Mount Hope Garden Cemetary (Bangor, Maine)

The Mount Hope Garden Cemetery is beside the road that runs between Bangor and Orono, where I was staying. In the first three days I was in Maine, I must have been driven past it a dozen times, and each time, I marveled at its space and depth. In Halifax, all the graveyards are small, fully occupied, and generally flat. The pale stones, spread out on the dark grass, against the rising hills that run through the Cemetery were pure visuals to me, and I wanted to photograph it.

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I approached photographing the Cemetery in a similar manner to that which I use when I approach a fort - I see the image as strictly a series of flat planes, and set up my images accordingly.

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The fact that there was nothing in this graveyard that was parallel or perpendicular to anything else freed me up from some of the stricter rules of classic large format architectural photograph (no converging parallels or warped perspectives). Thus the second and third images, which are atypical for me - neither is a frontal flat image, and both use the qualities of the lens (in the first, a short telephoto, and in the second, an extreme wide-angle) to stress the elements that drew me to the subjects. 

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The fact that basic image corrections are so easily achieved with the view-camera often make me forget that occasionally these "flaws" can be used to advantage, producing emphasizing as opposed to distortion

A Woodland Session (Orono, Maine)

My first session with a model in Maine began mid-afternoon; Ellen had suggested a location in a nearby forest, so we walked into the woods for a few minutes to a clearing where we began to work. The forest was subtly different from those I am used to in Nova Scotia - it was more open, with older trees and more lush undergrowth

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Many of the tree nudes I made this year originate in my discussions with Joy and in the imagery in her poetry. Where the rock and water nudes for me exist as visual images alone, I cannot escape the reality that when I created the tree nudes this year, I was consciously thinking of dryads, nymphs and tree spirits. I don't think that this alters the meaning of the work, but I am aware it changes how I view the images. I am not sure how this will play out in the final presentation of the work, but knowing the images are born from more than a desire for visual expression will change how they are finished.

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The colour nude came out of a pose Ellen asked for - she wanted an image with her on the stream. There was no water moving through it, but the dark trail the wet rocks cut through the green forest floor was a perfect tableau for a nude. The first image, curled up, was good, but then I asked her to lean back over the rock she was sitting on. That image has such a strong angular direction to it that I truly think it would have succeeded even in black and white, but the contrast between the model's pale skin and the lush undergrowth simply rocks, to quote Ellen.

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The lure of water mixed with the Nude is so strong to me now, I am appalled that it took me six years to discover the combination. Where Ellen and I had been floundering in the woods, searching for images, at the river they presented themselves to me faster than I could respond. Because of the fading light, the session was short, but the work was strong. The low light, combined with the bright evening sky gave wonderful reflections in the calm water where we were working.

Fort Knox (Prospect, Maine)

Fort Knox is a massive granite structure overlooking a bend in the Penobscot River in Maine. It was constructed to defend the river (and its towns and industries) from British naval assault. Fort Knox consists of outlying batteries, multiple shooting galleries, and a central building, which overlooks the remainder of the fort.

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The most interesting element of photographing Fort Knox was that it essentially was the American response to Fortress Halifax. The basic architectural elements are the same, as are some of the design features, but in other areas, the two defense systems differed wildly. This first session at Fort Knox was short, as we arrived at 6:00pm, and the light was fading. It wet my appetite though, and made me hungry to return and bring into my camera more of that which presented itself to me.

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The pleasure of photographing at Fort Knox was twofold - the strong monolithic nature of the architecture was familiar to me, one of my favourite things about the Fortress Halifax forts, and yet the fort itself was new to me, undiscovered country so to speak.

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The combination of these two factors made the hour or so I spent photographing on this day seem vaguely surreal - I was familiar with the format of the fort, but the actual application was new and visually exciting. Much of what appeared on the ground-glass of my camera was strangely familiar, yet never enough to be comfortable...it was almost like I had been to the fort before.

The light ran out before my enthusiasm did, but I was bound and determined to return to the fort again, to further explore and commit to film the images that sprang out to me.

Nude in the Woods (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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Another session in the forest - this time with a bit of rain thrown in for flavour. After sitting and chatting in a car as it drizzled for ten minutes, the weather finally settled down to a gentle threat, and the model, Helen and I began to explore the setting. Shortly after the rain, a ray of sun found us, and I whipped off a few infrared images. Sadly, it was one of the few times we would see the sun that afternoon.

