September 12, 1997

A Final Figure Session in Fort Knox (Prospect, Maine)

Similar to the earlier session with Cass and Ellen, my final full day in Maine was full of rain and drizzle. Cass and I had hoped to return to Schoodic and work on the rock with the ocean around us, but given the weather, we had to either scrap the session, or find a sheltered place to work We settled on Fort Knox.
4"x5" film
In 1990 and 1993, I had worked with nudes in the forts, but since then I had stuck strictly to more natural settings. This was more an accident of timing than a deliberate avoidance of ruins as a setting for nudes. Part of the reason I enjoy working with the nude outdoors is that it removes context from the images - images of nudes in "personal" surroundings - a bedroom, living room etc, re-enforce the sense of the individual, as opposed to promoting the universal. While I have made images in personal settings, and feel they are very successful in their own way, they function in a far different way from my outdoor nudes. Using a fort as the setting for nudes is about halfway between the personal nude and the outdoor nude - the fort serves more as an architectural framework than a personal signifier, yet it is not in the wilderness, as my other images are.
4"x5" film
Because this was my last day in Maine, and among my last days of serious photography this year, I brought will me all my film and cameras - my 120 back had kicked-it in the day before, so I had to rely upon re-loading in the field to take more images than I had film holders. By the end of the day I had reloaded three times, for a total of 87 final images (some were misloaded, double exposed, or otherwise flawed). Due to the ambient weather conditions, there were real problems with contrast - the mist and fog in the air brought down the local contrast in many of the images to almost mid-gray, which has made many of the images difficult to print.is a problem aside, I think that many of the images I made on this day have potential - I will have to work with them in the darkroom before I can pass final judgment.
composite of five 4"x5" film images
Many of the images I made of Cass were variations on a theme - this was more because I knew it was my last day and I had film to spare, than because I would prefer to work this way. n several cases, producing several negatives in a single setting lead to surprises - successes where I did not expect them. But on the whole, it reinforced my reason for using a view camera - considered, planned images are far more successful, all things considered, than those taken from the hip, relying upon spontaneity and luck (I mean no insult here to 35mm shooters - many of you can do things I would never dream of attempting with a view camera). The lesson of the day is three-fold - 1) before I next go on a two week photo trip, pay off a minor deity to alter the weather in my favour 2) forts can indeed work as settings for the nude, as a universal as opposed to personal and 3) view cameras are still where it's at for me.

September 11, 1997

A Final Session at Fort Knox (Prospect, Maine)

4"x5" film
My third visit to Fort Knox was by far the most successful - first of all, I arrived with plenty of time to work, second of all, the light was reasonably co-operative, and third, I knew my way around sufficiently that I had ideas that I wanted to work with when I began the day.
4"x5" film
I could spend a month working with Fort Knox - especially now that I have seen the result I got on my initial visits. The light and repetitive nature of the architecture calls to me in a way few things do, and I found the days I photographed there among the most pleasurable sessions I've had in years. I had the time to work, the subject to work with, and the skills and tools to achieve my pre-visualized images. The only limiting factor was the changing light, and the inevitable end of the day. I would have worked with colour extensively on this day, but my 6x12 back gave me technical difficulties early in the session, and rather than fight with it all day, I swallowed hard and put it away, instead relying on black and white to convey my vision of the day.
4"x5" film
The one element which has always been elusive for me in the past has been a way to capture the sense of space within the forts I work with. Cameras inherently distort and change one's perceptions though their nature, and it is difficult to use these factors to one's advantage. With the view camera though, and extremely wide lenses (like the 65mm super-angulon) it is possible to give some sense of the incredible visual spaces that exist in the forts. Fort Knox was the first fort where I extensively used my 65mm, and the sense of space which resulted is wonderful - the exposures, some as long as 25 minutes, provided enough depth of field for the image to be sharp throughout, but the sense of receding depth is wonderful. There are no forts in Halifax which have the long, well-lit shooting galleries that surround Fort Knox, but seeing how the 65mm lens performed in such conditions makes me eager to apply it to the sites that surround Halifax.

