The LAFASHION Spring
CONTRIBUTING WRITERSNOEL ALUMIT • SARA BERKES • NICOLE RUNNINGEN • JULIANNA MARANON • MANOLIS MELISSINOSMEGHAN WILSON • STACI ADAMS • YASMIN SANTANA • MORGANNE PICARD • CECEE McDANIELVIVIAN MONTOYA • KATIE NEBLETT • JESSICA VALLADARES • EMILY WILSONCONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSODESSY BARBU • ALEXIS CHONG • ANDRE CORDOVA • MARTA ELENA • RICK DAY • RANDY DUNBARBLAKE JAMES • WES KLAIN • DIANE LIEU • JULIA McKIM • MATTHEW MITCHELL • KAI HE • MICHAEL OLIVERI • SCOTT NAIDE • ZEKE RUELAS • JOEY TRON • NINO VIA • KELLY WEBBCONTRIBUTING STYLISTS MAKE UP ARTISTSBRUNO LIMA • CATHY HIGHLAND • TALIA McILWAIN • ESTEVAN RAMOS • FELIX BUSTAMANTE • KAT FORD • HARPERJESSE J • BRIAN PRIMEAUX • MYNXH WHITE • WILLIAM WILLIAMS • JEFFREY SCOTT • MITZI SPALLAS • KIMBERLEE BARLOW
CONTRIBUTING WRITERSNOEL ALUMIT • SARA BERKES • NICOLE RUNNINGEN • JULIANNA MARANON • MANOLIS MELISSINOSMEGHAN WILSON • STACI ADAMS • YASMIN SANTANA • MORGANNE PICARD • CECEE McDANIELVIVIAN MONTOYA • KATIE NEBLETT • JESSICA VALLADARES • EMILY WILSONCONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSODESSY BARBU • ALEXIS CHONG • ANDRE CORDOVA • MARTA ELENA • RICK DAY • RANDY DUNBARBLAKE JAMES • WES KLAIN • DIANE LIEU • JULIA McKIM • MATTHEW MITCHELL • KAI HE • MICHAEL OLIVERI • SCOTT NAIDE • ZEKE RUELAS • JOEY TRON • NINO VIA • KELLY WEBBCONTRIBUTING STYLISTS MAKE UP ARTISTSBRUNO LIMA • CATHY HIGHLAND • TALIA McILWAIN • ESTEVAN RAMOS • FELIX BUSTAMANTE • KAT FORD • HARPERJESSE J • BRIAN PRIMEAUX • MYNXH WHITE • WILLIAM WILLIAMS • JEFFREY SCOTT • MITZI SPALLAS • KIMBERLEE BARLOW
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“Art is a zeitgeist that cannot be touched.<br />
It can be expressed in never-ending ways but<br />
the core of “art” is subjective indefinitely.”<br />
Lets start with your name, it’s so European,<br />
yet you’re from Reno? How did your parents<br />
come to give you the name Franz?<br />
Yes, very Euro, its Czech and German. My fathers side of the<br />
family wanted to name me “Fido” but fortunately my mom<br />
vetoed that and named me Franz. My grandfathers name is<br />
Francois, my fathers name is Ferenc…do you see a trend here?<br />
In the process of creating your images, how<br />
much is created after the photo is taken?<br />
I try to set-up as much as I can prior, so the the scene is<br />
“photo ready” …most people don’t actually realize that my<br />
photographs are completely physical. I’ve often heard people<br />
think they are stock photographs or fully composited, but<br />
in reality I build the set completely and photograph each<br />
character in the scene separately. That being said, I focus on<br />
color alteration and tinting after the photograph is completed,<br />
and a few other magic touches.<br />
When you look for inspiration, where do you<br />
usually go?<br />
I’m mostly inspired from worlds that no longer exists /<br />
times past. Im inspired from illustrations, children’s stories,<br />
mythology, and theatrical characters. I love traveling, I could<br />
sit at a cafe and people watch all day. Although I always feel<br />
enlightened when staring at a beautiful sunset or enjoying<br />
a haunting thunderstorm… I’m most inspired sitting in a<br />
library with a stack of beautiful old books. Pierre et Gilles,<br />
Joel Peter Witkin, Marc Davis, Alastair and Harry Clarke and<br />
George Melies are all brilliant artists who greatly inspire me.<br />
You have worked with Furne One, any other<br />
designers who you have worked with?<br />
I’ve done a lot of work with Furne because we share the<br />
same love and aesthetic of drama, silhouette and theatricality.<br />
<strong>The</strong> universe definitely aligned the two of us. I have<br />
photographed Michael Cinco’s work for an editorial, which<br />
is also magnificent. I would like to expand my connection<br />
with other designers. I would greatly love to photograph<br />
the works of the great “GGMM” I like to call it. (Gaultier,<br />
Galliano, Mugler and McQueen).<br />
What is the soundtrack you listen to while<br />
working?<br />
I mostly listen to orchestral music while I work, even during<br />
the photoshoots this is what I play. It sets the tone for the<br />
models and really puts people into character. Heavy beats<br />
are great for bringing out the fierceness in a model, but<br />
Tchaikovsky and Les Baxter help a model bring out the<br />
emotion and character of a model. When I work on the<br />
photo in post, I listen to a lot of Thomas Newman, John<br />
Debney, Alan Silvestri. Enigma and Goldfrapp or also quite<br />
lush and cinematic.<br />
Is your work about art, fashion, the subconscious,<br />
all of the above?<br />
I like to create work as a theatrical exploration of all of<br />
the above, somewhat. I’m not sure if my work is “about<br />
art” because art is a zeitgeist that cannot be touched. It<br />
can be expressed in never-ending ways but the core of<br />
“art” is subjective indefinitely. Although I express fashion<br />
in my images, I also never want to make work that follows<br />
a trend or can be pinpointed to any specific time or place.<br />
Transcendentalism is something I embody in my work, it<br />
forces the viewer to think at a higher level when something<br />
cannot be easily understood or identified. I love to celebrate<br />
androgyny for the same reasons. I think when these<br />
philosophies are applied, it inherently takes the viewer into a<br />
“sub-conscious” state of mind. Much like that of dreaming,<br />
the joy is to find the space in-between your thoughts.<br />
<strong>The</strong> exhibit in Palm <strong>Spring</strong>s has a theme, a<br />
subject?<br />
<strong>The</strong> exhibit in Palm <strong>Spring</strong>s will be a continuation of my<br />
show Hapenis, which I’ve shown at the Project One Gallery<br />
in San Francisco and here in Los Angeles at the PopTart<br />
Gallery. Each piece of my work takes roughly 3-4 months to<br />
create, so as of now my gallery shows are a continuation of<br />
the next with pieces added as I progress. <strong>The</strong> show reception<br />
will be the evening of Thursday February 20th and will run<br />
for four weeks.<br />
36<br />
LA FASHION SPRING 2014 thelosangelesfashion.com