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After the session with Aeyla two weeks before, I felt a little more settled with working in the woods, and after moving from the clearing where we sat out the rain back into the wood proper, the work which was destined to be made showed itself.

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One of the biggest revelations that I have made this summer is how images are revealed to me, as opposed to made by me.  I now go through a very different process when I photograph; where before I fretted about "not being able to get a good photo", I now simply walk and wait for the images to find me. It is not something easy to describe, but it works, and has propelled my images to a place they could not have attained without this realization. I am not sure if the change is evident in the images, but I know it shows in how I approach the work. This summer has been the most challenging yet, on more levels that I can comprehend - it will take a long time before I fully understand what has happened, and incorporate it fully into my work as a whole.

Aeyla by the ocean (Prospect, Nova Scotia)

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This was the third session with Aeyla this summer, and our second attempt at photographing at Prospect. This time the weather held and we had a glorious sunny day with fluffy white clouds. Much of what was produced in this session revolved around the wealth of rocks and rock-fields that abound at Prospect - after working in the woods on the previous session, I felt really freed by the expansive nature of the rocks flowing down to the sea. 

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Another influence on this session was that Joy accompanied us - it didn't influence my imaging as much as my mood -there was a new-found confidence and a freshness to the work which I am not sure comes across in the work. I took risks and made choices which I would have shied away from previously. My increasing awareness of the power of imagery and symbolism within her poetry has permitted me to draw upon this in my photography, drawing visual metaphors into my work in a way I had never contemplated previously. The fear of being seen as obvious has become overshadowed by the possibilities of extending meaning through parallels.

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Aeyla in the Woods (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

What began as a sunny, hot day was deceptive - Aeyla picked me up at 10 am and we drove to the coast - to find fog. We even waited and ate lunch, but no luck - the fog stayed. Not willing to waste the day, and braving the threat of bugs, we went into the woods - inland there wasn't a hint of the shrouds which enveloped the coast. I have not spent a great deal of time working with the Nude in woods, so the opportunity to expand this area of my work was more than enough to compensate for the lost opportunity at the coast.

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Aeyla had never modeled in woods before, and both of us found it a difficult and challenging setting. The close quarters presented far fewer obvious vistas for imaging in, and there were the bugs to contend with (I cannot overstate the issue of bugs - Aeyla was terribly indulgent - but even with bug stuff, we both got bit!). The only small wonder was that the woods we worked in were fairly open, with lots of paths and trails. It would have been a much different story if they had been like 99% of Nova Scotian forests - dark and full of overgrowth.

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The main problem with photographing in woods is that they are dark - where I would usually expect to use shutter-speeds of 1/30 of a second, I often have to resort to 1/2 or even a full second in the forest. This changes the images somewhat, and forced me to be a little more deliberate about the images - some photos simply couldn't be made the way I envisioned them because of lack of light.

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I really enjoy working in woods when the images work, but, more often than not, I am frustrated without the light levels, and the sheer lack of variation - trees only grow in one direction generally, and Nova Scotian forests are not renowned for their variation. I will keep working with the Nude in woods, but feel far more compelled to place the body on rocks - even in the midst of trees.

Rocks and a Nude (Prospect, Nova Scotia)

The way in which photographs are made has never before been a subject for contemplation in my work. I went out, I made images, I went home. This is no longer true.

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Prospect lies a 40 minute drive outside Halifax, a quiet fishing town with only a line of glacial bedrock protecting it from the Atlantic Ocean. Outside the town, the shore is an unbroken flood of granite, scattered with boulders and rock fields left by the last ice age.

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In some ways, on this day all the progress of the past month came into clarity - I gave up making images, and literally simply let them come to me. Sasha and Wendy, who accompanied me, disappeared over the horizon as I was drawn to image after image, finding the creative process effortless and fluid as it never has before. The elements which the dialogue with Joy has introduced to my work wove with my own aesthetics, bringing subjects to my camera which I would have ignored before, and breathing life into them. The images came so fast on this day that I literally was reacting with my camera, responding to what was presented to me..

