Victoria & Joe (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

My first couples images of 1999 have their roots in the work I did with Victoria and Ingrid in 1998. This time, however, she worked with her boyfriend, Joe, both of them generously letting me gaze though a photographic window into their relationship and affection for each other. Though Victoria has had extensive experience modeling, both for photo and drawing, the session was Joe's first time in the studio but he was more than enthusiastic. After some time spent talking over my working process, and the goals of the session, we began.

The first image, above, is my favourite from the session. Drawing upon the work I did with Cheryl and Marieke earlier in the month,, I experimented with using view camera movements to control focus. The softness of Joe's hand on Victoria's back a counterpoint to the sharpness of his face, and provides a delicate image of an embrace.

4"x5" film

The second image has a less obvious focus , but in the print has a delicate softness to the hands, while Victoria's lips and hair are sharply defined. These images, and a couple of others which we produced together, firmly convince me that the focus effects possible with the view camera are going to play a major role in my work. I am very drawn to the look of these images, and look forward to pushing the envelope with this technique outdoors - the possibilities are endless.

4"x5" film

I produced very little colour work of Joe and Victoria, deciding instead to focus on black & white for the session. Interestingly enough, the image to the right is far stronger than its black and white counterpart, with the darker colouring of Joe emphasizing the pale skin of Victoria. I keep struggling with colour in the studio, and feel very much like someone learning a foreign language. Sometimes I can manage to speak an entire phrase fluently but I feel like I have an accent when I try to hold a conversation in colour. I'll persevere with the medium and hope to eventually become bilingual in both black & white and colour.