September 08, 1997

Two Models in the Rain (Schoodic Point, Maine)

The biggest difficulty with working with the nude outdoors is that the weather seldom co-operates - either it's too sunny, or too cool, or threatening rain - or even raining. On this particular morning, Ellen, who had modeled for me a week before, and Cass, who I'd met shortly there-after, had got together to work with me - but it was threatening rain.
4"x5" film
Ever optimistic, we set off in the car - directly into the rain. Grasping at straws, we went all the way to the the coast, only to find it shrouded in rain and fog. I wanted to call it quits, but both Ellen and Cass were determined not to let the rain prevent the day from moving ahead, so after buying some cheap plastic rain-gear, and weather-proofing the camera-gear as much as possible (wrapping film-holders in a plastic bag) we set off to work. It must have been quite a sight, two nude models clambering around on cold, wet rocks as I struggled to keep the rain off the camera,frame the images and direct the models.
4"x5" film
The coastline where we photographed was incredible - the jagged rocks and stone beaches were a paradise to image in. Working as quickly as I could, I managed to make a good 20 images before the models finally gave up being stubborn and admitted they were cold. The work though, was well worth their effort. There's little direct evidence of the rain in the images, but the glistening rocks and wet hair contribute to an over-all impression of the day. The fact it was raining a fair bit when the images were made was negated by the long shutter-speeds, though the contrast on the negatives is a little low, probably due to the amount of moisture in the air.
4"x5" film
The final set of images made on this day were actually made in the last moments we had before setting off back to Orono. After we finished working in the rain, we all bundled into the car and drove a little further, to the Schoodic Park parking lot, where we came across an incredible space. A huge rock face had broken lose from the remainder of the bedrock, and slid downwards, creating a natural cavern - the light shone through it, creating a wonderful rim-light effect on the far opening. Though they were still a little chilled from the earlier modelling, both Ellen and Cass agreed that such a space should not be overlooked. There really was only one camera angle that worked, so after fifteen pose variations, we bundled the gear up and headed back to the car, and a hot spaghetti dinner in Orono.

September 07, 1997

An evening at Fort Popham (Prospect, Maine)

4"x5" film

Fort Popham was constructed to defend the Kennebec River and the town of Bath, Maine, from naval assault. It was never completed however, and to this day piles of unlaid stones litter the inner courtyard of the fort. The remarkable thing is, even though it is unfinished, it has stood for over 150 years virtually intact. The basic design was drawn from Fort Knox, though there are specific elements which differ.
4"x5" film
It took me a while before I could get past the visual beauty of Fort Popham, and begin to photograph it. The light which filtered through the open arches and into the gun casemates was soft and delicate, lighting the barrel vaulting in a very sculptural way. Almost 50% of the negatives I made at Popham were of the casemates, the repeating arches and the light that moved through them. The ultra-wide angle lens was critical at Popham - it allowed me to covey a sense of the massiveness of the casemates, while ensuring enough information was in the photos to give a sense of the openness of the space.
4"x5" film
The other element that drew me in at Popham was its spiral staircases. There are two of these at Fort Knox to the North, but those were obstructed by construction, and had modern, shiny hand-rails in them. Photographing these stairways was a challenge though - the enclosed tight space made me rely upon the 65mm lens, and for the final two images, I took the camera off the tripod and placed it face-up on the stairs. The image here was made in this manner. The exposures for these photos were over four minutes, and the fact that two people passed right over the camera and through the image is totally unapparent in the final image. The power of photography to record the elusive, and ignore the apparent is incredible to me.

