Fern Poses in an Abandoned Boat (Carter's Beach, Nova Scotia)

The greatest surprise of the day came as we were walking to what we'd expected to be our second location, a white sand beach. As with the first location, I'd been told of the beach, but had never actually seen it, and as a result, didn't know what to expect.

6x7 cm film

As we were walking to the beach, we came across an abandoned Canadian Coast Guard vessel, pulled up on the shore and left to rot. The ship was almost entirely gone to rust, and immediately, I saw the possibilities it held for images. I wasn't sure if Fern would see what I did in the space, but she readily agreed to see what could be made in the boat, and we set to work.

6x7 cm film

Because I'd shot through all my 8"x10" film at the river, I had to change to working with the smaller Mamiya RB and 120 roll film. It was a shame not to be able to use the larger view camera with such a texture-rich space, but the reality of how much film I had along dictated the smaller format.

6x7 cm film

As much as the rusty hulk called out to me visually, it was surprisingly sparse to work with; while the textures of the rusty metal were incredibly rich, the flat-sided, flat bottomed boat challenged Fern to find poses that worked with such basic surroundings. With almost every pose, the inspiration was the simplest of elements; the join between the deck and walls, the circular inspection hatches set against the lines of Fern's torso and hip, the flow of her body between the hatches on the deck.

6x7 cm film

Where the first session of the day (and Fern's first session modeling outdoors) was very much about finding inspiration in the landscape, and melding the body with the setting, the images in the abandoned boat relied very much on Fern's ability to collaborate with me to find a pose, and make it work. This is probably the hardest thing about nude modeling, and something that is next to impossible to teach. Fortunately, she was both keen enough, and patient enough and we came away from an hour of working with a good variety of poses, in spite of the small setting.