Two Models in the Rain (Schoodic Point, Maine)

The biggest difficulty with working with the nude outdoors is that the weather seldom co-operates - either it's too sunny, or too cool, or threatening rain - or even raining. On this particular morning, Ellen, who had modeled for me a week before, and Cass, who I'd met shortly there-after, had got together to work with me - but it was threatening rain.

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Ever optimistic, we set off in the car - directly into the rain. Grasping at straws, we went all the way to the the coast, only to find it shrouded in rain and fog. I wanted to call it quits, but both Ellen and Cass were determined not to let the rain prevent the day from moving ahead, so after buying some cheap plastic rain-gear, and weather-proofing the camera-gear as much as possible (wrapping film-holders in a plastic bag) we set off to work. It must have been quite a sight, two nude models clambering around on cold, wet rocks as I struggled to keep the rain off the camera,frame the images and direct the models.

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The coastline where we photographed was incredible - the jagged rocks and stone beaches were a paradise to image in. Working as quickly as I could, I managed to make a good 20 images before the models finally gave up being stubborn and admitted they were cold. The work though, was well worth their effort. There's little direct evidence of the rain in the images, but the glistening rocks and wet hair contribute to an over-all impression of the day. The fact it was raining a fair bit when the images were made was negated by the long shutter-speeds, though the contrast on the negatives is a little low, probably due to the amount of moisture in the air.

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The final set of images made on this day were actually made in the last moments we had before setting off back to Orono. After we finished working in the rain, we all bundled into the car and drove a little further, to the Schoodic Park parking lot, where we came across an incredible space. A huge rock face had broken lose from the remainder of the bedrock, and slid downwards, creating a natural cavern - the light shone through it, creating a wonderful rim-light effect on the far opening. Though they were still a little chilled from the earlier modelling, both Ellen and Cass agreed that such a space should not be overlooked. There really was only one camera angle that worked, so after fifteen pose variations, we bundled the gear up and headed back to the car, and a hot spaghetti dinner in Orono.

An evening at Fort Popham (Prospect, Maine)

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Fort Popham was constructed to defend the Kennebec River and the town of Bath, Maine, from naval assault. It was never completed however, and to this day piles of unlaid stones litter the inner courtyard of the fort. The remarkable thing is, even though it is unfinished, it has stood for over 150 years virtually intact. The basic design was drawn from Fort Knox, though there are specific elements which differ.

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It took me a while before I could get past the visual beauty of Fort Popham, and begin to photograph it. The light which filtered through the open arches and into the gun casemates was soft and delicate, lighting the barrel vaulting in a very sculptural way. Almost 50% of the negatives I made at Popham were of the casemates, the repeating arches and the light that moved through them. The ultra-wide angle lens was critical at Popham - it allowed me to covey a sense of the massiveness of the casemates, while ensuring enough information was in the photos to give a sense of the openness of the space.

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The other element that drew me in at Popham was its spiral staircases. There are two of these at Fort Knox to the North, but those were obstructed by construction, and had modern, shiny hand-rails in them. Photographing these stairways was a challenge though - the enclosed tight space made me rely upon the 65mm lens, and for the final two images, I took the camera off the tripod and placed it face-up on the stairs. The image here was made in this manner. The exposures for these photos were over four minutes, and the fact that two people passed right over the camera and through the image is totally unapparent in the final image. The power of photography to record the elusive, and ignore the apparent is incredible to me.

Two Models (Orr's Island, Maine)

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Orr's Island is a long narrow strip pushing out into the Atlantic, and from the road there's nothing but houses, houses and more houses, in a quasi-rural setting. But by the shoreline, it was a different story - it was incredible - long waves of sedimentary rock falling in broken steps to the sea. The rocks were so incredible that every image I made was in direct response to them alone - the two models placed in relation to the flow of the stone, or it's fractures. Though I often work with rocks, it is unusual for me to rely upon it for an entire session.

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Some of the more evocative images from the session at Orr's island were the water nudes; less because they were successful (though this one was), and more because of how they would foreshadow later work in the rivers and tidal pools of Nova Scotia.

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A Morning Session (Orr's Island, Maine)

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Sarah and Adele were only able to spend a morning modelling for me, and wanted to pose both as a couple, and as two distinct models. We began with the couple images, simply because it was morning, the light in their room was beautiful, and we had to start somewhere. For most of the session, the models seemed almost oblivious of me, they simply lay on the bed, cuddling and talking.

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Occasionally I asked them to stay still when I was about to take an image, or asked them to rearrange themselves, but for the most part, it was very quiet, with the two of them in their own world, and me hovering on the outside, looking in. There is an undeniable aspect of voyeurism to this, but no more than there is in any other photograph - it is simply more apparent because of the intimacy displayed in the images.

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Images of couples were the first photographs that made me think about mortality in the context of my work - photographing a couple this way freezes the relationship in time - regardless of what it turns into, the beauty of that point in time has been translated onto film, in some ways paler than the reality, and in other, larger than its origins. That moment is frozen, unchanging except for the experiential filters that each viewer brings to the images. I enjoy working with couples more than any other subject, partially because I am so very aware of the gift of freezing time. Sarah and Adele's comfort with me, and their willingness to let me into their private world is something that made these images successful, in every way as much as my photographic skills.

Returning to Fort Knox (Prospect, Maine)

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My second trip to Fort Knox was a lot longer than the first one, and though it too ended due to the failing light of the evening, I accomplished more in the time I had.

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The first time I visited Fort Knox, I had not ventured beyond the main building - drawn in by its heavy casemate and repeating arches. This visit however, I set off to the outer batteries, intending to document the peripherals of the fort before returning to the core. What I discovered was that the fort was about four times larger than I had envisioned.

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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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