Two Models (Orr's Island, Maine)

4"x5" film
Orr's Island is a long narrow strip pushing out into the Atlantic, and from the road there's nothing but houses, houses and more houses, in a quasi-rural setting. But by the shoreline, it was a different story - it was incredible - long waves of sedimentary rock falling in broken steps to the sea. The rocks were so incredible that every image I made was in direct response to them alone - the two models placed in relation to the flow of the stone, or it's fractures. Though I often work with rocks, it is unusual for me to rely upon it for an entire session.
6x12 cm film
Some of the more evocative images from the session at Orr's island were the water nudes; less because they were successful (though this one was), and more because of how they would foreshadow later work in the rivers and tidal pools of Nova Scotia.
35mm infrared film

September 06, 1997

A Morning Session (Orr's Island, Maine)

6x12 cm film
Sarah and Adele were only able to spend a morning modelling for me, and wanted to pose both as a couple, and as two distinct models. We began with the couple images, simply because it was morning, the light in their room was beautiful, and we had to start somewhere. For most of the session, the models seemed almost oblivious of me, they simply lay on the bed, cuddling and talking.
4"x5" film
Occasionally I asked them to stay still when I was about to take an image, or asked them to rearrange themselves, but for the most part, it was very quiet, with the two of them in their own world, and me hovering on the outside, looking in. There is an undeniable aspect of voyeurism to this, but no more than there is in any other photograph - it is simply more apparent because of the intimacy displayed in the images.
4"x5" film
Images of couples were the first photographs that made me think about mortality in the context of my work - photographing a couple this way freezes the relationship in time - regardless of what it turns into, the beauty of that point in time has been translated onto film, in some ways paler than the reality, and in other, larger than its origins. That moment is frozen, unchanging except for the experiential filters that each viewer brings to the images. I enjoy working with couples more than any other subject, partially because I am so very aware of the gift of freezing time. Sarah and Adele's comfort with me, and their willingness to let me into their private world is something that made these images successful, in every way as much as my photographic skills.

September 04, 1997

Returning to Fort Knox (Prospect, Maine)

4"x5" film
My second trip to Fort Knox was a lot longer than the first one, and though it too ended due to the failing light of the evening, I accomplished more in the time I had.
4"x5" film
The first time I visited Fort Knox, I had not ventured beyond the main building - drawn in by its heavy casemate and repeating arches. This visit however, I set off to the outer batteries, intending to document the peripherals of the fort before returning to the core. What I discovered was that the fort was about four times larger than I had envisioned.
4"x5" film

September 03, 1997

Mount Hope Garden Cemetary (Bangor, Maine)


The Mount Hope Garden Cemetery is beside the road that runs between Bangor and Orono, where I was staying. In the first three days I was in Maine, I must have been driven past it a dozen times, and each time, I marveled at its space and depth. In Halifax, all the graveyards are small, fully occupied, and generally flat. The pale stones, spread out on the dark grass, against the rising hills that run through the Cemetery were pure visuals to me, and I wanted to photograph it.
4"x5" film



I approached photographing the Cemetery in a similar manner to that which I use when I approach a fort - I see the image as strictly a series of flat planes, and set up my images accordingly.
4"x5" film

The fact that there was nothing in this graveyard that was parallel or perpendicular to anything else freed me up from some of the stricter rules of classic large format architectural photograph (no converging parallels or warped perspectives). Thus the second and third images, which are atypical for me - neither is a frontal flat image, and both use the qualities of the lens (in the first, a short telephoto, and in the second, an extreme wide-angle) to stress the elements that drew me to the subjects. 
4"x5" film
The fact that basic image corrections are so easily achieved with the view-camera often make me forget that occasionally these "flaws" can be used to advantage, producing emphasizing as opposed to distortion

September 02, 1997

A Woodland Session (Orono, Maine)


