Photography Culture

Laine Ellison’s MILK Portraiture Draws Inspiration from 70’s Disco Era Luxury

Chris Gampat
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03/23/2017
2 Mins read
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All images by Laine Ellison. Used with permission.

“I got into photography by originally (shooting) landscapes wherever I traveled, but never did anything serious with them because I felt as though it wasn’t my niche.” explains photographer Laine Ellison in an email to the Phoblographer. O’ne day a friend and I decided to go out and shoot around with some portraits and that’s when I truly became passionate about photography.” Like a lot of other photographers out there, this was only the beginning. Laine truly was and still is inspired by the creation process involved with portrait photography. A lot of this is evident in her particular style which she states draws influence from the 70’s luxury and extravagance.

The glitz. The Glam–it’s all there.

According to Laine:

To capture and wrap someone’s true essence in a moment captivates me. The enthralling feeling of (despite how cliche) capturing a moment in time of a person is like no other- which motivates me to continue to pursue excellence in this field.

Laine does all this portraiture with some pretty simple gear. She uses a Nikon D5200, 55mm lens, reflector and herself. She draws influence from both Terry Richardson and Ford Yates. “I feel as though my photos give a perspective a viewer typically wouldn’t see, an era that’s passed that is returning to popularity again.” says Laine. “The MILK series shows vulnerability and raw emotions, this project speaks volumes to me because it came about on a whim and truly shows how creative you can get, and that any idea is worth a try.”

Indeed, this style has started to become really popular again with the use of Neon lights in a lot of images on top of the wardrobe and so much more. These days, it isn’t really about contrasting beauty against some crazy, gritty background. But instead, it’s about glamour with just a bit of sketchiness.

For more of Laine’s images, be sure to check out her website.

70s era glamour Laine Ellison milk nikon portraiture
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.