I am thrilled to the gills to announce the eminent fashion and art photographer/videographer Elli Ioannou, is Voxfrock’s new fashion shooter in Paris. 
“Photography is my gateway to connection with people and diverse experiences,” Elli says and, “I am drawn to video because it enhances the immersive experience for the viewer.”
Brace for revelations.
Elli and her evocative, 16 year oeuvre, especially of fashion photography, are well known in commercial and art circles here. A few weeks ago however, she stepped away from that comfortable grounding and into metaphorical thin air. She moved to Paris.
“Europe has been on my horizon for many years but, I would always end up back in Australia.” This time something was different. “I left Australia within six weeks of making the decision. Sometimes, just making the decision about where you don’t want to be… and the opportunities and possibilities come rushing in.”
Today, Voxfrock presents a tease, a slim skim of Elli Ioannou’s first impressions of Paris fashion weeks as a budding Parisian. She trains her lense on the tail-end of Paris’s menswear week and around the first of its haute couture show series. Her gaze is soft and frank and just a little joyful, as might yours be too, on the lip of such a Great Adventure.
“The beauty of shooting at fashion week, is that I don’t have the same pressure as most of the photographers here…I want to show that it’s really an industry; beyond the glamour, people work really hard, breaking down general perceptions that it’s empty or fake…”
Elli is intrigued by what she calls the “busyness” of people: “How many people work on one model (for example), at times five people!”
She is equally intrigued by the extraordinary architecture of many fashion week venues and, in this and recent series, the obvious blossoming of art forms and media within the shows – “Louis Vuitton’s use of Japanese installation artist Ohmaki Shinji at the Parc Andre Citroen show gave the collection another level of uniqueness..”
Enjoy this, the first of our Elli’s Eyes photo essays, and brace for more intrigues as her new life unfolds….
ELLI IOANNOU Career Highlights
BA, photography, RMIT and MVA, Monash University. Awards: PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris (France), Black & White ‘Spider awards (UK), BMW fashion photography winner (Australia), finalist in Nick Knight’s 2016 SHOWSTUDIO fashion films, finalist 2016 VAMFF fashion films, selected for 2016 Benetton’s Imago Mundi Australia collection.
Exhibitions include Milan ‘Salone del mobile’ 2010 (inclusion of video and the only artist among 20 furniture designers). Commissions include shooting backstage at Vivienne Westwood for I-D magazine, inclusion in Vivienne Westwood’s book, 100 days of Active Resistance and projects with Kit Willow Podgornik including shoots at New York Fashion Week and the video for the designer’s last London Fashion Week outing.
Inspirations (from Elli Ioannou’s lips) “…People’s stories, art and how it can transform a state of being, creative collaboration, life experience and the personal growth it offers, beauty in the everyday, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, body-mind-spirit connection, philosophy, the mind, design, learning, teaching, literature, biographies, connectedness, community, love, joy, serenity….”.
Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
