Award-winning documentary photographer Hannah Reyes Morales was surprised when luxury fashion brand Dior tapped her for a fashion project.
Morales was tasked to portray Dior’s Spring-Summer fashion line for the Paris Fashion Week this September.
Dior shared her work with the collection through a series of Instagram posts. Morales also expressed in one of the videos her thoughts on exploring fashion photography.
“I was very surprised when they asked me to do the group shot. It was just interesting to see how my process in photojournalism is worlds away from the processes of how people are doing fashion, but at the same time seeing how we can collaborate and see how we can cross-pollinate,” she said.
This was also her first time to work with models who pose for photos as well.
“I’ve never worked with models—to pose people like that, to work with a set that’s not a backdrop. It’s literally a breathing set,” Morales said.
What interests her is the connection among human beings, Morales added, making the project appealing to her.
“My main interest in storytelling is really understanding what connects us as human beings. It’s not me coming in with my own ideas and my own perspective. It’s about people trying to walk me through what their realities are like,” she said.
Morales was a recipient of several awards throughout her career. The recent ones include the 2019 Tim Hetherington Visionary Award and the 2019 Royal Photographic Society Margaret Harker medal for 100 Photographic Heroines.
Her work was also published in prestigious foreign magazines such as The National Geographic, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Environment-inspired fashion
Based on Dior’s website, the collection that featured Morales was inspired by the photos of Christian Dior’s sister of flowers in a garden.
Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri did her research about the design through a visit to the herbarium at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.
“An essential protagonist in Dior’s history, she was a courageous heroine of unique determination and force of character: she embodied Miss Dior. Not only was that her nickname, the House’s first, now-iconic perfume was so named in her honor,” the website said.
The runway show took place at the Paris-Longchamp race course at park Bois de Boulognein Paris.