CONTRIBUTORS
BILLIE SMOLENAERS
“It’s always been a dream of mine to shoot for Vogue,” says Melbourne-based model Billie ‘Smolsy’ Smolenaers, who travelled to Sydney’s famed Palm Beach for the fashion feature ‘Now wave’, from page 124. Shooting her first-ever story for Vogue for an issue focussed on sustainability, diversity, creativity and innovation was an opportunity Smolenaers says she will never forget. “[It was] so much fun having a shoot with a group of girls, all from different backgrounds and different ethnicities,” she says. “It felt like we were one big family.”
WILL DAVIDSON
For this issue, celebrated fashion photographer
Will Davidson travelled to Western Australia’s beautiful Kimberley region to shoot ‘Life aquatic’ starring Charlee Fraser, from page 104. “The light rises differently in Kuri Bay,” he says of the remote coastal location, where Paspaley sources its worldrenowned pearls. “Watching the sun tip over the horizon and across the red and rugged Western Australia rockscape on the way to work each morning is an experience none of us will ever forget.”
ELIZABETH COLMAN
For Elizabeth Colman, content director at The Australian, penning an essay urging readers to accept different opinions and views in the age of ‘cancel culture’ (see page 33) was an assignment she was eager to undertake. “I believe we’re experiencing a kind of social jet lag from suddenly being connected to billions of people at once,” she says of the ‘post-woke’ world. “Seeing things from other perspectives fosters a far deeper connection to humanity than you’ll ever get scrolling down a news feed.”
TONY THIEL
Working with the Vogue team on location in Kuri Bay proved quite the change of pace for Paspaley’s pearling production general manager Tony Thiel. Having organised a group of divers to play background models, Thiel reports the men were both thrilled and surprised by what they learnt. “They were amazed to see the amount of work that went into a shoot of this kind,” he says, adding: “I thought they did a great job, but I think they’ll be sticking to their day jobs.”