April 19, 1998

Kris Models at the Coast (Chebucto Head, Nova Scotia)

35mm film
My first full weekend back in Halifax was intended to be split between time with my daughter, and the processing of the more than 200 sheets of large format film I had exposed in Maine..until I received a phone call fro Kris, asking if I was up for a session. Never one to turn down an opportunity to make images, I put off processing the film, and headed off to Chebucto Head shortly after lunch. Kris and I had worked there several times in 1996, but we had only scratched the surface of the possibilities. I could work there every day for a year and still not exhaust its possibilities.
35mm infrared film
Though the day was full of blazing sunlight, there was a cool wind which very quickly took a toll on Kris - though she was still keen to model, she preferred to be Nude for as brief a period as possible. The afternoon was an interesting contrast to the work in Maine - there I tended to work very quickly, and intuitively, the afternoon with Kris was mostly spent walking, searching for images, and then setting them up with great precision. Once I had an image fully framed and readied, Kris would disrobe and take up the pose. In Maine I often spent as long as ten minutes exploring a pose through the camera, with the models nude through out the session; with Kris it was often less than a minute between disrobing and dressing again. On the whole, the session's pacing was about as far from those I did in Maine as it would be without changing camera formats.
4"x5" film
The outcome? After two and a half hours, I'd made 8 frames of 4"x5" and 4 rolls of film - two on 120, one infra-red 35mm, and one on the 35mm Horizont (swing lens panoramic). The session was slow, and methodical, and yielded a number of good images.

April 11, 1998

A couple Indoors (Orono, Maine)

Laurel had facilitated almost half the images on this trip to Maine by letting me work within her house, but it wasn't until the morning of my last full day in Maine that she could model with her partner, Neil. Like the previous days session with Lisa, the morning was full of sunlight, flowing across the couple and alternately frustrating and thrilling me - for one image the sun would be perfect, for the next, problematic. Working with two people made the process even more challenging.
6x12 cm film
As I work with more couples, I'm learning that there is no predictable dynamic - each couple reacts to modelling together totally differently. For Laurel and Neil, the session provided a break in a hectic schedule, and gave them time to simply be together with nothing else distracting them (all be it in a room with other people, and the constant click of shutters and shifting of tripods). Both mentioned afterwards that is was nice having the time to simply be together.
6x12 cm film
The comfort and openness of Laurel and Neil with the session shows in the work - out of the session came some really strong images - and the breaking of another personal barrier. A week before, I'd talked on a panel discussing aspects of working with the female nude in art, and had presented a short slide presentation of my work, which included several of my images of couples. In the process of elaborating on that aspect of my work, I delineated the line I felt I walked upon, using the example that while I might photograph a nude couple holding each other or cuddling, I didn't think it would work to take an image of, say a kiss, while the models were nude.
4"x5" film
Laurel and Neil blew that idea out of the water. Over the course of the 90 minutes we worked together, fully a quarter of the images made were of kisses...each touching on the tenderness and intimacy between them, and drawing upon exactly what I hope to convey in the work - the power of two. I chuckled as I made the work, recalling the very words I'd spoken a week before. The moment called for the images to be made, and in spite of my prior conviction that they would cross a line I am dreadfully aware of, I made them. On one level, this reinforces my conviction that the spontaneity of last summer's work is continuing, and on another, it forces me to re-evaluate the invisible line I had drawn with my work, question what I am loathe to stray into, and why...

April 10, 1998

Another Session with Lisa (Orono, Maine)

35mm infrared film
The second indoor session with Lisa was radically different from the first. As the afternoon sun moved across the sky, and flooded through the windows and skylights, the light changed and shifted. The session was far more dynamic than the previous one - the directional light provoked image after image, where before I had to seek them out. Where the previous session with Chandler was slow and contemplative, the afternoon which followed with Lisa was the opposite, charged with the flowing sunlight. The work has a totally different feel and focus to it, and provides a nice counterpoint to the first indoor session with Lisa.
6x12 cm film
The nicest aspect of direct sunlight is the modelling of form it provides the Nude, giving definition of form and a depth to images that would appear flat under diffused lighting.
4"x5" film
The best lesson of the session was that very little infra-red radiation is lost through window-glass - I worked through two rolls of infra-red film, over-exposing in an attempt to compensate for the infra-red light that I thought would be lost to the windows. There was no need in the end, as far as I could tell there was no loss in exposure. The strength of the first image, again made with my 4"x5" view camera and the 75mm lens (equal to a 24mm lens on a 35mm camera), is more than met by the infra-reds

Chandler Poses Indoors (Orono, Maine)

Chandler was the only solo male model I worked with in Maine. It is a very strange thing how hard it is to find men willing to model Nude; it is often a difficult decision for people to model for me...challenging their self-perception, and taking the risk they may not like what they see. The honest truth is that I think women find it easier to contemplate they may actually be beautiful, whereas men are raised to consider beauty as vanity, and frivolous.
4"x5" film
The first half-hour or so with Chandler was spent discussing this very thing, and how he felt about challenging it by exploring his body through my work.

