A Short Road Trip

It was positive happenstance that my move to New Brunswick came at the close of the summer; by the time my new darkroom was finished, and the house settled down, the leaves had mostly left the trees, and any chance of working outdoors with models had passed. That being said, the chance to go for an exploratory drive to seek out spaces to work in next year also presented the possibility of photographing whatever presented itself.

8"x10" film

I seldom plan what and where I am going to photograph, but given how much of my work focused on the Nude, it is usually a given that, regardless of the session, the primary subject of my images will be the body. Today however, that wasn't an option, so I left myself open to whatever came my way, and so it was that during our drive along a rural highway, I spotted a graveyard by the side of the road, and proposed it be our first stop of the trip. I have always been enamoured with graveyards, and what I glimpsed from the road turned out to be more the appropriate, with several beautifully carved tombstones to work with. The direct sunlight, which normally I abhore, was quite nice to work with, due to its low winter angle - it provided the perfect light to pull out the detail and texture of the stones.

8"x10" film

After leaving the graveyard, we continued to drive towards our intended destination - the Fundy coast an hour or so from Moncton. By far my favorite places to photograph are the coastal spaces within 30 minutes of Halifax, so with the relocation to Moncton, my first hope is to find similar spaces on the coast near my new home (though with the coast about 45 minutes away, it is not quite as convenient.

8"x10" film

While my eyes were focused on finding coastal spaces to work, when we came over a hill crest and were faces with a dramatic view of a long abandoned, weathered house, I knew we had to stop. Just like graveyards, I have had a long affinity for abandoned buildings, so the space called out to me. In some ways, the building was disappointing to work with; the floors inside had collaped, meaning that working inside the building was not an option but it still presented more than enough possibilities from the outside to occupy my ground-glass for the better part of forty minutes.

Rusty!

Since the summer of 2000, my work has almost exclusively been focused upon the Nude; this isn't for lack of interest in working with other subjects but more a result of the combination of available models and limited photographic time. With more time, or fewer models, I would be able to expand on my other photography but if the choice is between working with a model, or photographing something else, I will almost always opt for the model (the only exception would be choosing to work with architectural subjects while traveling, as I did in 2000).

Digital original

With my move to Moncton, I have shifted from a place where I had established, long-running friendships with enthusiastic and keen models to a new city where I have few contacts and even fewer resources to draw upon for finding new models. The expectation is that over time, as I become more familiar with Moncton and the surrounding areas, I will find both models and settings to work in, but for the time being I will take advantage of the situation to work with other subjects.

Digital original

One of the first projects inspired by the relocation to Moncton is a digital creation for our new house. On the main floor, there is a triangular cut-though to the stairs (you can see this in the image of us moving the enlarger), which just cries out for a triangular image on the wall behind. I haven't a specific composition in mind yet but I know it will combine the body with architecture, so I am on the hunt for images to use in this creation (I am thinking of something similar in style to Temple of My Desire, though it will not have doors).

Digital original

While Moncton does not have forts, it does have a fair amount of industrial space; with these spaces comes abandoned machinery, rusted metal, and rich visual possibilities. Though the year is getting colder, I took advantage of a bright day to head up to an old rock-quarry and photograph some abandoned machinery. Rather then document the machinery itself, I was more interested in creating images of elements of the metal; images that could later be incorporated into the digital composition for the house.

As much of what I was looking to record was colour and texture, choosing to work with the digital camera was a natural. I expect these images, and others like them, to form the background to the final composition, so the lower resolution of the digital camera is less of an issue.