Harcum College’s fashion and photography programs recently engaged in a collaborative project at the college’s Art & Design Center.

Fashion instructor Angela Edmunds, along with photography director Drew Simcox and instructor Todd Murray, organized a lesson to help students from both programs learn more about what fashion photography demands, while photography students learned more about the needs and expectations of fashion students, who also doubled as models.

Edmunds had an idea for this project last spring.

“We were not able to carry it out then, as COVID-19 hit mid-semester, and we had just gotten moved to online,” she said. “I saw so much talent in the photography department and among fashion students in my Fashion Retailing class teaching styling, forecasting, and trend analysis. To bring the classes together, to network with each other helps them build relationships that carry on through their future careers.”

This project taught fashion students what it takes to prepare for and work on a fashion photo shoot as a designer and stylist, to understand a photo shoot from a photographer’s perspective, along with helping them complete a class requirement called “look books,” using the final photos.

Photography students got an invaluable opportunity to try different techniques and approaches to lighting (both interior and exterior), movement, lens selection, dropping out photo backgrounds, and composition that showcases the design and the effects of wearing designer clothing, while following strict COVID-19 protocols and implementing model release forms.

“The energy that day was incredible,” said Simcox. “These projects will show off the whole Art & Design Center. Everyone traded off the lessons they learned. It is exciting to see how they put their classroom learning in play. Ultimately, we had 920 shots for the final selection from more than 9,000 taken.”

This recent shoot is only the beginning, as this project can continue to grow and help highlight the talent among Harcum’s faculty and students. The goal is to make this an annual collaborative project during the spring semester. Next year, the plan includes adding the graphic design students to create a mini Harcum fashion magazine layout that features work from all the classes.

Fashion student Tehron Moment commented that this shoot was the highlight of his time as a designer and was grateful for the entire experience.

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