Ava Pivot

Ava Pivot's path to people and fashion photography was anything but straightforward: as a passionate horsewoman, she originally wanted to become a vet - she skipped two classes, studied in Hanover and concentrated fully on her career. The dark side of the profession, the omnipresent presence of suffering and death, made her pause and rethink. Influenced by an artistic family history (both parents had studied photography as a minor subject), she decided to turn her passion into a profession. This was followed by training, a master craftsman's examination, a traineeship and a degree in graphic design.

Many years later, Pivot felt the urge to change: "I didn't want to commit myself photographically and needed to distance myself from the equestrian scene." People became the focus of her work: initially portrait and actor photos, later increasingly fashion.

Today, Ava Pivot is an internationally sought-after fashion photographer, her pictures appear in fashion magazines; she works with renowned brands and designers, gives workshops and teaches at universities.
What do you get when you book Ava Pivot? Does she have a signature?
"I avoid a fixed signature look. Changeability and curiosity keep me flexible and unique," says Pivot.

The great constant in her work is her love of experimentation: she is constantly trying out new techniques and regularly produces free work in order to develop creatively free from client expectations and to retain her "inner playful child". "My credo is to remain true to myself without copying myself. Sometimes that also means turning down jobs. That's never easy as a freelancer, of course," Pivot admits, but if she feels that her way of working doesn't fit the brief, it's better for both sides not to accept the job.

For many of her commissioned productions, Pivot not only takes on the purely photographic work but also the art direction, conception and organization through to post-production. Together with her team of excellent stylists, models and retouchers, which she has built up over many years, she then turns the vision she has developed with the client into reality. Pivot sees fashion photography as a field in which she can and must constantly reinvent herself.

The technical side of photography is just as important to Ava Pivot as the creative side. And she also focuses on technical excellence during the production of her images. Many of the creative effects that make her pictures so special are created during the shooting process. She often works with colored flash or continuous light, plays with motion blur or uses glass objects that she holds in front of the camera. That's why she uses ColorEdge monitors from EIZO on set. "I can't say exactly how long I've been working with EIZO monitors, but it seems like forever. That's why I immediately agreed when EIZO offered me the opportunity to become a ColorEdge Ambassador," says Pivot and continues: "In my way of working, it's very important that I can see precisely on set whether what I've thought about has really worked. And a laptop monitor simply doesn't guarantee that." That's why Pivot has been using several ColorEdge CG279Xs for many years.

But the size of the CG3100X doesn't just pay off on set. The sheer size and the unusual 17:9 aspect ratio also have a positive effect in post-production. Originally coming from film production, where DCI-4K corresponds to the full format of digital cinema, the resolution of 4,096 x 2,160 pixels also offers photographers noticeable advantages. This also leaves plenty of space in image editing programs such as Capture One next to the user interface to view the actual image. "Since I've had the CG3100X, I've only been working with one monitor. I can always see everything in front of me, I don't have to look back and forth between two monitors and I don't have any monitor edges in the central field of view," explains Pivot and enthuses. "And it's also incredibly practical that I now only have to connect my MacBook via USB-C, which charges quickly and automatically connects to all devices connected to the monitor. This is a really convenient feature, both for tethered shooting and at home, which significantly reduces cable clutter," says Pivot, who is delighted. The integrated calibration sensor also enables regular, automatic calibration of the monitor without Pivot having to do anything herself.