Cheryl in Sunlight (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

I'm continually amazed at how much extended collaborations bring to my work. I have no doubt that the work I've been doing with Cheryl and Marieke this winter and spring is stronger for the extended nature of the work.

4"x5" film

This session likely marks the last indoor session for this spring, as it is now becoming warm enough to work outdoors. That said, in some ways this was the most enjoyable session, due mostly to how comfortable Cheryl has become with the process. We began working on a couch, lit by a large double-glass door facing a brilliant blue sky. The diffused light which fell onto Cheryl had a soft edge to it which is quite hard to mimic in the studio, and I explored its delicate description of Cheryl's body with great enthusiasm.

35mm transparency film

Working with basic sitting poses, Cheryl and I managed to create a strong series of images using both the 4x5 for black and white, and 35mm for colour. The deep red cover on the couch lent a strong warmth to the colour images, but was rendered as almost black in black and white, producing two very different tones in the two mediums.

4"x5" film

After about an hour of working on the couch, Cheryl and I moved to the other side of the house, and began making images using the direct sunlight streaming through the window and onto the bed. Normally I avoid direct sunlight as a light-source, due to its inherently high contrast, but in this case, with the distinct border it cast within the image, I decided to work with the shadows, as opposed to against them. While I have constantly fought against the high contrast of direct sunlight, I also have grown to realize the strength of the strong description of shape, or modelling, it provides the figure, and in this case, with the reflection off of the white sheets, there is enough contrast in the shadows to keep in image from becoming too harsh, with empty shadows.

More Rocks and Light (Duncan's Cove, Nova Scotia)

On the strength of the images I made two weeks earlier, I was eager to get out and work again with the rocks at Duncan's Cove. Last year I didn't produce any images pursing the ideas I developed in 1997, in conjunction with Joy's work (elaborated on in the Laetitia folio), but the concepts have been swirling around in my mind, and it was interesting how easy it was to return to that way of seeing.

4"x5" film

Where before I'd been working with the setting sun reflecting in water pools, this time at Duncan's Cove, I was working with the afternoon sun. Initially I expected the work to be weak, with little of the life or richness which I found a fortnight before. Surprisingly, the two best images of the session are far superior to those earlier images, having a brilliance and life to them which could only have occurred with afternoon light. The luminescence to both of these images is born in the light, high cloud that covered the sun. As opposed to the specular highlight of much of the earlier Light Images, these two have a soft, glowing quality which is much more subtle, yet defiantly effective in their own way.

4"x5" film

In the end, there were some real problems with working in the middle of the afternoon. For one thing, there were many people about, which proved somewhat distracting, and required me to occasionally explain the camera to curious passers-by. For another, there were the shifting clouds. Almost all the other images I've made using reflections have been made using direct sunlight, but as I was working with the clouds, more often than not, the clouds would have shifted before I was ready to make the image, leading to a debate over waiting for the light to change back, or give up and move on to the next image. When I opted to wait, I'd spend the time looking for other images, exploring the immediate surroundings and keeping an eye on the light.

Marieke's First Outdoor Session (Long Lake, Nova Scotia)

After the recent successes at Duncan's Cove, I was enthusiastic to do more work, and when this day dawned sunny and bright, I was ecstatic, as Marieke had committed time to work with me in the afternoon. Initially we had planned to work at her apartment, but given the brilliant spring light, we headed off to photograph outdoors.

4"x5" film

Over a period of about 90 minutes, Marieke and I worked in a small circle of woods, exposing 16 sheets of 4"x5" and a full roll of 35mm infra-red. Of that, however, little worked. With the infra-red film, it was simply a matter of insufficient infra-red radiation. Though there was lovely warm sunlight, the air was cool and, when the wind didn't blow, it was pleasant enough. I suspect  it was still early enough in the Spring so that most of the IR radiation was screened out by the angle of the earth. Regardless of the reason, however, it was only the extreme over-exposed frames which had any images on them at all - the best image of the day, to the left, received about sixteen times more light than I usually use for infra-red images.

4"x5" film

Of the 4"x5", not much was successful; due to the chill air, I'd given Marieke my dark-cloth to keep the wind off between the exposures. The dark-cloth is used when focusing the view camera, and I used my sweater instead to shield the ground glass. This worked well for the focus, but failed totally where composition was concerned; almost every image suffered from lack of careful checking, and, while some wouldn't have worked anyway, a few we made with trees are sadly unusable because fingers or elbows were cut off by the edge of the frame.

