Beauty photography and new gallery

Last year, Karan collaborated with makeup artist Nadira V Persaud on a personal project showcasing her makeup work (see this blog post). In April 2012, Karan once again worked with Nadira, and the resulting images play a central role in the new “Beauty” gallery on his website.

“I have been interested in this style of portraiture for a long time,” said Karan, “and have now given beauty photography a dedicated area on my website. Do take a look.”

The project began as a collaboration between Art Director Martin Yates and Nadira. Martin saw the previous beauty shoot and wanted to work together. He approached Karan and the project grew from there.

During the shoot, Karan and Nadira worked to a brief, concentrating on creating the three distinct looks you see here. “The three models each have their own brand of beauty and their own distinct style,” explained Karan, “and were perfectly suited to the three looks we worked towards. It was lovely working with Martin, who came up with come great ideas. The collaboration between myself, Martin and Nadira worked like a dream. We only had a few hours with each girl, but worked well together and managed to create some great stuff.”

The brief for the shoot included a “less is more” feel for skin and hair, with both Nadira and Karan working hard to create and capture luminosity and the natural beauty of skin.

Nadira V Persaud blogged about the shoot here. To see more of Karan’s beauty headshots and portraiture work, see his Beauty gallery on his website.

Art Director: Martin Yates
Makeup artist: Nadira V Persaud
Photographer: Karan Kapoor
Models: Cassandra at BMI, Keeley at nEVS, Shumi at Nevs
Retoucher: Sinisa Savic

Beauty photography and new gallery is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.

Karan Kapoor selected for prestigious American Photography 27 award

This haunting and challenging image of an Indian boy, shot on location in Kerala, India, impressed the judges of the 2011 American Photography 27 award. Not only did it catch their eye, but led to two votes from the jury – an honour only given to 174 images of the 7,000+ submitted to the award panel.

The jury included industry luminaries Florian Bachleda (Creative Director, Fast Company), Craig Cohen (Executive Publisher, powerHouse Books), Chris Dougherty (Director of Photography, People magazine), Geraldine Hessler (Design Director, Glamour), Gail Marowitz (Creative Director, Roadrunner Records), Michele McNally (Assistant Managing Editor, The New York Times) and Jodi Peckman (Creative Director, Rolling Stone). The organisers said of the excellent collection of entries: “The selection is complete and…the collection of images looks great. Thanks everyone.”

The image is a great example of Karan’s reportage-style images of his native India. Take a look at a sample of them here – the muted colours and acutely-observed detail will draw you in as you catch a glimpse of some extraordinary characters living extraordinary lives.

The 2011 AP27 images can be viewed online at the American Photography website and more information can be found on their Facebook group.

Karan Kapoor selected for prestigious American Photography 27 award is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog.