Busting Through Burnout: My Time with The Traveling Dress Collective
Back in July I had the opportunity to participate in The Traveling Dress Project. If you’ve never before heard of this project, here’s a quick rundown: a selected group of photographers located all around the world each have a chance to photograph the same dress. The dress travels from one photographer to the next, spending approximately a week with each person.
During their own week, each photographer a photo session with the dress. Throughout the duration of the project none of the photographers have a chance to see what the others have done. At the end it’s fun to see the different ideas everyone came up with.
When I was first approached about being a part of this project I was super excited. I couldn’t wait to participate & get my own chance to photograph whatever dress was decided on and put into circulation between us photographers. However, by the time the dress reached me I was a little drained because I was in the middle of switching up my career via a full-time bootcamp course. Over this summer I my Mon - Fri from 9-5 (and often BEYOND that) I was dedicating my time to putting my all into the course to become a UX Designer.
When the dress showed up at my door in a little box, I have to admit that I brought the box inside and then proceeded to ignore it for as long as I could. I already had so much going on mentally that I couldn’t even imagine dedicating any more energy into coming up with ideas for my shoot.
A week and a half flew by and I did come to the realization that my time with the dress was running out and I would soon have to pass it on to the next photographer. So 2 days before I had to mail it off to its next destination I managed to get my classmate to pose for me in the dress after class.
I shot my session at Ponce City Market using a small spot close to the belt line as my backdrop.
This spot doesn’t look like much at first glance, but I know you only need a corner of space and a vision to make your idea come to life. I was immediately inspired by this little bit of greenery to create a fairytale feel of a woman in a secret garden.
Was it challenging to find the inspiration for my shoot? Yes.
But am I glad I decided to be a part of this project and push myself to create photos I’m proud of? YES.
Here’s the result of my time with the dress:
