L_'s New Apartment

Digital original

When L_ mentioned she was moving into a new apartment in August, my very first thought was to ask if she wanted to do a session in it before she moved any furniture in; as it turned out, she'd planned to have it empty for the first couple of days, and was quite enthusiastic about exploring the possibilities of the space for a nude session.

Shortly after entering the apartment,  I was brought up short by the light at the end of the hall - it flooded in from the second bedroom, and produced a beautiful glow on the end wall and the wooden floor. "What can we do with that wall" I asked L_, and for fifteen minutes or more, we experimented with both the digital and the view camera, exploring the potentials the luminous light held.

8"x10" film

One of the major advantages of using a view camera is having access to movements that can correct perspective problems but, rather than take advantage of these, with several of the images, I chose to leave the converging lines intact, using the distortion of the window and room as a way to draw the eye to L_'s figure. I am not sure if I will continue to use this approach (this is quite literally the first time in years I have consciously NOT corrected perspective in an image.)

8"x10" film

One of my favorite images of the session was a standing portrait made by one of the room windows; the light was perfect, evenly diffused with lovely description of form, and there was more than enough of it to facilitate working with the 8"x10" camera. The only problem was getting the distance necessary for the portrait; because the 8"x10" portrait lens needs more then two feet between the lens and film, I ended up with my head jammed into the corner, and the camera touching the wall on two sides...not the best position to compose an image from!