My first session with a model in Maine began mid-afternoon; Ellen had suggested a location in a nearby forest, so we walked into the woods for a few minutes to a clearing where we began to work. The forest was subtly different from those I am used to in Nova Scotia - it was more open, with older trees and more lush undergrowth
4"x5" film
Many of the tree nudes I made this year originate in my discussions with Joy and in the imagery in her poetry. Where the rock and water nudes for me exist as visual images alone, I cannot escape the reality that when I created the tree nudes this year, I was consciously thinking of dryads, nymphs and tree spirits. I don't think that this alters the meaning of the work, but I am aware it changes how I view the images. I am not sure how this will play out in the final presentation of the work, but knowing the images are born from more than a desire for visual expression will change how they are finished.
6x12 cm film
The colour nude came out of a pose Ellen asked for - she wanted an image with her on the stream. There was no water moving through it, but the dark trail the wet rocks cut through the green forest floor was a perfect tableau for a nude. The first image, curled up, was good, but then I asked her to lean back over the rock she was sitting on. That image has such a strong angular direction to it that I truly think it would have succeeded even in black and white, but the contrast between the model's pale skin and the lush undergrowth simply rocks, to quote Ellen.
6x12 cm film
The lure of water mixed with the Nude is so strong to me now, I am appalled that it took me six years to discover the combination. Where Ellen and I had been floundering in the woods, searching for images, at the river they presented themselves to me faster than I could respond. Because of the fading light, the session was short, but the work was strong. The low light, combined with the bright evening sky gave wonderful reflections in the calm water where we were working.

August 31, 1997

Fort Knox (Prospect, Maine)

Fort Knox is a massive granite structure overlooking a bend in the Penobscot River in Maine. It was constructed to defend the river (and its towns and industries) from British naval assault. Fort Knox consists of outlying batteries, multiple shooting galleries, and a central building, which overlooks the remainder of the fort.
4"x5" film
The most interesting element of photographing Fort Knox was that it essentially was the American response to Fortress Halifax. The basic architectural elements are the same, as are some of the design features, but in other areas, the two defense systems differed wildly. This first session at Fort Knox was short, as we arrived at 6:00pm, and the light was fading. It wet my appetite though, and made me hungry to return and bring into my camera more of that which presented itself to me.
4"x5" film
The pleasure of photographing at Fort Knox was twofold - the strong monolithic nature of the architecture was familiar to me, one of my favourite things about the Fortress Halifax forts, and yet the fort itself was new to me, undiscovered country so to speak.
4"x5" film
The combination of these two factors made the hour or so I spent photographing on this day seem vaguely surreal - I was familiar with the format of the fort, but the actual application was new and visually exciting. Much of what appeared on the ground-glass of my camera was strangely familiar, yet never enough to be comfortable...it was almost like I had been to the fort before.

The light ran out before my enthusiasm did, but I was bound and determined to return to the fort again, to further explore and commit to film the images that sprang out to me.

August 20, 1997

Nude in the Woods (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

6x12 cm film
Another session in the forest - this time with a bit of rain thrown in for flavour. After sitting and chatting in a car as it drizzled for ten minutes, the weather finally settled down to a gentle threat, and the model, Helen and I began to explore the setting. Shortly after the rain, a ray of sun found us, and I whipped off a few infrared images. Sadly, it was one of the few times we would see the sun that afternoon.
35mm infrared film
After the session with Aeyla two weeks before, I felt a little more settled with working in the woods, and after moving from the clearing where we sat out the rain back into the wood proper, the work which was destined to be made showed itself.
4"x5" film
One of the biggest revelations that I have made this summer is how images are revealed to me, as opposed to made by me.  I now go through a very different process when I photograph; where before I fretted about "not being able to get a good photo", I now simply walk and wait for the images to find me. It is not something easy to describe, but it works, and has propelled my images to a place they could not have attained without this realization. I am not sure if the change is evident in the images, but I know it shows in how I approach the work. This summer has been the most challenging yet, on more levels that I can comprehend - it will take a long time before I fully understand what has happened, and incorporate it fully into my work as a whole.