The most interesting aspect of what we produced together was how much of it was interchangeable with the work I did earlier in the week with Leslie and Lisa. In one sense, all three sessions were bound to have common elements, having been produced in the same setting under the same light, but these are like saying the work is similar because it is in black and white. Rather, the work shares a visual thread in the representation of the bodies. There are images which would be interchanged between the sessions without any lack of continuity, or disruption of flow.
4"x5" film
Working predominantly with female models often leads people to think that I only photograph with women, or that my vision is tied to the female Nude. I do think that there are very specific issues attached to imaging the male body (a discussion in Art College with a student over males being too "blocky" for my work comes to mind) it is difficult to address or challenge these without models to work with. I have been fortunate in the last couple of years to have a small number of enthusiastic models, and Chandler plans to be in Halifax over the summer, so I hope to be able to push this work further, in the environment I thrive in, the rock-plains, weathered shoreline, and scrubby forests of Nova Scotia

April 07, 1998

Laurel Models along the Penobscot River (Orono, Maine)

My second outdoor session of the year focused on the banks of the Penobscot river. Many of the images of Laurel drew directly upon the sparse quality of the shoreline - bare trees and flooded spaces. The lighting was perfect - overcast with occasional light sun peeking through.
4"x5" film
The session with Laurel was another which showed the strength of the 75mm Rodenstock lens on the view camera. The lens is vast improvement over my former pair of f/8 wide angles, the 65mm and 90mm Super Angulons, both in terms of working aperture (with the new lens being twice as bright) and in terms of coverage, permitting more extreme lens movements, with less risk of vignetting.
4"x5" film
One of the nicest pieces from the work with Laurel is the colour image below. I have switched to working on 120 transparency film for my colour work, partially because I can no longer print my own colour negs from the 6x12 back, and partially because of the more immediate gratification of being able to see the image on a light table right after processing. This particular image would have been stronger if the transparency film had been faster - it's produced on Agfa's RSX 50, which has a very narrow latitude. A higher-speed film would have had more information in the water reflection, but this can be taken care of in the prints by digitally boosting the levels in the water, thereby increasing the information. Oh the wonders of the digital age!
6x12 cm transparency
A major influence on the look of the work I produced in Maine was the fact that almost all the models were comfortable with their faces being in the images. The first image in this session is a good example of where this strengthens an image - the only way to have made this image anonymous would have been to have Laurel turn away, which would have changed the image radically.

April 06, 1998

Lisa Poses Indoors (Orono, Maine)

4"x5" film
I arrived at Laurel's to find Lisa curled up on the bed within comforters. Because we still had some time left after I had returned, we worked on some indoor available light nudes. As with the earlier outdoor work, Lisa's personality dominated the session; her direct response to the camera producing strong portraits, successful over and above the bodyscapes we also produced.
4"x5" film
Working with the nude in a setting such as a bed, which implies a certain degree of intimacy, has always been challenging for me. I've always been a little wary of work like this - it skirts a fine line which I am always leery of crossing. That indefinable quality which separates a strong, vivid portrait of an unclothed person from a soft-core magazine image is elusive and difficult to capture, but the closer I come to crossing, it seems, the stronger the images.
4"x5" film
In some ways a personal portrait of a Nude is the most compelling image of all, forcing the viewer to accept the humanity of the subject. The direct, comfortable gaze of Lisa pulls these images far past where they could lie, into something very powerful and open. The success of the work lies more in her comfort with the session than in anything my lenses or cameras produced. And as this the images of Leslie, the soft, open lighting of the day made the images all the stronger.

