Lining the bedroom walls of a young Vanessa Dewsbury were the glamorous faces that most young girls modelled themselves after – the perfect skin of Cindy Crawford and the flowing locks of Christie Brinkley.

To most young girls, the beautiful faces of these women meant perfection, success and, among other things, happiness, of course.

But for a young fashion photographer in the making, these images meant something much more prominent than pretty faces and name-brand clothing.

With each magazine tear-out, without realizing it, Dewsbury was dissecting the images contour, choice of lighting and the model’s finesse with the camera. This process would continue until one day, the only fashion photography Dewsbury would be critiquing was her own.

She is now one Barrie’s up and coming fashion photographers hitting the scene hard with a fresh and classy style that feature new faces and styles from days of old.

These days instead of dreaming of what’s new, Dewsbury finds her passion in the past. Her models are often draped in classic vintage dresses and hats that she captures in the hidden gems that are Barrie’s rustic alleyways for catwalks.

“I wish everyone could dress like that,” says Dewsbury. “That whole era is so graceful and beautiful.”

Grace and beauty are two things this naturally gifted eye seems to capture without a second thought. Dewsbury has become so particular about her style of grace that even her selection process for models has become very specific.

“I like to shoot brunette models because I find them very dark and mysterious,” notes Dewsbury.
In her short career, Dewsbury has shot dozens of models for designers native to Ontario. But high profile models and designers hasn’t always been Dewsbury’s style.

Before getting fully involved in the local fashion photography scene, Dewsbury, along with vintage clothing store owner Anne Hopkins, created ‘The Modelle Squad.’

Together the stylist/photog team would take the streets of Ontario towns where they’d whisk away so-called, plain looking girls and turn them into runway beauties. The idea would later blossom into an outpouring of letters from parents and young girls who suffered from low self-esteem and were looking for their chance to shine like a star.

“It’s more rewarding, putting them through the experience and bringing out the model in the girl.”
Since discovering that her real passion lies in photography, it’s brought about a vast change in her way of viewing images deciphering the true desire behind an image from those created just to make a buck.

“I think a lot of people think it’s easy to just pick up a camera and make money. Sometimes there’s no passion behind it at all. My motto is to never be satisfied.”

Recently, the vintage-glam photographer has completed her ‘RedLip Calendar Girls’ shoot featuring more than a dozen images portraying a variety of eras including the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s which can be viewed on her facebook site, as well as her website www.vanessamariephotography.com.