35mm infrared film

On the whole, while it was disappointing to produce so many images and have so few work, the infra-red image more than makes up for the failures. I am becoming somewhat amused by my affinity for flare.  I have five top of the line Nikon lenses, but my favourite piece of glass to work with on my 35mm camera is a cheap Vivitar 19mm - gotta love the flare!

Water and Light (Duncan's Cove, Nova Scotia)

I realized recently was how much work I had done with the Nude last year. In previous years, I've had difficulty finding people to work with, but last summer, and to a lesser degree, in 1997, provided ample opportunity to work with the Nude. The only thing is that the Nude images came at the expense of other work. Where normally I would work with ruins or other subjects, I focused almost exclusively upon the Nude. I only have a limited amount of time to photograph in, and if a model were available, I would happily chose to work with them as opposed to a more static subject (ruins or rocks, for example). This is not to say that I prefer the Nude to architecture or other imagery, but more that a model might not be available on another day, where a fort has nowhere to go.

4"x5" film

All that being said, I set out with great pleasure for Duncan's Cove. It was too chilly to even contemplate working with a model, so I knew the images would be focused on light and rocks, and I hoped to find some strong images to add to the work I'd begun in 1997. The results of the afternoon's work are incredibly pleasing to me - the early spring light was perfect, with the sun low enough in the sky to provide wonderful textures on the rock, and brilliant reflections within the spray pools. Where early in the session I was focusing on the landscape as a whole (attracted the to glacial debris field left over from the last ice age), by the close of the afternoon I was working again with water in pools, pursuing Light Images.

4"x5" film

The best image of the day, above, is everything I saw on the ground-glass and more. I took a great deal of time setting up the camera, with the lens about eight inches from the front edge of the pool. While I was confident that I had the whole image in focus, due to the use of a lens tilt to manipulate the focal plane of the image, I was unsure how the wind-blown water would resolve on the film. Deciding that the tilt on the lens would take care of most of the focus, I opted for a faster shutter speed, in an attempt to freeze the water's motion, as opposed to increasing the focus and sharpening the image. The decision was a good one: the image is sharp except for the very closest foreground, but more importantly, the rippled water is sharp and clear, lending an almost three dimensional quality to the image. If I had chosen to stop the lens down more, and increased the depth of field, the shutter-speed would have blurred the water into an indistinct mass...far less effective visually.

4"x5" film

Given the results of the afternoon, I am more determined than ever to try to balance my figure work this year with other imagery, not because I feel that my work with the Nude is weak, but rather because I think there are other ways to hold the dialogue I have embarked upon with my work.

Trisha at York Redoubt (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm transparency film

This winter in Nova Scotia has been a mild one. There were perhaps a dozen days with snow and ice, and some bitterly cold periods, but on the whole, it was quite bearable. In light of this, as soon as the weather began to move above freezing, I started itching to get out and photograph. For this particular session however, I was far more reluctant to work than Trisha, who was positively determined to make some good images. The day was more than pleasant enough, but with a temperature just above freezing, it was far from perfect for modelling nude. I would never have suggested working on a day like this but Trisha was terribly keen and I wouldn't have wanted her to be out modelling nude without a photographer there to document it.

4"x5" film

The approach we used to overcome most of the problems with the temperature was to set up each shot as much as possible beforehand, position the camera, take the exposure reading, and work out the pose with the model clothed. Once everything was prepared, Trisha would disrobe and we'd fine-tune the pose and make the image. All told, I think the longest Trisha was nude for was five minutes, and that was in a sheltered location away from any wind.

On the whole this was a reasonable way to work (thus speaks the fully clothed photographer). I spent far more time searching for images with my eyes than normal, being unable to ask the model to experiment with a space before deciding on the image. Usually, it is an involved process finding images, but on this occasion, the only real factor was what images could I plainly see without the model in place, or what images I could compose using a clothed model.

