tattoos and a little white hat.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 13: PRINCESS LEIA • WRITER

2009-06-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

When Sarah Lloyd was three she used to watch her Star Wars video an unhealthy amount and would walk around the house saying "I can smell your foul stench anywhere, Darth Vadar", which she believes lead to a love of film and eventually an MA in screenwriting. Sarah is now a writer and fashion lecturer and happens to make a fine looking Princess. The photo against the turquoise wall is in fact the foyer of her flat and not a spaceship.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 12: ANIMAL RIGHTS LAWYER • PHOTOGRAPHER

2009-05-22T10:50:00.001-07:00

Emilie Sandy wanted to be an animal rights lawyer and her good friend and assistant Natalie Seery was a very convincing ballerina. They're used to working together so it meant we got the shots pretty quickly as they knew how to work it in front of the camera. A special thanks goes out to Gracie the cat, she was very patient despite the fact that she hates being picked up.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 11: FIGHTER PILOT • DESIGNER

2009-05-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Daniel 'Iceman' Sanderson always dreamed of being a fighter pilot and we ended up doing a bit of a pastiche of the famous photo of Val Kilmer as Iceman in Top Gun (see bottom of post). Dan is now creative director of his company Twoc and works broadly across the fields of architecture, graphic design and moving image. He is one busy bee and we were grateful he found time to step into a flying suit for us- we think he makes a very dashing pilot.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 10: SWEET SHOP PROPRIETOR • SET DESIGNER

2009-05-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

"I'll take you to the candy shop, I'll let you lick the lollipop"

Here's set designer and fete organiser Alex Breeden in colourful candy heaven. We had loads of fun making the set for this one. Lord only knows what she'll do with all those sweets, maybe she'll have to open a real sweet shop (or she could just eat them all). The batty specs and hairstyle really suited her, we just can't decide if we prefer her when she's looking strict or when she's riding high on her liquorice allsorts binge...

Part 9: BLUE PETER PRESENTER • CAKE MAKER

2009-04-27T01:14:00.000-07:00

What have we here? It's cake maker and pastry chef Jane Lewis and you guessed it, she wanted to present Blue Peter when she was little. She even had all the badges as she used to write to them nearly every week. Jane chose to base her look on Yvette Fielding, complete with a curly perm and mad facial expressions. Here is one she made earlier...

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 8: NATIVE AMERICAN • ILLUSTRATOR

2009-03-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

Oh my Lord - what was he gonna be.. a ninja, and astronaut, a knight or a Native American? Jasper had a tough dilemma as he had so many passionate fazes as a child. He settled with the Native American party because he looked so good in the magnificent head-dress. Apart from the cat throwing up mid shoot and nearly setting fire to his trousers we think it went pretty well and he looks very wise indeed.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 7: BACKING DANCER • ILLUSTRATOR

2009-03-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Work it girl!

We've just returned from a weekend in Brighton where we photographed Illustrator Sanna Annukka. We were so excited about the styling and art direction for this one so we used two different outfits as we couldn't decide. The first was a homage to Olivia Newton John and Pirelli calendars and also very much inspired by an excellent book called 'Erotic Aerobics'. The second outfit was definitely more Cyndi Lauper crossed with Pat Benatar but we insisted on trying some cat poses as the attic room was a bit like the Kate Bush album sleeve for Lionheart (see images at end of the post). A few tequilas and lots of wild dancing got us all in the mood. We are now forever going to think of Sanna as Sanna 'The Body' Annukka - she worked it!

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 6: SIOBHAN FROM BANANARAMA • DESIGNER

2009-03-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yes it is Kamilla er sorry it's Siobhan from Bananarama. This look was inspired by their early look, pre Stock, Aitken and Waterman, when you could still clearly see Siobhan's goth/punk roots (see the reference photo at the end of this post). The very talented Nicola Moores did Kamilla's hair and make-up and although it was excellent she did end up looking like a bit of a clown/Siouxsie/Ozzy due to her already pointy features being massively accentuated. Emilie was on fire behind the camera saying all kind of filthy things such as 'lick the banana, go on shove them all in your mouth'. She was definitely a porn photographer in a past life.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 5: 80s YUPPIE • PR GURU

2009-03-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

We photographed Andrew Bloch, the Managing Director of Frank PR last night. From a young age he wanted to be in advertising. This was a good excuse to go mad with the 70s/80s styling - check out the Cinzano, the Dialtron phone and oversized double breasted suit. You can't see the hideous slip on shoes here which was a relief for Andrew! The inspiration was Gordon Gekko in Wall Street and Patrick Bateman. We created a slightly soft focus effect with some back lighting and a yellow glow.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 4: SOLDIER • ILLUSTRATOR

2009-03-10T13:42:00.001-07:00

Last night was the turn of illustrator and father of two Stevie Gee. Everything just kind of fell into place once we saw the giant lego wall. We swear the bricks are not photoshopped - they're just giant ones which kind of make him look like a toy soldier.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 3: FARMER • CREATIVE DIRECTOR

2009-03-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

We visited Nicolas Roope, Founder and Creative Director of Hulger/Poke last Thursday to dress him as a farmer- ooh arrr. We're really pleased with this one and the stuffed dog made all the difference! Thanks to Nicolas and also to Madworld for lending us the costume.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 2: WAITRESS • PHOTOGRAPHER

2009-03-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Aya wanted to be a waitress when she was little. She's now a very talented photographer. She looked very cool in the costume we borrowed from Madworld.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved

Part 1: ASTRONAUT • ILLUSTRATOR

2009-03-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Like a peppercorn, he's small yet mighty- it's illustration talent David Foldvari. He likes a Malboro Red and playing his bass as well as drawing pictures so we just photographed him going about his normal business at his home and studio in north London.

© Kamilla Weinhardt & Emilie Sandy 2009 - all rights reserved