model » Raji Barbir Photography

Woman in Mourning

Sep 022010

I’ll be honest. Death has been a great big part of my life. I’d say it’s hit close to home, but that would be a lie.

It hit home.

Twice.

So although I’m not one of those people who has some obscene fascination with death, it’s certainly something I’ve been intimately exposed to.

In fact, we’ve all had our brushes with death, whether by our own experiences (I fell through a roof once when I was about 15 – I remember not being able to breathe and thinking “I can’t breathe anymore. This is it. I’m gonna die.”) or because we knew people who died.

And I do want to point something out. I don’t like to filter the language in describing death. I don’t say “passed away” or “went to a better place”.

It’s death! It’s not supposed to be pleasant or easy to say. It’s tragic and it’s painful.

And so, with all of that comes the narrative of this series. The idea came to me in November of 2009 and I immediately knew I wanted to illustrate the quiet and lonely suffering we all endure when confronted with the death of a loved one.

Many thanks to Kari Hawker (model), Ashlen Saunders Duke (hair stylist), Shanda Palmer from FaseItMakeup (makeup artist) and AultoRest Memorial for allowing us to shoot there!!

Jeremy & Alisha - Married... Have been for a while :)

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Sep 012010

I was sadly unable to shoot or even attend Alisha’s wedding when she got married to her handsome husband earlier this summer. I was already booked for another wedding on her big day.

When I first met Alisha, she was one of the more depressed people I knew. Soon after we met and worked together on a few projects (all film projects at the time), she got divorced and went through a horrible separation process while I watched helplessly from the sidelines.

She was a wreck.

And I didn’t realize how much of a wreck she was until I saw her transform into the happiest version of Alisha I’ve ever known.

So what defines a person? What makes them who they are? Well. Sometimes, it’s another person.

Here’s Jeremy, Alisha and their kids:

And here’s some random model shots of both of them. Can you tell who I’ve worked with most between the two? Oh and check out the contact section of my website. It has Alisha yelling into a megaphone

Dani and my dead Holga

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Aug 232010

I know I just barely posted about her, but here’s a test shoot I did with my new Holga and off-camera lighting. Dani’s holding the old broken Holga.

Fitness instructor

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Aug 052010

Here’s a portrait session of Clint, a fitness instructor that needed some updated shots of himself.

These are not the shots he used, these are just my personal favorites

Dani Jae... Again...

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Jun 022010

Beyond our professional relationship, Dani and I are close friends. So it made perfect sense that late at night on May 19th, Dani called to see if I’d be available to shoot the very next day. She needed some shots of an outfit before she had to return it to its designer on May 20th, the night of our shoot.

I want to mention something in passing.

I love Dani (big surprise, huh?). It’s no coincidence I’ve worked with her seven times with no apparent end in sight. She’s impossibly fun to be around, easy to work with and endlessly talented.

And about that talent, I remember taking those first few shots thinking “Man, I don’t have to tell her anything. We’re in perfect sync. She just moves exactly the way I’d like a model to.”

This last one isn’t particularly good, it’s just a pre-cursor to something I’m shooting next week

Doing the laundry...

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May 122010

…never looked so sexy!

I’ve had this shoot in mind since late last year, so when I was finally in a position to do the concept a few weeks ago, I knew I had to have the best.

Enter two excellent women: Rachel Wixom (model) and Danielle Carlsen (makeup and hair).

Here are the results:

The Music Project - Part 1 of Infinity

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May 042010

What is The Music Project? Well, it’s a simple concept of mine. Here we go:

The Music Project

Listening to great music, and I mean really great music, elicits an avalanche of powerful images in my head. So powerful in fact, that with the best of songs or melodies, I am completely paralyzed in my visual imagination run amuck. The whole world falls away and all I’m left with is what I see from what I’m listening to.

So one day, I decided to attempt releasing everything that remained a prisoner in my mind.

Because I want you to experience what I do.

I started digging through all the music I loved, asking myself the biggest question behind the concept for The Music Project:

“What do I see?”

This will be an ongoing project with new photography concepts for new songs. I won’t be posting the songs together with the images, or even the lyrics. Hopefully, if you enjoy my work enough, it’ll make you want to go out and buy albums and MP3s. Nothing would make me happier than to find out there’s a spike in sales for every song that inspires me to a shoot.

Let’s kick things off with Regina Spektor’s “Summer in the City”.

Many thanks to Shanda Palmer and Nick Hemsley for the amazing makeup and hair, respectively, and of course my good friend, the endlessly energetic and beautiful Dani Jae for modeling, even in a bar full of men who all wanted to buy her a drink. I was planning on buying her a drink for the shoot anyway, but a customer did it for me.

First model shoot of the year

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Apr 222010

That’s actually not something I’m proud of… First model shoot this year?… That’s terrible!

