being a prop stylist

Being an engineer at heart, it is sometimes difficult to comprehend the role some functions play in the realization of a project ; any project. This may be a universal truth, and you may have faced it repeatedly (as I have) in your life so far, but more true you may find that applies in staged photography ; especially if you are an outsider to that particular market, and don’t know the modus operandi. In staged photography (the one you predominately come across as you leaf through a lifestyle magazine) there exists a function, named styling, performed by a person, named the stylist. You know this of course ; it began with your hair (hair stylist) in your beauty salon, but easily transgressed to all other areas, with the most acclaimed of all : the clothes stylist. Now there is a universal term, namely “prop stylist”, that describes what a person does, who styles objects for photographs, film, and television (and gets paid by someone else for doing so). “Food styling”, ie the function where a person is employed to make food look attractive in photographs, may be considered as a subset.

The reason why all that is difficult for me to comprehend, is actually not the lack of necessity of employing such functions in the course of a project, but quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. You might have expected that the photographer, who has the “keen eye” would take care of composition somewhat literally in staged photography, but it has proved in the course of business that (a) photographers do not have the time to actually deal with stuff staging, since they are busy with taking the damn photo at the first place, and (b) the photographer does not have that “eye” we talked about (which is more common as one might expect, when it comes to commercial/business photography). So it essentially boils down to a person that has an ability to not only be able to select and bring objects together in an aesthetically pleasing way, but also possesses a feel for how to create an emotional connection. Glen Proebstel is an New York based stylist who produces work of a truly international standard, and falls under that description.

The quality of Glen’s work comes from the understanding of fundamentals such as scale, texture, placement, colour and light, but the magic comes from the unexpected, the witty and the quirky play that underpins his signature style. He is collaborative by nature and the work he produces is often the result of working closely with photographers and clients to draw out the potential in any brief. He is a rare combination of a highly creative talent who knows how to be organized and plan so that the beauty of the result is no mere accident.