Author Anne Enke’s Article on the CHANEL feature with Model Luana Teifke for VOGUE Brazil’s October 2010 Issue

Thanks to Anne Enke, Editor in Chief of the wonderful Blog “Anne of Carversville” for writing these kind words about the Chanel Feature in VOGUE Brazil.  You can read more about Anne, just following her essay. I highly recommend you visit Anne’s site. Highly illuminating to say the least.

Ben

Benjamin Kanarek | Luana Tiefke | Symphony on Ice | Vogue Brazil October 2010

There’s a reason why Toronto-native, Parisian-based photographer Benjamin Kanarek and I get along. In our digital-technology world of bullet-point, pulsating micro-moments, Benjamin Kanarek rows his production boat in the manner of a Manet painting.

His video of making “Symphony on Ice”, featuring model Luana Tiefke wearing Chanel in the October 2010 issue of Vogue Brazil, is a great example of Benjamin Kanarek in action. See Benjamin’s blog.

Don’t misunderstand me. It would be my kiss of fashion death to him, to describe Kanarek as refreshingly calming, superbly creative, artistically competent and — god forbid — having an accesible personality, in the frenetic world of fashion photography.

I’m sure Benjamin kicks serious butt as needed, but he’s just so not a diva, so not-self-absorbed, and so not full of himself, in spite of his considerable talent.

Fashion Shoot 101

You know the fashion video drill. Hair flying, music pulsating, everyone is beautiful and talented beyond belief. This business is not for mere mortals, but for God’s chosen people.
And excuse me, can you please get the whole video scene down to 90 seconds, because Internet viewers have no interest in understanding the genuine substance of working on a fashion shoot. Just give them the glossies, damn it. Readers don’t care about process; Powerpoint it.

Au contraire.

Benjamin shows us step-by-step how an entire team of people — down to the manicurist — created these splendid, blue-ice visual effects of Luana as the Violinist for Vogue Brazil’s September 2010 issue. Consider it a mini, eight-minute TED.com video for the fashion crowd, but without the activism. Then again, it is activist to both feature and credit the manicurist painting Luana’s nails blue.

I believe Benjamin Kanarek is an old soul, adept at mixing classicism and art with modernism, high fashion and technology — while making the video arty, fashion-shoot educational.

As for the blue-mood, Chanel on ice photos, they radiate a warm, sophisticated, Parisian energy. Perhaps it is this creative balance that Kanarek has mastered.
Enjoy the beautiful Luana, photographed by Kanarek wearing CHANEL for Vogue Brazil, September 2010, in the Arman Suite of Paris’s Hotel Lutetia. Anne … and read my postscript after the photos.

PS: It’s all making sense now. Paul Coelho strikes again in my life. I keep bumping into him at weird digital intersections, this time looking for the Symphony on Ice video on YouTube. Instead I have Benjamin and Coelho together.

Paul Coelho appears in my very favorite personal essay at Anne of Carversville: Sailing Towards Ithaca | Paul Coelho | CP Cavafy (aka Kavafis).I wasn’t looking for him that night either.

I see a great deal of this essay in Benjamin’s work. Go to Benjamin Kanarek’s blog to watch the video and watch my essay to get an outsider’s understanding of what makes this talented photographer tick. I’m just guessing, of course … women’s intuition.

by: Anne Enke

About Anne Enke:



Anne Enke is a career executive, managing the intersections of culture, commerce and human sexuality for American brands. A 10-year-executive with Victoria’s Secret, Anne has lived at the forefront of the challenging job of liberating the sensually repressed psyches of American women.

Since 2007, Anne has developed two websites AnneofCarversville.com and SensualityNews.com, building them from personal journals and a business blog into high-growth, multi-channel websites websites poised for dramatic expansion and sponsorship. Always thinking outside the box, Anne’s web formula is a word-intense, image-rich and breaks many rules of traditional web design.

Anne consults on branding and business development assignments in the beauty and lingerie industries, and is now working to add an exciting portfolio of luxury hotels to her client roster. She also creates proprietary presentations for clients, with a focus on influential, long-term, women’s lifestyle and design  trends.

Her current work is focused on tracking an evolving global values landscape focused on Traditional, Modern and Cultural Creatives mindsets. Anne articulates the consumption style of the evolving Smart Sensuality woman, who she describes as ‘sexy and smart with heart’.

Grounded in an understanding of Midwestern, American values, Anne moved to New York, then traveled internationally 50% of her time in Europe and Asia in her career with Victoria’s Secret. After managing a $50 million Victoria’s Secret business and launching a new concept store, Anne built the first product development office in Limited, Inc. before becoming the Fashion Director for Victoria’s Secret retail stores. She co-produced the first two Victoria’s Secret fashion shows, leaving the business in 1998, determined to stay on a focused path tracking women’s lifestyles in America and the world.

Through action, insights and personal experiences, Anne’s level of creativity and artistry put her at the forefront in interpreting the emerging fashion, art and culture movement she calls New Eroticism.

Immersed in the sensuality of Europe on a personal and business level, Anne’s understanding of the differences in expressions of eroticism in Italy or France versus America is rooted in psychology, gender relations, and cultural mores. An ardent feminist, with a New York University focus on the conscription of women’s lives in 5th century BC Greece,  Anne maintains a strong connection to body politics worldwide.

Her readers are 50/50 women and men, of every age, and are strongly represented in all English-speaking countries, including the Middle East. Many projects are in the works at AnneofCarversville.com, including Anne’s manuscript on healthy, sexy aging called “Sensual and Superyoung”; an ongoing comparison of the lives of American and French women; and new channels of erotic writing from readers, inspired by her essays.

About Benjamin Kanarek
Fashion and Beauty Photographer. Some of the magazines I have shot for include: VOGUE (China, Portugal, Brazil, Italia, Paris and South America & Mexico editions), RG VOGUE Brazil, Harper’s BAZAAR (China, en Español & Latin America, Hong Kong, Italy editions), L’Officiel Paris, ELLE (Spain, Portugal and Greece editions), Madame Figaro (France), Cosmopolitan (France and Italy editions), Glamour (France), Votre Beauté, Jardin des Modes, Dépêche Mode, New York Daily News, Fashion District News, New York Times Magazine, W (British edition), WWD, Fashion Magazine (Canada), Flare (Canada), Oyster, Tank, WestEast…