My experience shooting Paris Fashion Week at 15

When I was 15, I had the privilege of studying and living in Paris, France for three weeks. I’m an only child and I’ve always had an incline for travel. My mom grew up traveling, lived across the world, and then proceeded to be a travel guide in Asia.

As a young child, my parents took me everywhere. I’m so beyond fortunate enough to have traveled to a number of countries and have experienced a number of exotic cultures. I traveled alone to Tanzania, Africa the summer before on a community service trip. The trip was incredible and I couldn’t have had a better summer or experience. However as I was planning my 2019 summer, I wanted something a little less “structured” and something where I could really be independent.

At that point, photography became a job and a huge passion for me. As my mom and I were researching for hours on end, we stumbled upon Paris College of Art. They were offering a photography program to photograph Paris Fashion Week Street Style. You lived in an apartment, went to school everyday for the first week and a half, and the remainder of the time, fashion week began and you were shooting 4-6 shows a day.

The course was centered around street style, however, my teacher was an accredited magazine photographer in Paris who had jobs to shoot for a number of shows. At one point, it became too much for her, she couldn’t be in two places at once. She asked another girl in the course and I to step in for her at some shows. We would say we were her “assistants” and then crouch down into the most overwhelming but exliterating photography pit. I’m not the fashion girl so the clothes and the runaway weren’t the highlight for me, but the energy that I immediately felt as I walked into these shows was remarkable. Yes, there was a surge of “influencers” speaking to their instagrams, but there was so much life, so much light.

Anyway, I got the privilege to photograph some of the shows in the photography pit and felt like a true photographer. Something that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I mainly shot smaller brands, but I did get to go into Chanel - which as you can imagine was a fantasy and more.

The world of fashion photography is constantly evolving and changing, especially since the paparazzi are swarming around every celebrity at these shows and then photography starts to feel so ingenuine. However, I learned so much that I can’t even begin to put into words.

A huge piece of advice that I learned throughout this experience was that the world of fashion photography is chaotic and crazy, so you have to find what makes your photos special. Photographing girls on a runway in more ways than one can become extremely repetitive, so you need to find your niche, which makes your “girl walking on a runway” picture different from everyone else’s.

In my final points of this article, I wanted to briefly touch on the magic of Paris and the magic of living there alone at 15. I made great friendships so it was super refreshing to be around constant fun european energy, however, I did spend a lot of time alone. Roaming around the streets of Le Marais, reading in book stores in El Montmartre, shopping in the 2nd arrondissement, etc. I learned a lot about myself, and came back home feeling like a completely more mature and sophisticated person. Living alone is one thing, but living alone in Europe is another. There are no “rules” there, so you can drink wine with your friends when you have your 10’oclock dinner, and no one will say anything. You have a freedom that no one can take away. The lives of Europeans during the summertime are so free. No-stress, no tears, just love and summer happiness. 

I hope you guys can someday experience the magnificent and glorious streets and life of Paris. 

X, 

Stella Rae