Lisa Poses Indoors (Orono, Maine)

4"x5" film

I arrived at Laurel's to find Lisa curled up on the bed within comforters. Because we still had some time left after I had returned, we worked on some indoor available light nudes. As with the earlier outdoor work, Lisa's personality dominated the session; her direct response to the camera producing strong portraits, successful over and above the bodyscapes we also produced.

4"x5" film

Working with the nude in a setting such as a bed, which implies a certain degree of intimacy, has always been challenging for me. I've always been a little wary of work like this - it skirts a fine line which I am always leery of crossing. That indefinable quality which separates a strong, vivid portrait of an unclothed person from a soft-core magazine image is elusive and difficult to capture, but the closer I come to crossing, it seems, the stronger the images.

4"x5" film

In some ways a personal portrait of a Nude is the most compelling image of all, forcing the viewer to accept the humanity of the subject. The direct, comfortable gaze of Lisa pulls these images far past where they could lie, into something very powerful and open. The success of the work lies more in her comfort with the session than in anything my lenses or cameras produced. And as this the images of Leslie, the soft, open lighting of the day made the images all the stronger.

The Old Power Station (Orono, Maine)

6x12 cm film

The penstock in which I worked with Lisa was the only accessible portion of the power plant. After she went back indoors to warm up, I stayed around the plant and made some images of the water-pipes that would once had directed the Stillwater River through the turbines.

4"x5" film

Working from a walk-way which went over the penstocks, I made eight images, drawn as much to the weathered metal and concrete as I was to the repeating curves and lines. I would have liked to have been able to get down into the trench where the pipes were, but the light was changing, and I wanted to head back to Laurel's, where Lisa went to warm up, and make some indoor images of her before the light left all together.

4"x5" film

At the Orono Power Plant (Orono, Maine)

This session marks the earliest I have ever worked with a model outdoors - prior to this it was May 15. The day was cool, but Lisa was comfortable enough to work for a good two hours. The day was perfect for photography, light overcast conditions providing wonderfully even lighting, while not costing much in terms of my exposures.

4"x5" film

The power plant we worked at is an abandoned hydro plant that drew water off the Penobscot River through huge penstock tunnels, one of which (I assume it was an overflow penstock) emerged beside the plant. It was in this space Lisa and I worked.

4"x5" film

This session was also my first session using my new 75mm f/4.5 Rodenstock lens for my 4"x5" camera, which performed admirably - the strongest image encompassing the full opening of the tunnel was made with it. The brighter image on the ground-glass, combined with the wide angle and large image circle helped tremendously with the image, and I look forward to pushing the lens to its limits over the coming months.

4"x5" film

All in all, the first outdoor session of the year was a success. Lisa was an excellent model, and was very comfortable, despite it being her first time modelling nude. Though the day was a little cool, I was very pleased with what we achieved, especially the number of strong portraits that were produced.

A Candle-lit Couple (Orono, Maine)

The evening of the day of the session with Leslie was also filled with photography. Ellen and Andrew had viewed my couples work and wanted to work with me...unfortunately Andrew worked during the day, so it had to be a night session. As it turned out, Eleen was able to get us a place to work for the evening, and the session was arranged.

6x12 cm film

Drawing on the earlier work with Megan, I decided that rather than just forgetting the idea due to lack of access to studio flash lighting, we would do a session by candlelight. I hadn't previously worked with couple nudes by candlelight before, and it turned out to be quite a successful venture.

4"x5" film

The biggest problem with the session was the candles - we had no preparation time before the session, and therefore had to stick with the candles we had on hand...votive candles. The previous sessions I had done with candles were all produced using tapers, which are both higher off the floor, and have longer, brighter flames. The votive candles were just too low, and had too small a flame to generate the kind of light I had previously worked with.

4"x5" film

On the whole, technical issues aside, the session generated some very powerful images...the hands in the last image are especially strong...the intimacy and comfort indicated by their positions tell volumes.

Leslie Models Indoors (Orono, Maine)

Although my primary reasons for being in Maine were to hang Evolving Beauty, give an emulsion transfer workshop, and make a series of presentations on my work, I also had plans to work with a number of models, outdoors if possible, and indoors if the weather was prohibitive.

6x12 cm film

Leslie was the first model I had an opportunity to work with, and as it was too cold outside, we (sensibly) stayed inside, working at the home of another model.

6x12 cm film

I'm always a little leery of working with natural light indoors...it's like a studio, in that to achieve the qualities I seek (a degree of universality), I try to remove all specific references (furniture, books, wall-hangings etc.) and yet, unlike a studio, I haven't control over the lighting...I get what is there. It's good in some ways - like working outdoors, it tends to be reactive image-making (i.e. I search for the photo, or have it revealed to me, as opposed to "make" it), but by the same token, I am controlling the environmental setting, but have no control over the environmental lighting ... a frustrating combination.

4"x5" film

All that said, I am terribly pleased with the results. The soft lighting that came through the large windows at Laurel's house was wonderfully descriptive, falling across the plains of Leslie's body in light sheets. Leslie's comfort with the camera, and openness to the experience (she had not previously modeled nude) made the whole session rich with images, both portraits and abstracted nudes.