The Old Power Station (Orono, Maine)

6x12 cm film
The penstock in which I worked with Lisa was the only accessible portion of the power plant. After she went back indoors to warm up, I stayed around the plant and made some images of the water-pipes that would once had directed the Stillwater River through the turbines.
4"x5" film
Working from a walk-way which went over the penstocks, I made eight images, drawn as much to the weathered metal and concrete as I was to the repeating curves and lines. I would have liked to have been able to get down into the trench where the pipes were, but the light was changing, and I wanted to head back to Laurel's, where Lisa went to warm up, and make some indoor images of her before the light left all together.
4"x5" film

At the Orono Power Plant (Orono, Maine)

This session marks the earliest I have ever worked with a model outdoors - prior to this it was May 15. The day was cool, but Lisa was comfortable enough to work for a good two hours. The day was perfect for photography, light overcast conditions providing wonderfully even lighting, while not costing much in terms of my exposures.
4"x5" film
The power plant we worked at is an abandoned hydro plant that drew water off the Penobscot River through huge penstock tunnels, one of which (I assume it was an overflow penstock) emerged beside the plant. It was in this space Lisa and I worked.
4"x5" film
This session was also my first session using my new 75mm f/4.5 Rodenstock lens for my 4"x5" camera, which performed admirably - the strongest image encompassing the full opening of the tunnel was made with it. The brighter image on the ground-glass, combined with the wide angle and large image circle helped tremendously with the image, and I look forward to pushing the lens to its limits over the coming months.
4"x5" film
All in all, the first outdoor session of the year was a success. Lisa was an excellent model, and was very comfortable, despite it being her first time modelling nude. Though the day was a little cool, I was very pleased with what we achieved, especially the number of strong portraits that were produced.

April 03, 1998

A Candle-lit Couple (Orono, Maine)

The evening of the day of the session with Leslie was also filled with photography. Ellen and Andrew had viewed my couples work and wanted to work with me...unfortunately Andrew worked during the day, so it had to be a night session. As it turned out, Eleen was able to get us a place to work for the evening, and the session was arranged.
6x12 cm film
Drawing on the earlier work with Megan, I decided that rather than just forgetting the idea due to lack of access to studio flash lighting, we would do a session by candlelight. I hadn't previously worked with couple nudes by candlelight before, and it turned out to be quite a successful venture.
4"x5" film
The biggest problem with the session was the candles - we had no preparation time before the session, and therefore had to stick with the candles we had on hand...votive candles. The previous sessions I had done with candles were all produced using tapers, which are both higher off the floor, and have longer, brighter flames. The votive candles were just too low, and had too small a flame to generate the kind of light I had previously worked with.
4"x5" film
On the whole, technical issues aside, the session generated some very powerful images...the hands in the last image are especially strong...the intimacy and comfort indicated by their positions tell volumes.

Leslie Models Indoors (Orono, Maine)

Although my primary reasons for being in Maine were to hang Evolving Beauty, give an emulsion transfer workshop, and make a series of presentations on my work, I also had plans to work with a number of models, outdoors if possible, and indoors if the weather was prohibitive.
6x12 cm film
Leslie was the first model I had an opportunity to work with, and as it was too cold outside, we (sensibly) stayed inside, working at the home of another model.
6x12 cm film
I'm always a little leery of working with natural light indoors...it's like a studio, in that to achieve the qualities I seek (a degree of universality), I try to remove all specific references (furniture, books, wall-hangings etc.) and yet, unlike a studio, I haven't control over the lighting...I get what is there. It's good in some ways - like working outdoors, it tends to be reactive image-making (i.e. I search for the photo, or have it revealed to me, as opposed to "make" it), but by the same token, I am controlling the environmental setting, but have no control over the environmental lighting ... a frustrating combination.
4"x5" film
All that said, I am terribly pleased with the results. The soft lighting that came through the large windows at Laurel's house was wonderfully descriptive, falling across the plains of Leslie's body in light sheets. Leslie's comfort with the camera, and openness to the experience (she had not previously modeled nude) made the whole session rich with images, both portraits and abstracted nudes.

April 02, 1998

Hauck Hall, University of Maine (Orono, Maine)

The whole reason for my 10 day trek to Maine was to hang my first solo show, Evolving Beauty, as part of the Beautiful Project. In its second year, the Beautiful project is designed to celebrate women's beauty and self-expression, providing them the opportunity to be honoured, rejoiced in, and fully self-expressed in their communities.
I was invited by the Beautiful Project to develop an exhibit of my work with the Female Nude, and out of that request grew "Evolving Beauty". The design, production, matting and framing of the show was executed in under six weeks, so it was with great pleasure and relief that I hung the work on the walls of Hauck on the evening of April 2, 1998.