Good evening New Zealand.  I’m writing this entry tonight on my Powerbook, while at the Digital Retouch Studio in New York City.  At this moment, my friend Stewart Price is taking a break from retouching and I thought I’d start in on the blog. I am here to meet and go over images with him from a recent shoot. There is basically always some sort of clean up work to be done after a photography shoot has been completed. The images are all in different phases of completion and I am going through them one by one.

Stewart is a photographer by trade, but also one of the best photographic retouchers around too. Digital Retouch, being Andrew Matusik (who is currently shooting in Paris) and Stewart, was instrumental in my new book Body of Work.  They both retouched a number of images for the book, but most importantly, did an amazing job with the pre-press work on this project.  Pre-press in its simplest terms is when you take the completed images and prepare them to go to the printer.  Immaculately done boys!

Tonight I’m enclosing an image that I photographed for Heidi Klum’s 'Germany’s Next Top Model' show that I shot earlier in the year. My segment on the show was to have me body paint and photograph the four remaining models in Leopard prints. The picture exhibited this week is of Lena Gercke who ultimately won the competition. It was a great experience and a lot of fun. I was able to bring my small crew to Germany and we accomplished much in a short amount of time. Of course, it is always wonderful to collaborate and work with Heidi too. She is a wonderful, special person and I truly treasure her friendship. By the way, the image shown is one that was retouched by Stewart too!

I’m starting prep tomorrow on my next shoot, which will be a two-day deal.  I have 12 different looks to accomplish during that time.  My press interviews and TV commitments are really starting to take off now. It seems like every day there is some sort of interview that I’m doing for a reporter somewhere around the world.  I have to say, it’s very exciting.  I am getting a little tired of talking about myself though...

My father, Hon. George Gair, turned 80 a few days ago.  I was sad to have missed the festivities, but was definitely there in spirit, sending my "positive thought waves" to him from across the world.  I’m sorry that I don’t have any pictures to post from the party, as I haven’t received them from the family yet.  We will all celebrate again, upon my return in a couple of months.  My darling father had announcement though to everyone’s pleasant surprise.  He has decided to return to school to get his Masters Degree in Philosophy with a focus on Public Policy. What a great way to start off his 80’s!!  

I also want to wish my nephew Alastair Gair who is competing in the 2006 World Etchells Championships next month in Perth, Australia the best of luck and success for this sailing event.

Wishing everyone down under a successful and prosperous week!!

That wraps up Joanne's contribution to NZ Book Month here in NZ. We'd like to say a huge thanks to this high-flying, globally in-demand artist for taking the time to let us know a bit about her work and glamorous life in New York. We'll keep you posted with the details if there is to be a signing of Body of Work here around Christmas.

Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog entry. I’m currently sitting here at my computer in my tiny New York City apartment. I’ve just come in from a fairly successful day, prepping my next beauty photo shoot. Today consisted mostly of meetings, meetings and more meetings.

It’s been a little over a year now that I have been living in NYC.  I'm a New Zealander who has lived mostly abroad for the past 20 plus years, spending a majority of them in Los Angeles.  I have been lucky to have also traveled the globe during this time too, working on many interesting and creative projects as a make-up artist, body painter and more recently a photographer.  My past experiences with NYC have been pretty much in short periods of time. It’s taken some time to acclimate myself here, but I’m really starting to get a true sense of rhythm and flow here in the city.

The first copies of my new book Body of Work arrived a couple of days ago. [Picture of Rachel Hunter from the book, above, © Michael Zeppetello/Time Inc.]. So much hard work and time goes into these projects.  I am happy to say that I was thrilled with the outcome.  I want to thank everyone again who helped make it come together so beautifully. The book is truly a great retrospective of my career to date.  I’m very pleased and proud of it.

My apartment right now is brimming with a wide assortment of colourful make-up, custom made eyelashes and beautiful fabrics for the shoot.  All are ready to be applied on the models that I have selected as my canvases.  The conceptual part of this project came together in the past couple of weeks by my team and myself. After I finish going through all of the goodies, I will pack them up and be ready for the shoot. My photo and lighting gear is already at the studio, waiting for me to play with : )   I’ll let you know how it all came together next time! Until then…