Idan Gilony

What inspired the creation of the label UY, and what makes it different?

– Our Inspiration comes from our surrounding, different artists and Berlin’s characters, nightlife and music.  

How did you and Fanny Lawaetz meet, and how do you complement each other as artists?

– We met in fashion school, where we shared a working space together, we realised that we have a similar aesthetic taste and we inspired each other, very fast we understood that we are good partners and became a team.

What was the initial goal for UY Zone?

– Once a year we are celebrating UY’s existence, every year we are expressing it in a different way, this year we decided to collaborate with the Choreographer Matan Zamir in order to create a contemporary dance performance which was inspired by the theme of the collection – post war era.

What inspired the topic of UY Zone’s third zone?

– Third Zone was inspired by this exact significant turning point in people’s lives, melancholic yet slightly hopeful.

What is next for UY?

– Next for UY is the “ready to wear collection” inspired by the conceptual UY ZONE collection.

Bobby Collins

– The cameras I used were a 35mm film Canon f1 with a 50mm lens and an SX-70 Polaroid Land Camera. With the Canon, I used Kodak Portra 160iso film and Adox Silvermax 100 iso B&W film.

– With the event theme being ‘Post-War’, and with it also being primarily a fashion show, I wanted to mix the imagery, by using long shutter settings in dim lighting, to equalize the reappearing bright lighting, as the lighting for the event often fluctuated.

– In turn, the longer exposed shots had a ghostly feel to them, which was what I was aiming for. A hoary effect also occurred with some of the longer exposed images, as dust particles and debris appeared, due to the old camera (that I don’t take too much care of because i usually photoshop this out).

– With the polaroid, I used expired film, which also cause ghostly streaks and worn out looking spots across the image. I basically, empirically, experimented with some shots, and it worked out pretty well!

– And with other techniques, I was able to keep a continuity with the lighting/feel, and was able to make clear shots of the clothing and overall style…

– This is the third time I have shot for UY, and so I’m pretty keen to what they are looking for! They had a couple of volunteer photographers who were shooting digitally, however, I was invited to shoot on film, as they are looking for something artistic along with something documentative, considering that film cameras have a better range at producing many familiar, or classic effects.

Credits:

Photography by Bobby Collins

Idan Gilony interview by Karl Linderoth