Bravo series exposes photo life

June 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

PASADENA, Calif.

Markus Klinko and Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri have photographed the rich and famous from David Bowe to Will Smith. How they get those images is revealed in the new Bravo reality series “Double Exposure.”

The pair often works 18-hour days filled with temperamental subjects, near impossible deadlines and budgets stretched thin by elaborate location shoots. Photo subjects featured on the series include Lady Gaga, Eve, Naomi Campbell, Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan.

Subjects are shot in real settings, despite the ability of computers to create any background. Pal-Chaudhuri explains that real locations create “an intensity” that can’t be matched with computer-generated imagery.

Settling on the location can be a battle — but that’s just part of the process.

“As much we plan our photo shoots and as much as we have a very precise concept by the time we end our arguing and we make a decision on what we want to do, we have a clear concept,” says Klinko. “But we still are always looking for that moment, something that happens that we capture.”

Pal-Chaudhuri started in front of the camera as model when she was 14. It was through modeling that the stunning Calcutta native met Klinko.

Her background makes it easy to sympathize with the subjects.

“It’s very hard to be photographed. It makes you very insecure, and it’s kind of terrifying to have this machine pointed at you,” Pal-Chaudhuri says. “I know what the person in front of the camera is going through, so I want to make it a fun experience for them.”