Picture Perfect: Fusion Six - Rebellious Squad - Prelude

3 years in the making. 2 months of planning. 1 passion project.

Let's rewind to 2012.

In spring 2012, while I was in the office typing up a proposal, a photo shoot idea popped up in my head. The original concept was to commission a photographer and gather a few close friends in this industry to do a creative shoot. However, the timing was not right so I had to put this idea to the back burner.

Fast forward to 2015. This month marks the 6th anniversary of Fusion of Effects. Since the beginning of this year, I had been thinking to create a nice celebration project, but nothing really came to my mind until I saw Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood video. Then I decided to revisit the 2012 idea with a new twist.

Group Shot by Ishmil Waterman at Cvtting Board 

Squad. This word may have been the most overused word in this year, but it always has a special meaning to me. Since 2010, I have been surrounded by people who have influenced me in a lot of ways. These 9 people are particularly special because each of them has a unique role in my world and represents a different phase of me in this industry. I have so much respect for them because they have worked very hard to achieve their goals. Most of them don’t play by the rules but follow their own paths to chase their dreams. Having this group of people to do a shoot together is truly a blessing.

In the public eyes, we always look glamorous and have a luxurious life. Therefore for this project, I wanted to go back to basics. We all had the same "uniform" – a white Gap t-shirt, a pair of denim from Over the Rainbow, and a pair of white Converse sneakers. Since I am a big illustration fan, I asked them to decorate the shirts and Converse to represent themselves. I know it was not an easy task for many of them, but the result was beyond my expectation.

Unlike the original idea, I decided to be the photographer for this project. I picked up photography again in 2014 and created a few interesting editorials with Stephen-Thomas in the past 12 months. Those mini projects gave me confidence in shooting again. Working with this group of people was a dream because I got to capture my impression on each person through my lens. I personally am very impressed with the final version of this photo series.

This Rebellious Squad project consists of a lot of love and good memories from the past 6 years. In the next 5 days, I welcome you to meet my squad members.