BACKSTAGE DIARIES

A little story about how I ended up working at Paris Fashion Week

Last summer in Ibiza, a makeup artist friend invited me to photograph backstage at a fashion show in a luxury resort. I had never done anything like it before, but since I wasn’t the main photographer, I felt surprisingly relaxed and just shot in my own way. I ended up loving the experience, meeting incredible people, and the photos were later featured in Paris Runway Official website.

Fast forward a few months: I booked a trip to Paris to visit a friend who had a baby. Only after booking the flights did I realise… Paris Fashion Week was happening at the same time!!!

And I thought: I can’t just be in Paris during Fashion Week and do nothing!

So I emailed a contact I had met at that Ibiza show and said something like: “I’ll be in Paris during Fashion Week — if there’s any opportunity to work?”

For a while… silence. I insisted.

Then about a week before the trip, I received THE email:

‘Hi Siria,

Can you do backstage for me on March 4th? It is for Harper’s Bazaar’

I literally couldn’t believe it.

I had to change my flights and everything, but there was no way I was saying no.

The days before flying to Paris were strange. I felt proud, excited, and absolutely terrified at the same time! Impostor Syndrome was hitting hard, but I think the excitement in the end was way more powerful.

And just like that… I was on my way to Paris Fashion Week!!!!

4 hours of sleep, no coffee and straight to Hotel Le Marois to work!

When I arrived to the backstage area it was CHAOTIC. Exactly how you imagine it from films — but even more intense. People everywhere, no space to even put my bag down, random people asking me to photograph their kids (someone literally said “I’ll pay you whatever you want”).

But I was there with a mission, so I had to stay focused…

It took me a while to get used to the rhythm of things, but as I’m a bit of a control freak, I had made myself a plan!

A few days before I researched the models I was meant to photograph and even reached out to a few of them. I made a note on my phone with all their faces and names so the day wouldn’t feel so awkward when approaching them. But honestly… once backstage it felt like playing “Where’s Wally” trying to find everyone in the chaos!

And then came the challenges…

Things that had never happened to me before in my life — and of course they all had to happen at once, on the most important day. Great!

My camera strap broke and my camera literally fell.

My SD card stopped working after an hour and I lost all the photos I had taken so far!

I even fell down the stairs at one point…

I was trying to appear calm and collected but inside I was SCREAMING. ‘I must be looking like a newbie, like I’ve never done this before’ - I thought. And in reality, it was true, and so what?

I took a deep breath and kept going.

Honestly… it felt like every possible thing that could go wrong, did.

But somehow everything worked out in the end! I managed to recover the images from the damaged SD card (paying like 60 quid for it, of course) and luckily my camera was intact! Phewww

Despite all of that, I had the best time. I met incredible people and the experience itself was surreal. Not even mentioning the excitement to know that my images were going to be published at not less than HARPER’S BAZAAR!?

Excuse me, whaaaaat?

That night I was so overexcited I couldn’t even sleep. I think I even edited some of the photos at 2am (classic me!), my mind just kept replaying the entire day like if it has been a dream!

In the following days I focused on editing the photos as quickly as possible because in fashion everything moves fast. So spent all Thursday and a big part of Friday stuck at my friend’s place editing non-stop.

During shooting runway for the Infinity Fashion week I realised something I found quite interesting:

Most of the photographers working at these events are surprisingly middle-aged white men and often come from a journalism background - just the fact. They don’t edit, they just snap and send.

So when I sent my photos to the models and the agency, the feedback I kept hearing was that my images felt very different from what they were used to, more artistic, more editorial.

That was a very special moment for me, because sometimes it’s hard to see your own style clearly from the inside, isn't it?

And then… the publication in Harper’s Bazaar. I can’t express with words how I felt. Mind blowing.

Something I honestly still can’t believe happened — even though I knew it from the beginning!

The feedback I received and all the kind messages made me realise that my work is truly valued out there, even though I sometimes struggle to make it visible.

More than anything, this experience taught me a lot about the industry and about myself. I feel incredibly proud of it! This has just been one step on my journey, a very unexpected one, which I hope will lead me to achieve more of my goals!

The main thing I want to share with you is this:

Perseverance and patience are everything.

Even when you feel stuck, when you keep showing up, keep creating, and keep asking — you’re planting seeds.

Eventually those seeds grow into opportunities you never expected.

So don’t give up on your dreams.

And don’t be afraid to ask!