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At the very end of the evening, as the sun was disappearing behind the hills, a perfect site for nudes presented itself to me; and as it did, Sasha waltzed over the hill, come to search for his wayward photographer. He quickly agreed the site needed a body and went to work. Opting to use colour film, we made a dozen images before the light failed so much that it became impractical to photograph. All of us sat on the hilltop and watched the sun set, reveling in the dying of a very satisfying day.

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The work I produced on this day was some of the most spontaneous and strong in my life, and I can only hope the gifts being revealed to me this summer can continue.

A Day of Photography (Polly's Cove, Nova Scotia)

The coastbetween West Dover and Peggy's Cove, just south of Halifax, is one of my favourite landscapes. Miles of glacier scraped land is scattered with boulders, flowing down to the Atlantic Ocean. The wild restraint of this landscape has always drawn me, and though I have worked with the figure in this setting before, it is far from drained of all its possibilities, and is a place I wish to return to again and again.

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Sasha and I didn't make too many images, but the two that were the most successful were certainly worth the afternoon's work. I made some colour images as well, of Sasha against a distant outcropping of rock - the images are decent, but the figure in them is so small; I think I went too far - a small nude overwhelmed by nature is wonderful thing, a bare blip of a figure in a landscape is a little silly. I have yet to make enlargements from the colour material, so I may be pleasantly surprised, but as it stands now, I think I will refrain from making images of nudes so far away.

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The image of Sasha on a large round boulder is another piece which I think marks a change in my work - the obvious parallel that I am making I think I would have chosen to ignore previously, writing it off as too simplistic. For whatever reason, taking risks seems to be the name of the game this summer.

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After finishing on the West Dover Barrens, Sasha, Wendy and I drove to Peggy' Cove, home of the most over-photographed lighthouse in Canada. I have always loved the rocks there though, and while Sasha and Wendy sat eating ice cream and waiting for the sun to set, I explored and came across more images for Joy. The light was magnificent, with the sun low in the sky, perfect for reflections in pools of water, and lighting flat sheets of granite.

A Beach Session (Rainbowhaven Beach, Nova Scotia)

I'd never been to Rainbow Haven Beach before, even though it's the largest true beach close to Halifax. The day was perfect for photos - heavy overcast, and though there was a strong breeze offshore, the wind went straight overhead, leaving us all in relative calm.

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Something that became apparent to me only after the session was how the influence of Joy's work on mine was creeping out of the abstract rock images, and into my nudes. Last summer was the first time I'd incorporated water in my nudes - this summer's equivalent seems to be reflections, mirrors and metaphors. Joy's gift to my work is the challenge she gives, and the thought processes she provokes.

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Later on in the afternoon, I began to see images that called for a figure. Many of the rock formations that flowed into the sand spoke clearly to me both as images alone, and as a stage for the nude. I hadn't worked with Sasha before, but we immediately had a good report, and he is an excellent model, exploring sites and spaces as I set up, and then suggesting possible poses, which we then worked to refine. 

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I began the afternoon working on more rock-sand-water images, drawing upon the dialogue between Joy and me. It is surprising how much another point of view can change your perspective on things. The images coming from Joy's poetry and letters are radical for me, images I would never have made without her insight. Where I usually spend time working with an image, improving it and shaping it through my camera, the Joy images speak to me so clearly when I see them , finishing the image in the camera is almost effortless. 

Aeyla's First Session (Chebucto Head, Nova Scotia)

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The origin of this session was one of the most unexpected ever; I was at an open house at Collideascope Digital (the the company that hosts my website), when someone looking at my work (in a relatively crowded room) asked "Who in Nova Scotia is crazy enough to pose Nude". Not a second later, without hesitation, a voice beside me said "I'd do that.." - and a week later, Aeyla  and I had driven to the coast, and began to work together.

The above image, made in the first fifteen minutes of the session (and in the first 15 minutes of Aeyla's experience with modeling nude) was included in Portfolio XV.

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Much of the session was spent working on the rocks and shoreline at Chebucto Head; the hard direct sunlight made it challenging to work with some poses, but those that did work (generally with the body orientated towards the sky) were really pleasing.

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The final set of images for the session were made within an old search-light emplacement; it created a frame in which to place Aeyla , looking with an implied longing at the ocean around her.