MODA MAGAZINE
Assistant Photography Director — 2019-2022
Delivered: Editorial Photography · Art Direction · Photo Editing
Moda Magazine is a student-run fashion and lifestyle publication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. As Assistant Photography Director, I helped shape editorial shoots from moodboard to approval to print while coordinating with photographers, stylists, models, and other creative teams. My work extended across multiple issues and assignments, but this project focuses on selected editorial photography that best demonstrates my approach to visual storytelling, art direction, composition, and post-production.
The Challenge
For Moda Magazine’s Subversive issue, created for Women’s History Month, the broader editorial direction centered on challenging systems, expectations, and visual conventions that shape women’s experiences. For the Warped shoot, I wanted to support that theme by creating imagery that felt intentionally unfamiliar—recognizable enough to draw the viewer in, but distorted enough to create discomfort and encourage a second look.
The Solution
I helped build an atmospheric, dimensional set using repeated newspaper pages, a swirling patterned rug, houseplants, a stool, and other familiar objects placed within an enclosed, windowless environment. A palette of purples, blues, lime, and mint greens pushed the space further from reality. I used colored gels to create monochromatic lighting, exaggerate shadows, and shift the emotional tone of each image. The posing was also intentionally unconventional, using tension and awkwardness to disrupt the expectations of a traditional fashion spread.
The Results
The final editorial created an otherworldly visual language that complemented the issue’s larger theme of subversion. Familiar domestic elements became strange through color, repetition, lighting, and posing, producing images designed to feel slightly unsettling at first and more layered upon closer inspection. This shoot demonstrated how design and art direction can use lighting and body language to reinforce a broader editorial concept.
