Another Session with Elisabeth

6x7 cm film

Elisabeth's comfort with the camera was crucial for the session. Probably the hardest pose to ask of a model is to simply stand in an empty space and gaze directly at the camera. It takes a great deal of poise and confidence to make such a setting work, for the first half of this session, that's how we worked; with the flat frontal lighting and the strength of Elisabeth's gaze.

6x7 cm film

All the sessions to date with Elisabeth have been working with her posing on beds, lying down below the windows and deck doors. In order to make some images with a different flow to them, I opted to work with her standing before the white sheets, with the light coming from behind the camera. This changed the lighting from edge and rim lighting to a flatter, more frontal lighting. While I don't use this approach often, I do like the quality it lends to the Nude, giving pronounced, soft shadows to both edges of the figure, and lending an almost surreal quality to the images as a whole.

8"x10" film

The session finished up with a total change in setting; the afternoon's light was soft and diffused, so I set up a black-backdrop right beside the window, and asked Elisabeth to model right by the large double-doors. The results took full advantage of the contrast between the light, and the black background. So much of my indoor work for the past couple of years has revolved around the Nude on white background that the stark contrast of the figure on the black field is quite striking to my eyes. I am not sure if this will provoke an entire new body of work of indoor images against black, but it certainly ended a session of engaging images on a high note.