Chandler Models Outdoors (Orono, Maine)

35mm infrared film

I will be the first person to admit that males are underrepresented in my work. The challenge of finding male models mystifies me, but it has been a constant - even men who are comfortable posing with their partners are strangely reluctant to work with me on their own. It mystifies me to no end. Only three times have I been lucky enough to work with male models who were fully comfortable with the process - Chandler being the most recent.

35mm infrared film

I had worked with Chandler six weeks before, but the weather then had precluded working outdoors. This time our luck was better, and though we only had an hour to work, what was produced was really well seen, and in some ways, surprising. Given the tight time restriction, we decided to stick close to home, working in the same place along the Penobscot River where I had photographed in April. The landscape was vastly different however, as the floodwaters had long receded, and the riverside forests were in full leaf. It was within the base of these trees that Chandler and I began to work.

35mm infrared film

The results of the session were really pleasing - in a single hour of working we managed to come up with a number of dynamic images - all produced on 35mm infra-red. The number of successes is not as remarkable as the camera in which they were produced. Though I usually carry a Nikon loaded with infra-red film, it seldom eclipses the work produced with the view camera. The power and unique beauty of a successful infra-red image makes the burden of the second camera worthwhile, but until this session I had never had a body of images which were so heavily weighted towards the infra-red work. I am not sure if I should attribute this to ever increasing comfort with the film, to the visual effect of the super-wide angle of the 19mm lens, or just to luck.