Fame and fortune. They make good fodder for daydreams, but they aren’t in the futures of most photographers. Most of us are happy to receive a few positive comments when we post our photos online and maybe sell a few images here and there. But imagine what it would be like to one day, out of the blue, be contacted by a well-known celebrity commissioning you to take a picture that would appear on buses and billboards. That’s just what happened to one talented young photographer. Watch this clip about her unlikely, but well-deserved discovery by a famous band:
Rosie Hardy, a portrait and conceptual photographer from Manchester, England, was a typical teenager. Around the age of 14, she decided she wanted to impress her crushes with an attractive MySpace profile picture. Armed with a point-and-shoot camera, she began taking self-portraits in the mirror. But she quickly took a liking to photography. Her photo shoots moved outdoors and then she started photographing her friends. Graduating to a Canon Rebel, she began to fully experiment with photography. As she shared her images on Flickr and saw how well-received they were, her confidence grew, and she blossomed as a photographer.
In 2010, when Hardy was 19-years-old, Maroon 5 was in search of a cover photo for their Hands All Over album. Their search turned up one of Hardy’s conceptual images, and they contacted her to create a similar image for them. She was at first skeptical that the band was actually contacting her. But the request turned out to be legit, and she got straight to work. Maroon 5 loved the resulting image, which became the new album cover and appeared in public spaces all around the world. In the blink of an eye, Hardy’s career had opened up to bigger and better possibilities.
Resulting Maroon 5 Album Cover Image captured by Rosie Hardy
Now in her early twenties, Hardy is firmly established in her photography career. She creates magical portraits of celebrities, using creative compositing to carry out her artistic visions.
Rosie Hardy’s story of success just goes to show what can happen when you throw your heart into photography. You never know when or where you might be discovered.
“As long as i’m shooting, as long as I’m taking pictures, I will be happy.”
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To me it appears the lowest hand is not anatomically or positionally correct.
I interpret the photo as representing another individual (most likely a male) to be positioned 90 degrees to the model, facing forward, with arms wrapped around her. The lowest hand would thus be the left hand and as such the first or top digit of the hand should be the thumb. In the photo the thumb appears to be the lowest digit on the hand. If this were the case the top digit would then be the little finger and in this photo it would be way too long as depicted.