Annie's Forst Sessopm (Scot's Bay, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

Annie came across my work on the Internet, and contacted me about modeling. We'd e-mailed back and forth, and after a couple of weeks, managed to arrange a time to work. As she lived on the other side of Nova Scotia from me, we decided to photograph in her end of the Province, using her local knowledge to find spaces to model in.

35mm infrared film

Scot's Bay is on the interior of the Bay of Fundy, with the world's highest tides (26' in some places). When we arrived, we were fortunate enough to have a low tide, permitting us hundreds of feet of very dramatic, ancient volcanic rock to use as a setting for images. We took some time walking down the beach before we found areas suitable for our purposes. Our arrival at the first space was perfectly timed; by the time the first set of images was complete, the tide was nibbling at our feet. After a couple of photographs of Annie in the water, we moved higher up the beach, working our way down until we eventually came to a space with great potential.

35mm infrared film

One of the great things about infra-red film is how it reacts to plants. The final space in which we imaged had a wonderful seam of leafy seaweed growing around the edge. Though I'd never photographed this particular type of seaweed on infra-red, I suspected it would produce a beautifully luminous tone on the film. The results were everything I had hoped for; the overcast day provided a very diffuse quality to the images, and the contrast between Annie's body, the seaweed and the rock is perfect.