Glitterati in a Flash — How I spent a Month Photographing High Society Parties
Party vignettes from New York’s fanciest galas.
Welcome to In the Flash, a reader-supported publication about intent and creativity in photography.
In November 2014, I found myself sitting at a dinner table across Donald Trump. I had a filet mignon with shaved white truffles. Also in attendance were your garden-variety celebrities — models, actors and fashion designers. The following day I was at Paul McCartney’s soiree in Lincoln Center, doing my best not to faint (having been a diehard Beatlemaniac since I was 13). For the next three weeks, I worked on a project for New York Magazine photographing high society and celebrity studded events all around the city. It was a strange month.
Taking photos of the rich and famous is a tricky endeavor if the goal is to have them not pose for the camera, especially when working with an off-camera light. I have to invade the subjects’ space by getting uncomfortably close, and then make sure they ignore me entirely while my assistant flashes them in the face. This requires two tactics, misdirection and speed. For the former, I direct my gaze right above or to the side of the person I am photographing, making them believe there is a bigger and more interesting celebrity I am after. The moment I lock eyes with the person I am photographing, game over. Misdirection has about 90% success rate when combined with speed. I can get no more than 3 shots done at an epilepsy-inducing pace before the unwitting subject realizes they are the target. When that confrontation happens, I smile and walk away, though when Paul McCartney sternly shook his head at me, my soul died a little. I got my shot though.
When photographing the 1%, I am not being a social justice warrior looking to condemn or ridicule. Being both an outsider and a temporary insider creates a dissonance, an illusory feeling of belonging induced by unlimited black caviar canapés and free-flowing champagne. I try to channel the low-key anxiety resulting from a piquant mix of envy and bemusement into a voyeuristic glimpse of an insulated and unattainable subculture.
I attended 15 different events that November, from balls to galas to charity lunches, but all the photos appear to have been taken in the span of a single evening. My off-camera flash achieved the equalizing effect by throwing the background into deep shadow while highlighting the subjects with a theatrical spotlight. The people in the photos exist in a non-descript black void, a Mount Olympus bejeweled in traces of luxury materializing through the darkness. My camera is often intrusive, but no matter how close, the oversized diamond rings and designer purses signal an unbridgeable rift between their world and ours.
Find me on Instagram, @dina_litovsky
I am a fan of your photography and writing and I am very interested to know how your shooting process in the crowded dark places with the off camera flash goes. May be there is an article about it I have not seen yet.
I do shoot dance and music events that have similar circumstances like yours, and I like the OCF, but for this one either needs to have an assistant and have a very good connection between each other, and experience of doing that together. It also more expensive client. When I try doing it by myself, with the flash in my hand, it slows things down, and I miss shots. Also, there is lot of missed shots as the handhold flash is not always lights what I hope.
I think it is a very interesting topic. You did touch it a little in the article about the high society parties. Thank you for the valuable insights 🙂
However, in my humble opinion, this topic of shooting in dark crowded environment with off camera flash deserves a separate article :)