I chanced on images of Marlene Dietrich wearing a top hat and a smoking suit; an androgynous style of dress which she favored. It gave me the idea of setting up a photo session (aka photo shoot...though I dislike this term) in SoHo with Nimika. The top hat was ordered, and delivered in record time, and Nimika was ready to meet me on a reasonably pleasant day for a couple of hours.
I had planned to title my forthcoming gallery either "New York, New York" or "Cabaret". The former because we had come across an elderly man singing the eponymous Frank Sinatra's song while we were on Lispinard Street, or the latter because Liza Minelli wore a similar hat in the movie Cabaret.
However, I decided instead on "Dressed For The Image" as a nod to Marlene Dietrich's, the world renowned star of The Blue Angel and Shanghai Express. She said ""I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men."
I follow a number of Japanese photographers on Twitter, and I'm frequently influenced by their color graded images. The greenish-blue-grey grading doesn't work on all photographs, but when it does, the result is very pleasing.
