Whenever established overseas-based photographers touch down in Kingston, odds are they will be training their cameras in the direction of SAINT International.

Such was the case, doubly so, last month for Italian lensman Paolo Zerbini and Canadian-Jamaican photographer and filmmaker Tristan Barrocks.  Zerbini, on his maiden trip to Jamaica for a commercial shoot in Montego Bay for the Australian leisurewear brand VENROY; and Barrocks, who was escaping the wintry climes of North America for a family vacation, made welcome detours by pencilling in sessions with a cadre of SAINT models.

“I love what Deiwight Peters is doing, and I always wanted to collaborate with him, so I  decided for my 40th birthday [on December 20], I am going to reach out to him, with fingers crossed, that if he responds great, if he doesn’t it’s all good, he responded and I said let’s make it work, so I got to work with some of his faces,” Barrocks shared ahead of a recent weekday morning shoot in the gardens of the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, followed by other New Kingston spots. 

Barrocks first engaged Peters six years ago on a visit to the island to initiate work on a documentary of SAINT’s Style Week Jamaica with his collaborator, Jamaican-American fashion journalist, and publicist Jason Campbell.

Currently on Barrocks’ work docket though his work a fast-rising movie director, writer and producer are a slew of filmmaking projects that include his first feature-length film Wallflower, now available on Fuse TV and Pluto TV.

“It’s a young adult drama and coming of age story about a young lady who gets gifted a trinket from her Jamaican grandmother and that changes her life dramatically and we follow her through that,” he explained.

There’s also a pilot for a sitcom he wrote titled Diaries of an Average Black Dad and the short film Sugar Dumpling, the story of a young lady trying to reconnect with her estranged father who lives in an old folks’ home and is dealing with dementia and the only way she can connect is by cooking good Jamaican food.

For Zerbini, who made the drive from the Jamaican north coast to Kingston (south-eastern coast) with his assistant Elena Campese, disclosed that “we decided to stay a few more days to do a personal project and I felt a go-see in Kingston would be great to do”.

Checking in at Shirley Retreat Hotel in St Andrew in late December where he also did his SAINT photo shoot, the Italian creative who now calls London home was keen on capturing local model talent. Zerbini, who recently published a coffee table book titled Tagada, an ode to Italian teenaged adolescence inspired by summer fairs that travel throughout townships, said his Kingston stopover “was about meeting new faces that wouldn’t necessarily come to Europe, and see them as their personalities, not in an on-the-job sort of environment. I got a chance to do portraits of them, and sometimes you can meet some interesting talent for future projects when they do come to Europe, it is very good to connect”.

Zerbini has shot editorials for Vogue Magazine’s Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and China editions.

The shoot experiences with Barrocks and Zerbini was enlightening for SAINT model Carolyn Sangster. The 19-year-old model aspirant and political science student said, “Both shoots were exciting, intuitive, and fun. I had no prior experience going into this industry. I’ve put what I learned throughout my training with Mr. Peters and being on set with these established photographers to develop and grow. My training sessions showed me just how rigorous the industry is from lengthy shoot times to location hopping and that if you really don’t have your heart in it, it can become draining.”

As for Ashawnie Stewart, who signed with SAINT in 2021, he shared that his shoot with Zerbini felt amazing. He said, “Paolo sometimes can be unpredictable while working and it caused a sense of suspense and excitement, so his quirky ways made it an overall fun experience.”

Stewart, whose wishlist for the year ahead is topped by a desire to be on model duty across the European fashion capitals, already has a major accomplishment under his belt. He was booked by Peters and shot a capsule collection campaign in Negril with fellow SAINT Elecia Gordon for Jamaican-American designer Edvin Thompson’s Theophilio brand that was exclusively available online at Amazon Luxury Stores.

Deiwight Peters, CEO of SAINT, said: “Having both Tristan and Paolo reaching out was heartening as they expressed similar eagerness and I welcomed the opportunity to collaborate, just as I continue to do in fielding multiple requests coming from photographers from all corners of the world. SAINT’s models are in major upward trajectory mode for 2024, and there’s a lot of big things coming down the pipeline.”