August 16, 1997

Aeyla by the ocean (Prospect, Nova Scotia)


4"x5" film
This was the third session with Aeyla this summer, and our second attempt at photographing at Prospect. This time the weather held and we had a glorious sunny day with fluffy white clouds. Much of what was produced in this session revolved around the wealth of rocks and rock-fields that abound at Prospect - after working in the woods on the previous session, I felt really freed by the expansive nature of the rocks flowing down to the sea. 
4"x5" film
Another influence on this session was that Joy accompanied us - it didn't influence my imaging as much as my mood -there was a new-found confidence and a freshness to the work which I am not sure comes across in the work. I took risks and made choices which I would have shied away from previously. My increasing awareness of the power of imagery and symbolism within her poetry has permitted me to draw upon this in my photography, drawing visual metaphors into my work in a way I had never contemplated previously. The fear of being seen as obvious has become overshadowed by the possibilities of extending meaning through parallels.
6x12 cm film

August 09, 1997

Aeyla in the Woods (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

What began as a sunny, hot day was deceptive - Aeyla picked me up at 10 am and we drove to the coast - to find fog. We even waited and ate lunch, but no luck - the fog stayed. Not willing to waste the day, and braving the threat of bugs, we went into the woods - inland there wasn't a hint of the shrouds which enveloped the coast. I have not spent a great deal of time working with the Nude in woods, so the opportunity to expand this area of my work was more than enough to compensate for the lost opportunity at the coast.
6x12 cm film
Aeyla had never modeled in woods before, and both of us found it a difficult and challenging setting. The close quarters presented far fewer obvious vistas for imaging in, and there were the bugs to contend with (I cannot overstate the issue of bugs - Aeyla was terribly indulgent - but even with bug stuff, we both got bit!). The only small wonder was that the woods we worked in were fairly open, with lots of paths and trails. It would have been a much different story if they had been like 99% of Nova Scotian forests - dark and full of overgrowth.
4"x5" film
The main problem with photographing in woods is that they are dark - where I would usually expect to use shutter-speeds of 1/30 of a second, I often have to resort to 1/2 or even a full second in the forest. This changes the images somewhat, and forced me to be a little more deliberate about the images - some photos simply couldn't be made the way I envisioned them because of lack of light.
4"x5" film
I really enjoy working in woods when the images work, but, more often than not, I am frustrated without the light levels, and the sheer lack of variation - trees only grow in one direction generally, and Nova Scotian forests are not renowned for their variation. I will keep working with the Nude in woods, but feel far more compelled to place the body on rocks - even in the midst of trees.

July 29, 1997

Rocks and a Nude (Prospect, Nova Scotia)

The way in which photographs are made has never before been a subject for contemplation in my work. I went out, I made images, I went home. This is no longer true.
4"x5" film
Prospect lies a 40 minute drive outside Halifax, a quiet fishing town with only a line of glacial bedrock protecting it from the Atlantic Ocean. Outside the town, the shore is an unbroken flood of granite, scattered with boulders and rock fields left by the last ice age.
4"x5" film
In some ways, on this day all the progress of the past month came into clarity - I gave up making images, and literally simply let them come to me. Sasha and Wendy, who accompanied me, disappeared over the horizon as I was drawn to image after image, finding the creative process effortless and fluid as it never has before. The elements which the dialogue with Joy has introduced to my work wove with my own aesthetics, bringing subjects to my camera which I would have ignored before, and breathing life into them. The images came so fast on this day that I literally was reacting with my camera, responding to what was presented to me..
4"x5" film
At the very end of the evening, as the sun was disappearing behind the hills, a perfect site for nudes presented itself to me; and as it did, Sasha waltzed over the hill, come to search for his wayward photographer. He quickly agreed the site needed a body and went to work. Opting to use colour film, we made a dozen images before the light failed so much that it became impractical to photograph. All of us sat on the hilltop and watched the sun set, reveling in the dying of a very satisfying day.
6x12 cm film
The work I produced on this day was some of the most spontaneous and strong in my life, and I can only hope the gifts being revealed to me this summer can continue.

