Ingrid at the Killdevils (Gold River, Nova Scotia)

6x12 cm film

Gold River, between the rapids, Killdevils and Cumberland, has proved to be a rich hunting ground for images. The wide variety of riverscape, combined with the differences in the river's water levels from week to week has lead to a very diverse set of images over a short period of time (earlier work on Gold River can be found here). The more I work with water, the more malleable I find it, realizing that its ability to both reflect and transmit light is its real beauty, as much as I love its movement. On this day, because of the lack of rain, Gold River was slow moving, and instead of working in the same space as before, we moved down river, to a broad, open section.

4"x5" film

There, as opposed to working with the movement of the water, I concentrated on the reflections and distortions which were present, using the pale green water grass under the surface as a counterpoint to Ingrid's pale body. The subtle distortions of the body below the water, combined with the dark, mysterious quality to the river made the water images from this session quite different from my other water work.

4"x5" film

After we finished up working in the water, Ingrid took a walk downstream. Returning five minutes later, she asked me to come with her; she'd found a small patch of white flowers which she wanted to work with. Though it doesn't come out well on the web, the image to the right is the flower nude - one of my favourite "land nudes" this year. The wonderful sweeping motions of Ingrid's arms, torso and legs makes the image work well within the frame, and the high resolution of the 4"x5" negative shows the tiny white flowers in exquisite detail. The delicacy and quite quality of the image as a whole lead to exactly the result I was hoping for.