Hauck Hall, University of Maine (Orono, Maine)

The whole reason for my 10 day trek to Maine was to hang my first solo show, Evolving Beauty, as part of the Beautiful Project. In its second year, the Beautiful project is designed to celebrate women's beauty and self-expression, providing them the opportunity to be honoured, rejoiced in, and fully self-expressed in their communities.

I was invited by the Beautiful Project to develop an exhibit of my work with the Female Nude, and out of that request grew "Evolving Beauty". The design, production, matting and framing of the show was executed in under six weeks, so it was with great pleasure and relief that I hung the work on the walls of Hauck on the evening of April 2, 1998.

Megan Returns to the Studio (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

The last day of February was spent printing work for my first solo show (due to open in early April, in Orono, Maine) and waiting for the night's session with Megan. Back in the studio again, it wasn't fifteen minutes before Megan commented she liked working at my house far better, that the studio didn't seem as natural.

4"x5" film

It is amazing how quickly the studio wears thin - both Megan and I agreed that the next session would be with natural light, in a "real" environment. It is hard working with nothing but a figure and light - I can do it with no problem, except for the little question "Why?". Nudes in nature speak to me as naturally as a mother tongue, but in the studio more often than not I find myself at a loss for words. There is nothing I seem to want to say.

4"x5" film

What saved the session in a strictly photographic sense were the portraits of Megan. We played more with portraiture than the nude time-wise and, even when she was nude, more of the images had her face in them than cropped out. It was a relief to me to be able to turn to portraiture when I became frustrated with the nude in the studio setting, and to know that the resulting images could be part of my work, given Megan's comfort with modelling. I think the coming summer bodes well, both for my work with the Nude, and for a body of portraiture.

Valentine's Day with Megan (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

It was in November when I first noticed that the sun had shifted sufficiently in the sky so that it shone directly into my bedroom through the blinds and onto my bed and floor. It took me three months to translate that initial wonder at the pattern cast by the binds into images - I knew I wanted to work with that pattern of light, it was a model I lacked

6x7 cm transparency film

Fortunately, as is quickly becoming the norm, Megan was available to models on this particular day, and though it was about -8° and windy outside, it quickly became more than warm with the wood stove and the sun streaming through the window. Starting out working at the window itself, I quickly found what I knew I wanted; though it has been done before, and was by no means original, I sincerely enjoyed working with the highly directional light. For the first time in eighteen months, I brought out my 8"x10" view camera and even made images with that.

35mm infrared film

After working on and around the window for an hour or so, we moved to working on the bed, which was quickly becoming bathed in light. Even with the blinds up, there was incredibly rich modelling across Megan's body, and for the next ninety minutes we worked in the slow moving patch of light, occasionally filtering the light through the blinds or lace.

4"x5" film

One of the most enjoyable elements of this session was the number of camera formats I used (four - 35mm, 120, 4"x5" and 8"x10"). Many times, I found myself seeing an image in a very specific manner - previsualizing the result as opposed to seeing the origin, so to speak. Being able to simply pick up the camera that came closest to the previsualized image was wonderfully freeing. The transparency of photography for me continues to amaze me. In 1996 when I first glimpsed this possibility it shocked me. Now it flows into being so quickly that I literally do not notice until after, when I stop to reflect on how a session went.

8"x10" film

The most dynamic element of the session was a piece of lace which Megan brought. She was interested in having some images made with its pattern falling across her body. The results were really surprising to me - the pattern spread across her skin in a fluid, graceful flow, becoming progressively diffused.

Megan in the Shower (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm transparency

After finishing with the candle-light session, Megan asked if there was anything else I'd be interested in doing. I'd never worked with a model in a shower before, so I asked if she'd be interested in experimenting with that - and fifteen minutes later, we were back to making images - this time, in a small bathroom.

35mm film

The shower was an interesting setting to work in after making the images by candle-light - both environments have a strong emotional connection to intimacy (though with a shower, there was also an overlay of privacy, and to be candid, at first I felt quite voyeuristic). Megan was really positive to the experiment, and when I realized I had to leave the bathroom door open (to keep the humidity down, so my camera lens didn't fog up), she laughed the sudden influx of cold air off, stating that it was more important that the photographs worked than that she was comfortable.

35mm film

In the end, the shower session only lasted minutes; I worked through three rolls of film (108 exposures), and was left with some really encouraging results. I particularly like the look of water on skin, and certainly will continue to work with shower Nudes in the future, should the opportunity present itself!

Megan by Candlelight (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm film

This was another session with Megan, in a less traditional setting - a candle-lit room. I had done candle nudes in the past, but I felt new work was in order, and as I had Megan as a model, all we had to do was get down to business and make the images.

35mm film

The one thing about candle-lit images is that the exposures are long - even with Kodak T-max 3200 rated at EI 1600, my exposures were in the realm of 1 second at f/8. With the 120 negatives I made, I used Ilford HP5+ rated at 800, and the exposures were up to about 8 seconds at f/16 after factoring reciprocity failure. One advantage of the roll film over the higher speed 35mm film was that it was being shot on a view camera, and I could take advantage of camera movements to combat the shallow depth of field I had to put up with to get reasonable exposures.

4"x5" film

The most successful candle nude, on the left, was made towards the end of the session - the radiant light from the candle and the subtle fall off over the curve of her hip and back translated exactly from what I saw onto film, make the candle session a wonderful success.