Victoria Part II, Spion Copp (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

6x12 cm film

The one of the most surprising elements of the sessions with Victoria, was how fluidly I moved between colour and black and white. Normally, my colour work tends to be very self-conscious; I look at a scene and try to see it with colour. On this day, however, I simply changed cameras as the scenes changed, and found I had to make little mental adjustments between the two media. I think this came as much from the strength of the images Victoria and I were making as it did from a growing comfort I am gaining with colour as a way of seeing.

6x12 cm transparency film

There was a great deal of freedom with the images we made, on several levels. As a dancer, Victoria was patient with holding poses, and I knew I had the freedom to perfect framing, posing and other elements before the images were made. In addition to this, there was her comfort with being recognizable, always a bonus to a session, which freed me to make any image which worked.

4"x5' film

Where the first session used the Caponier as a space to work with the body within and around, the session later in the afternoon, within an abandoned military building, revolved around Victoria alone, with very little involvement with her surroundings. It is unusual for me to work in this manner outside of the studio, but Victoria had expressed a desire to try some dancing poses in the room, and, after we made those images, I continued to work in the same vein, concentrating more on portraiture than aesthetic nudes.