Fashion Blog

 

 

You’ve probably noticed, if you’ve driven by the Paul Smith store on Melrose near Harper since the weekend, a large billboard of Khloe Kardashian – the wild child of the Kardashian clan – essentially naked, with poufy romantic hair – in a new PETA anti-fur “I’d rather go naked” campaign. It was shot by Troy Jensen, celebrity makeup artist to many a Hollywood big wig (Paris Hilton, Rachel Griffiths, Kim Kardashian, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls),  who’s also transitioned into shooting his own photographs. The PETA campaign represents the first major collaboration between Khloe and Troy – so Fashionrules decided to interview the talented Mr. Jensen, to hear the buzz – and controversy – about this new body-revealing campaign.   

FASHION RULES:  So we hear that bloggers are accusing you of heavily airbrushing Khloe’s body!  

 

TROY JENSEN:  Yes – some blogs are saying I photoshopped her completely.  And tt really wasn’t the case. Khloe spent a lot of time preparing for the shoot. I clean up all of my pictures a little, but not a ton of retouching was done on this one. It’s true Khloe’s weight fluctuates about five pounds, and people are very unkind sometimes in what they write. But she’s a real woman. To me she looks amazing.,  But I really did NOT do any body shaping on her.– I didn’t do computer sculpting or liposuction on it at all. She has very smooth skin.  She’s also the wild child of the group so I wanted wild hair – it’s a beautiful shot.  

 

FASHION RULES:  You’re known primarily as a celebrity makeup artist, to Paris Hilton, Nicole S, Kim Kardashian, and you’ve done a ton of magazine shoots. How did this transition to photography evolve?  

 

TROY JENSEN: I started shooting myself about five years ago. There’s not a lot of editorial work done in L.A. for magazines, so it’s really celebrity portraiture. I would have an idea of a makeup look I wanted to do, and I’d hire a model and shoot her myself. Then my makeup clients need head shots and I would shoot them. I kept it very on the DL. I’m very much still a working makeup artist, and I didn’t want photographers I was working on shoots with to think I was stealing their lighting. Then friends who were doing albums asked me to shoot their album covers.   

 

FASHION RULES:  And is being a celebrity makeup artist a conflict with being a photographer?

 

TROY JENSEN: It could be interpreted by some people that way. I actually thought of coming up with a pseudonym for the photography work. I thought I might have to stop doing one or the other. But what I do is beauty, fashion and glamour – so really, there’s nothing different about being behind the camera for me. And I find I’m much less demanding on a shoot when doing makeup, because I know on my shoots, we’ll do it with my total vision.   

 

FASHION RULES:  And you do hair for your shoots as well?

 

TROY JENSEN: