She was the first celebrity I ever photographed. Not the most famous. The first.
April Wilkner had just finished as the second runner-up on Cycle 2 of America's Next Top Model, back when that show was appointment television. And I was a kid with an online magazine and maybe ten shoots under my belt. This is the story of that shoot: the gown, the atelier, and the lesson.
The meeting
I met April at San Francisco Fashion Week. She had just come off Cycle 2 as the second runner-up, in the season that made America's Next Top Model a phenomenon. That show was everywhere at the time.
I walked up and asked if she wanted to be on the cover of TDink, my online magazine. I was nobody. She said yes anyway, gave me her number, and we set up the shoot.
Think about that for a second. She had just been on national television. I had shot, by my own count, about ten sessions total. She said yes because I asked, and because I had a magazine with her name on the cover.
The atelier
We shot at the atelier of my friend Colleen Quen, in the Mission District of San Francisco. Colleen is a couture designer. She makes gowns for the debutantes and heiresses who attend the San Francisco Opera.
We dressed April in a long white fitted Colleen Quen gown with a cascading white couture jacket. White on white, in a couture atelier, on a girl America had just watched on television for weeks. It was a fashion shoot, not a reality TV shoot, and that was the point. I wanted her to look like the cover of a magazine, not a still from a TV episode.
She was the first person I had ever photographed who had been on television. This was the first shoot with a name attached to it.
Before she was famous
The timeline is what makes this a before-they-were-famous story, even though she had already been on TV. When I shot April, she was the second runner-up of Cycle 2, famous for a moment, in the way reality TV made people famous for a moment back then. The show was at its peak cultural power. What came next was unwritten. I caught her in the window between the finale and whatever followed, when the whole thing was still new and electric.
And on my side of the camera, I was nobody. About ten shoots in. That asymmetry is the whole story. She trusted a kid with a camera because he had a magazine.
The takeaway for photographers
Here is the lesson April Wilkner taught me, and it is the most practical one in this whole series: build your own platform.
Nobody gave me TDink.com. I started it. And because I had started it, I could walk up to a girl from America's Next Top Model at San Francisco Fashion Week and offer her a cover. The magazine was the credential. Without it, I am a random kid with a camera asking for a favor. With it, I am an editor offering an opportunity.
You do not need permission to start the thing that gives you permission. A blog, a zine, a self-published editorial series. It does not have to be big. It has to exist, so that when you meet your April Wilkner, you have somewhere to put her.
I still work that way. A fashion photographer in Los Angeles who brings their own platform to the table is not waiting for the industry to notice.
If you are hiring a celebrity photographer in Los Angeles, ask what they built themselves, not just who hired them. The ones who built their own stage will build one for you too.
Frequently asked questions
When did David Christopher Lee photograph April Wilkner? After her run on America's Next Top Model Cycle 2, where she finished as second runner-up. They shot the TDink cover at Colleen Quen's atelier in San Francisco's Mission District.
Was April Wilkner famous when he photographed her? She had just been on national television. Cycle 2 was the season that made America's Next Top Model a phenomenon. But she was at the very start of her public career, and David was at the very start of his: it was about the tenth shoot he had ever done, and the first with someone who had been on TV.
Who is Colleen Quen? A San Francisco couture designer and David's friend, whose gowns are worn by debutantes and heiresses at the San Francisco Opera. Her Mission District atelier was the location, and her long white fitted gown with a cascading white couture jacket was the look.
How do I book a shoot? Get in touch here. I have spent 27 years as a celebrity photographer in Los Angeles and New York, and every session gets the same standard.
About the author: David Christopher Lee is a Los Angeles celebrity photographer with 27 years of experience, shooting for GQ, Vogue, InStyle, People, and brands around the world.
Book a Shoot: Book your shoot. If you need a photographer who builds his own stage, that is what I do.