“We’re looking for something Fresh and we like your shapes Idea”. Giselle Hon, fashion editor of one of South Afica’s biggest circulating Womens magazine explains her massive 24 page editorial. It’s the May issue. Which is their September Issue. Her dog, Coco, pants warm doggy breath on my toes under the table. Track 13 of the Official Vida CD plays over our conversation. I’ve memorized but not yet deciphered the lyrics. “Are you sure Rooi Rose is my style?” I ask timidly. Rooi Rose is an Afrikaans Womans Monthly which has been in the Caxton media stable for over 65 years with 850 000 monthly readers.

I don’t sleep the night after the meeting. The 6mg of Melatonin sleeping tablets from Wellness Warehouse doesn’t kick in between 2am and 4am. It’s impossible to come up with an idea, a treatment, a location, do a casting and source the clothes for 8 DPS’s and 8 ‘looks’ by next Thursday. I’m pouring my soul into this. My girlfriend will witness the effects of this stress in later weeks when she discovers me sleepwalking around the holiday house ‘looking for shapes’. In the morning I start location scouting. Scouting is less fun than it sounds. I’m in the trokkie, I’m up the mountain, I’m talking, I’m phoning, I’m mobile googling, I’m sweating. By 4pm I find MacSteel in Belville. I can tell no location scouts or photographers have even stepped foot in this part of Industria. I’m charming the secretaries with my glam fashion industry stories. MacSteel is a shape paradise. Piles of steel wrapped in hexagons. Rolled aluminum stacked to the roof ready for pressing in to pixels.

It’s 10am on day one. Our Argentinian model Estefania clicks into automation. She’s good. She laughs at my pose stetches. “They’re so cute”. Giggle giggle. She’s standing between 9 foot plates of raw steel while a curious crane loader hovers overhead like a bot from The Matrix. Mirage, the MacSteel stock manager, sticks to my side throughout. Fashion photography is much more interesting than loading pipes. Mirage strikes me as the the type of employee the company can’t live without but will never be promoted. He’s wedged himself under an industry machine and he’ll prop it up for the next 50 years. The factory workers mingle around the set during breaks. Between poses I hear “yeah, that’s sexxeeee” in that cheeky South Belville drawl.

Here’s the gallery of images from the shoot.

Some behind the scenes shots were taken by my Assist, Renier Botha:

On the Factory Floor

Our Audience of Steelworkers

The Curious Hovering Bot

Fashion Editor Giselle making sure