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Bridget Sandonato of Niagara Falls poses playfully for the camera at B.F.D. Photo Studio at the NACC.
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Brook D'Angelo of B.F.D. studio fixes a curl on her photo subject, Madison Previte.
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Kim Montone, of Madame Ink Tattoos at the NACC, takes a turn in front of the camera at B.F.D. Photo Studio.
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PINUP GIRLS: Frills and lace for my Valentine.
It turns out Cindy Lauper may have been right. Girls really do just want to have fun, at least in the photo studio of Brook Filippa D’Angelo.
In setting that looks a 1950s Hollywood costume department and gothic malt shop, potential pin-up girls and ladies can have fun with feathers and furs to create the kind of funny or romantic photos that make for keepsakes or Valentine’s pin ups.
“If it’s not fun, what’s the point,” said D’Angelo during a recent photo shoot in her third floor studio at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, where three ladies posed in a variety of outfits while she snapped away under the lights.
“Oh, I like that,” D’Angelo purred, stopping only to smooth a wayward hair curl or swath of fabric. There was much laughing and ohhing and ahhing as the ladies moved into different poses while D’Angelo directed the action.
“A lot of us don’t take the time to do something like this for ourselves,” said Kim Montone, of Madame Ink Tattoos, who was wearing black tights and an apron in one shot and sultry lingerie in another. Montone, who also has a studio in the NACC, was joined by Lockport hair stylist Madison Previte, who wore a flapper outfit in one series of photos and a jaunty Army cap in another. Bridget Sandonato of Niagara Falls joined the fun dressed all in white and holding a lacy umbrella in one set of shots and stretched out on a swatch of bright orange silk fabric, pretending to chat on a princess phone in another set.
Beyond the boudoir photos, D’Angelo also specializes in specialty shoots, including “Trash the Dress,” photos where a bride poses somewhere unusual in her wedding dress after the celebrations are over. D’Angelo’s photo books show one bride serenely sitting in the Niagara River while her dress floats out around her, and in another wearing her pristine white dress posing in an old abandoned building, surrounded by a colorful graffiti.
D’Angelo has also started offering “paparazzi parties” for the younger set. Recently a troupe of 12 year olds celebrated a birthday party by playing dress-up in her studio. Each got to choose several outfits to pose in and received several photos to take home.
D’Angelo, who printed off the photos while the pre-teens had cake and opened presents, enjoyed the party as much as the girls did. “I wish there would have been something like that around when I was a kid,” she said. That party cost about $15 per child, she said.
The photographer opens her studio for adult parties as well, especially stagettes, for the bride-to-be and her bridal party, “so they don’t have to go to a bar and have nothing left to show for the party but a hangover,” she smiled.
To see D’Angelo’s work online visit B.F.D. Studio site at bfdstudioonline.com or call her studio at 531-3903.
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