But here we go anyway and I’m quite proud of some of those. I’ve done another shoot since (where the images absolutely ROCKED!!) and planning at least another two for the coming weeks.

Many thanks to all involved!

I should also mention something. I’m sure some of you have noticed this, but I’ve developed a real thing for black and white photography. So much so that the last concept I shot was designed only as a black and white shoot. Color was never an option. It had to be about movement, composition and more than anything else, the narrative of the story. More on that shoot when I post it. But if you look at the vast majority of these, you’ll see a lot of black and white. I just looked at them and though “Why the hell do I need color in these?”

Enjoy!

First test

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Sep 152009

Ok, remember my last post? No? Short memory you’ve got…

Scroll down. I’ll give you a minute…

Done?

Ok great!

Well here’s my first attempt at shooting the appearance of video using my photo camera!!

Alisha from Raji Barbir on Vimeo.

Not exactly great, but it’s very, VERY exciting for me.

Alisha is a close friend of mine with whom I’ve worked many times. She rules. She needed me to do some photography of her working out, but before we got started, I asked her if it’d be ok to do this so I could see if the concept would actually work.

AND IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m guessing almost everyone reading this is completely unimpressed. But this is HUGE for me.

I’m going to start actively seeking out one female model or actress for an idea I’ve had buzzing around in my head for a music video.

Most of August

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Sep 132009

Here’s most of August that I’ve been depriving you of.

Day 208/365

From Dustin & Cassie’s wedding. This was at the golf course in the morning before the wedding. We got kicked out of there… The place even called the cops on us!! I tell ya, it’s gonna be hard for any couple to beat the excitement of getting the cops called on us on the wedding day!

In fact, I’d like to ask that you please don’t make your wedding more exciting than that.

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Then, true story, I went to the Great Clips to shoot pictures of the bride getting her hair done and got kicked out of there too!

Then I fell in a river in the amazon forest and a bunch of pirhanas ate my foot and half my chest. I look really interesting now.

Day 209/365

A headshot for a terrific actress and a personal friend of mine, Joylynne.

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Day 210/365

Megan bridal shoot

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Day 211/365

Marianne actually thinks showing THIS picture of her will hurt my wedding portfolio…

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Day 212/365

My promos before they went out. (iPhone photo)

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Day 213/365

The piano is in my basement now! Seems like I’m gradually moving all of my house down in my basement… Why don’t I live in an apartment? (iPhone photo)

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Day 214/365

The uhh… The bride had a bigger piece of cake… Wouldn’t you agree?

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Day 215/365

Although the groom looks deeply concerned for his new wife, they actually had a lot of fun on that trampoline.

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Day 216/365

I LOOOOOOVE this picture!!!! I’m fascinated with celloists and violinists at weddings. I’m seriously considering hanging it up somewhere.

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Day 217/365

Swinging (iPhone photo)

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Day 218/365

The neighborhood on my way to the mailbox… I was really lazy with that shot… (iPhone photo)

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Day 219/365

Utah Business Magazine shoot

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Day 220/365

Amanda’s bridal shoot

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Day 221/365

Amy gets a few extra words from me.

I loved working with Amy. Her optimism and enthusiasm was unstoppable, contageous and inspiring.

All weddings experience hiccups. All of them. If you’re reading this and you’re getting married soon and thinking “Not mine!”, then my answer is, “Yes, yours too.” It’s just how it is. So since hiccups are inevitable, the question becomes about how you respond to those hiccups.

Amy’s wedding was no different. Her wedding day was almost moved to 9/11. Not exactly a bride’s first choice. Then on the wedding day, the best man couldn’t make it.

Amy responded to every hiccup throughout the day, big or small, with grace, patience, endless optimism and a smile on her face.

So yeah, I loved working with Amy. That second shot of her will tell you everything you need to know about her vibrant and endlessly optimistic personality.

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Day 222/365

After a long-ish stretch of work, I decided to treat myself to Lewis Black’s excellent comedy in Wendover. The show was hilarious. I always wished I could have seen Carlin in Vegas before he died earlier this year. I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake with Lewis Black. (iPhone photo)

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Day 223/365

Robby & Jessica

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Day 224/365

I have a fascination with wires and skies (iPhone photo)

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Day 225/365

I printed this 11×14 of a shot that I’d taken with my iPhone (iPhone photo – yes, that means it’s an iPhone photo of an iPhone photo)

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Day 226/365

I took a very long walk that night (iPhone photo)

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Day 227/365

For giving me the green card after such a long and difficult struggle, I gave back to my immigration attorney by doing a free model-style shoot of his beautiful daughter.

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Older Entries

Woman in Mourning

Jeremy & Alisha - Married... Have been for a while :)

Dani and my dead Holga

Fitness instructor

Dani Jae... Again...

Doing the laundry...

The Music Project - Part 1 of Infinity

First model shoot of the year

First test

Raji Barbir Photography

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