fashion blog

You recently saw a couple of the photos we took with AskoJonathan Photography for my Happily Ever After-act. Because behind-the-scenes photos always make things better here's the set up for the series. A lot can be, and is done by photoshop, but the more you can put into the set organically the better. So I had the other photoshootees of the day functioning as ground for my rose bushes. As one does. Obviously the raw shots where there's a faun peeking out under my elbow are the best ones. Here are some shots of how the actual act looks on stage - photo: Bernhard Miettinen photo: Minna Jerrman photo: Bernhard Miettinen It's my most Burton-esque act, that even though it begins eerie and sad, sort of a too-late Sleeping Beauty scenario, actually is rather humorous. In a tragicomic Burton kind of way. It started out as an idea for a quick Halloween act for our own event, where I wanted to dance with, what I first just planned as a ghost out of fabric, but then came up with - a ...

The crowd-funded Atelieri O.Haapala book is finally here and it is so beautiful I almost want to cry! The bi-lingual book -the texts are both in Finnish and English- features the studio's portraits and distinctive style of photography from the last decade (the studio/project was active 2008-2016 and produced more than 7000 portraits),  taking you on a journey trough an imaginary past: Performers, artists, family portraits, guests at events who photographed themselves in the popup photo booth, as well as some of the studio's own project series and adventure scenarios... ...not to forget a few of Saara and Marcos, the photographers', most iconic theme-looks! But apart from being a book with hundreds of beautiful creative images to aesthetically enjoy, this work functions as quite the emotional nostalgia pack for me, being filled with amazing people, dear friends, and oh-so many memories. The Atelieri O.Haapala book is a superb coffee table book and will most definitely make ...

Photo: Neil Kendall It will be a full moon tonight and if the sky is clear I know I will most likely be woken up by it, as it stares straight into my window around 3am with a light strong enough to penetrate my sleep. But I still don't want to close the curtains because there is just something about being woken up by a bright full moon, so I most often tend to stare back at it for a while and ponder the universe. So in honour of that I'll post a picture from a photo series inspired by Méliès 1902 film  La Voyage Dans La Lune – taken   at the end of this summer, when I had the chance to shoot with amazing vintage style photographer Neil Kendall in Chester and I got to be the first one to try out his new moon set! Not to be shared without proper credits.

Ok, perhaps not exactly. But suitably for a time of growth, flowers, resurrection and Easter witches Asko and I did a photoseries for my act Happily Ever After, which is something of a reversed Sleeping Beauty ghost story. Photos by Asko Rantanen / Asko Jonathan Photography Concept and muah by me.

Anyone who has rad my blog troughout the years would by this point be familiar with Atelieri O.Haapala ,  the neo-victorian portrait studio by Saara Salmi and Marco Melander! The project went on for a decade, and there were many amazing themes, backdrops and set ups, with thousands of beautiful pictures as a result. I've had the pleasure to have my photo taken several time during the years, both in studio but mainly at the pop-up events. And now they are aiming to make a beautiful and elaborate book out of it! You can pre-order the book by supporting Atelieri's Indiegogo campaign , or support the book with smaller printed perks. And please do! You will love it - and I definitely want my copy too - so lets make this happen! You can find most of Atelieri O.Haapalas photos in their  Facebook albums . Oh, and the image you see being edited at one spot in the film? This is the final version; from Helsinki Burlesque Festival 2017. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/atelieri-o-haapal...

Hi there! I am still around, believe it or not! I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Let's see if we'll see more of each other in 2018, perhaps? Photo: Asko Rantanen / Asko Jonathan photography

Late last summer we shot a series of editorial photos with Karl Vilhjálmsson for a feature article series for  Hufvudstadsbladet .  The series is about lust and how it has been depicted and received in film, literature and society in Finland. The articles talk about censorship of erotica and sex and Finnish film history related to that, how a famous daring film affected the actress, and also about the many faces of porn, the small domestic industry as well as research around the subject. Modelling with me were Ruska Schönberg and Sampo Marjomaa. Some of the images we shot in our back yard, I guess the views are familiar to some of you already. The images play with the mindscapes and clichés around the themes. We had a lot of fun shooting these!  (And some people were, of course, offended by the whole thing).  Photos by Karl Vilhjálmsson.

The Pin-Up Finland calendar for 2018, featuring the finalists of the competition, is out now! And the very intense yearly "pageant"-weekend is also over. I slept until 12 today and had a big milkshake for lunch and am now at our studio with the intention to actually attend one of our guest-teacher classes myself. Mondays are my Sundays you know ! Anyway, here are the calendar pictures! The cover picture depictsde a usual day at the Shangri-La Rubies office. January: Lily Wanderlust February: Mondy Delight & Marie Luscious March: Lady Winkheart April: Shanona Dreem  May: Miss Kris June: Arctic Cherry  July: Stormin A. Teacup & Betty von Black August: Miss Alice Angel  September: Nancy Gold & Miss Cherry Bow October: Sin D.Skye  November: Miss Rosie Revolution December: Lilia Regina & Sanita de Champagne What is your favourite month? The jury selected Sin D.Skye as this year's Pin-Up Finland! 1st runner up was Stormin A.Teacup and 2nd Miss Kris! But as ...

This summer and fall I have as usual been working with Pin-Up Finland, which is the oldest and biggest pin-up competition for aspiring pin-up models over here,  creating and directing photoshoots for the finalists together with Tinker Bell and planning the show at the Pin-Up Finland finals in Lahti. This year we shot a calendar old school style for the competition.  It both amazes and pleases me to find how much stuff and how many props one has gathered during the years, as a lot of the things we use for shoots we grab from the stashes at home. Different skills come in to place. Like the anatomy of lifting skirts for example. (Or how to smoothly blow up beach balls, as un-willingly demonstrated by yours truly over in a video series at IG ...) All set-up and light-check images must always be dorky. In the end got to shoot a little ourselves as well. Concepting and styling photoshoots is something I really like to do and would I have more time over from the rest of the eclectic ...

Iiro Nurminen 1960, Helsingin Kaupunginmuseo Vappu.   Valborg . Vappen. The most likely biggest of the Finnish festivities!  Party-wise, I guess. If the city empties at Midsummer Vappu is the opposite - the city is full of thousands and thousands of celebrating people. We've had mead and funnel cakes and donuts for a the past days and I'm getting rather stuffed by now. Vappen is a festivity for quirky hats and faux noses and costumes and serpentines and confetti (and just making a mess our of everything in general). Kindergartens and schools most often have a masquerade they day before Vappu. Last year Dag was a ninja , this year he went as his latest obsession: a knight! Costumes that I wore when I was little included princess (quelle surprise), medieval lady and cowgirl. I've spent most of my Vappu-day, as in the day after; 1st of May, out on town celebrating since early morning, and even those years I was on shift in the harbour I tried to sneak in a visit to to the park...