July 24, 1997

A Day of Photography (Polly's Cove, Nova Scotia)

The coastbetween West Dover and Peggy's Cove, just south of Halifax, is one of my favourite landscapes. Miles of glacier scraped land is scattered with boulders, flowing down to the Atlantic Ocean. The wild restraint of this landscape has always drawn me, and though I have worked with the figure in this setting before, it is far from drained of all its possibilities, and is a place I wish to return to again and again.
4"x5" film
Sasha and I didn't make too many images, but the two that were the most successful were certainly worth the afternoon's work. I made some colour images as well, of Sasha against a distant outcropping of rock - the images are decent, but the figure in them is so small; I think I went too far - a small nude overwhelmed by nature is wonderful thing, a bare blip of a figure in a landscape is a little silly. I have yet to make enlargements from the colour material, so I may be pleasantly surprised, but as it stands now, I think I will refrain from making images of nudes so far away.
4"x5" film
The image of Sasha on a large round boulder is another piece which I think marks a change in my work - the obvious parallel that I am making I think I would have chosen to ignore previously, writing it off as too simplistic. For whatever reason, taking risks seems to be the name of the game this summer.
6x12 cm film
After finishing on the West Dover Barrens, Sasha, Wendy and I drove to Peggy' Cove, home of the most over-photographed lighthouse in Canada. I have always loved the rocks there though, and while Sasha and Wendy sat eating ice cream and waiting for the sun to set, I explored and came across more images for Joy. The light was magnificent, with the sun low in the sky, perfect for reflections in pools of water, and lighting flat sheets of granite.

July 20, 1997

A Beach Session (Rainbowhaven Beach, Nova Scotia)

I'd never been to Rainbow Haven Beach before, even though it's the largest true beach close to Halifax. The day was perfect for photos - heavy overcast, and though there was a strong breeze offshore, the wind went straight overhead, leaving us all in relative calm.
4"x5" film
Something that became apparent to me only after the session was how the influence of Joy's work on mine was creeping out of the abstract rock images, and into my nudes. Last summer was the first time I'd incorporated water in my nudes - this summer's equivalent seems to be reflections, mirrors and metaphors. Joy's gift to my work is the challenge she gives, and the thought processes she provokes.
4"x5" film

Later on in the afternoon, I began to see images that called for a figure. Many of the rock formations that flowed into the sand spoke clearly to me both as images alone, and as a stage for the nude. I hadn't worked with Sasha before, but we immediately had a good report, and he is an excellent model, exploring sites and spaces as I set up, and then suggesting possible poses, which we then worked to refine. 
6x12 cm film
I began the afternoon working on more rock-sand-water images, drawing upon the dialogue between Joy and me. It is surprising how much another point of view can change your perspective on things. The images coming from Joy's poetry and letters are radical for me, images I would never have made without her insight. Where I usually spend time working with an image, improving it and shaping it through my camera, the Joy images speak to me so clearly when I see them , finishing the image in the camera is almost effortless. 

July 11, 1997

Aeyla's First Session (Chebucto Head, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film
The origin of this session was one of the most unexpected ever; I was at an open house at Collideascope Digital (the the company that hosts my website), when someone looking at my work (in a relatively crowded room) asked "Who in Nova Scotia is crazy enough to pose Nude". Not a second later, without hesitation, a voice beside me said "I'd do that.." - and a week later, Aeyla  and I had driven to the coast, and began to work together.

The above image, made in the first fifteen minutes of the session (and in the first 15 minutes of Aeyla's experience with modeling nude) was included in Portfolio XV.
6x12cm film

Much of the session was spent working on the rocks and shoreline at Chebucto Head; the hard direct sunlight made it challenging to work with some poses, but those that did work (generally with the body orientated towards the sky) were really pleasing.
4"x5" film

The final set of images for the session were made within an old search-light emplacement; it created a frame in which to place Aeyla , looking with an implied longing at the ocean around her.