Kylie & Miranda Model Together

Shortly after my last session with Kylie, I was thinking of asking her if she had any interest in working with another models (male or female) when she asked me if Miranda might be interested in modeling with her. I've always been surprised by the comfort of some models in working with others (it is never a surprise when models work with their partners, but it is different when they work with a model they are not intimately involved with); there is an obvious connection when the models are already acquainted (like the New Year's day session with L_, Elisabeth and Krista), but in a number of cases, models have asked about working with other models without having met them first. I think the main motivation for this is appreciating my work with multiple models, and being curious about what they could contribute to that collection of images; with Kylie, it was as simple as wishing to vary the breadth of the work we've produced to date.

Digital original

As I suspected, Miranda was more then comfortable with the proposal of working with Kylie, and during a short weekend visit to Halifax, we were able to work out a time that suited all three people involved. The space we had to work in was both small and a little dim, so even before we started the session, a lot of work was put into moving the furniture around to maximize the working space. Nothing much could be done to increase the light - in warmer weather I would have opened the deck door to let in more light, but there was freezing rain outside (part of the reason the light levels were so low), I thought it better to keep the door shut!

Digital original, 3 frame stitch

The session actually started out with some standing images, silhouetted against the central window of the door, but these didn't work as well as I have hoped, so we quickly shifted to working on the couch, making a series of images of the models intertwined and relaxing. It is this point that I am always the most anxious about; if the chemistry of the models doesn't mix, there is an obvious tension to the images that can be hard to work around. With Kylie and Miranda, however, there wasn't any problem with comfort, and the first image saw Kylie leaning back into the couch, and Miranda collapsing across her legs. Because of the small room size, I had to fight to keep the composition within the frame with the 8"x10" camera, but the composition was just possible, and very striking.

Digital original, 3 frame stitch

The rest of the session was spent working on variations of the same, either Miranda reclining and Kylie fitting into the pose, or the other way around. Because of the low light levels, I concentrated on working with the digital camera, but whenever an image look particularly strong, I would take the time to record it on the view camera. The only real exception was the final image of the session, with Miranda sitting up, and Kylie lying on her front, looking at the camera. As soon as I saw it (a non-pose of the models simply waiting for a decision to continue working or end the session), I knew it would make a great portrait image. To get the right perspective, I had to be right against the far wall - a position that was impossible with the larger camera. I made the image with the digital, breaking it into two stitched vertical frames to keep the image as high quality as possible.