4"x5" film

The surprising thing to me was that though I only exposed eight 4"x5" negatives, I made two images that lacked nothing for the limitations of the process we needed to go through. The image to the right is my favourite, and probably the one we worked the most on before making it. Though Trisha's skin is naturally dark, it almost glowed when set against the wet granite and water, and the wide angle lens gave a wonderful flow to her figure, which is mirrored both in the angular nature of the rocks, and the soft sweep of the sea.

Marieke by Candle Light (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

Building on the successful candle images I'd made in January with Cheryl , I approached this session with Marieke with a very clear idea of what kind of images I wanted to make. Usually when I have a session with a model, I try not to pre-plan images, in hopes that the session itself will generate the work. In this case however, there were several approaches which I wanted to pursue - including the candle within the frame was the foremost idea in my mind.

4"x5" film

In addition to being quiet and solitary, the candle nudes are also very minimal, due to the single light source. This is stressed even more by the inclusion of the candle within the image, clearly defining the source of the photo's illumination. If the same image was made without the candle included, I think it would have a very different feel; it could easily be mistaken for a studio Nude, and lose all the assumptions, connotations and intimacy that comes with the candle light.

4"x5" film

I these are the most focused candle nudes I have done to date, as a result of building upon the earlier work I did. The more images I make with candles, the better I come to understanding how the point-source light works, and how best to take advantage of it in my images.

Marieke in Available Light (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm transparency film

My first session using available light with Marieke was very much in the same vein as the earlier work with Cheryl . Using colour slide film, I worked hand-held, using very wide apertures to minimize the depth of field, and tight compositions, playing with the image frame and background. While a 35mm camera lacks the lens movements which I have been using in the studio focus-effect images, the softness which comes from using a 35mm telephoto lens at large aperture settings generates a very similar visual effect. I'd love to try to make some colour 4x5 images using the same technique as I have in black and white, but as that is terribly expensive, I will have to stick to 35mm colour for now.

35mm transparency film

The white backdrop, draped over the window, was crucial to the making of these images, providing a wonderful counterpoint to the subtle colourations of Marieke's body. The high speed slide film further accentuated this through its pronounced grain and low contrast. When making the images, I ignored the background when metering, instead placing the meter against Marieke, and pointed the incident dome towards the camera. This provided a perfect exposure for the body, and permitted the sheet to appear white and luminous.

In the past, I preferred to set the body against black, removing all context from the space in which the images were made. With these, there is the same undefined location, but a lightness and freshness which was never present in the earlier studio work with the black background.

35mm transparency film

A friend, when he saw these images and earlier prints of the work with Cheryl, commented that my work was becoming more erotic. My initial reaction was to deny this, but after a bit of reflection, I am inclined to agree with him somewhat. The colour images I have done with available light this year have an intimacy which is new to my work, but whether this flows from these images is a result of them being in colour, or because of their softness, I am still considering.

Cheryl Returns to the Studio (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

Cheryl  and I set out in this session to further pursue the focus-effect images which grew out of my January studio images. The work I've done previously pretty much ironed out the technical issues, so where before I was struggling with composition, focus-effect and such, I could now turn my attention to simply making the images.

4"x5" film

Once I found a pose that I felt worked, I put far more effort in to the camera positioning and framing, trying to work with the film image as a whole. There had been a discussion of composition on-line recently, and it had made me think more carefully about how I used the shape and frame of my images, and how that influenced the viewer's perception. I often wonder how precise one can be in framing, while still making an image seem lose and open. Too deliberate a composition can strangle a photograph, making it seem too contrived. By the same token, a disregard for the composition of an image can swiftly make a photo fall apart.

4"x5" film

On the whole, I think the best images from this session show a stronger compositional element than my earlier focus-effect nudes. The formal quality which is so much a part of my outdoor work did not play a big part in my January 1999 studio work, but I think it was one of the contributing factors to the success of these images.

Marieke's Second Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

6x7 cm film

The second session with Marieke was a little more planned than the first. As with Cheryl four days earlier, I spent most of the time this session playing with focus effects, combining it with with more white backgrounds, as I had the first session. By now I had become quite comfortable with how the image on the ground glass translated onto film, and was becoming more deliberate in how I constructed the images.

Almost all the strength of these images comes from the delicate tones and subtle sense of focus. The biggest frustration to emerge in the whole process of making these images is the lack of a way to display them on the Net. Neither of these scans capture any of the elegance and delicacy inherent to the originals, but I have put them up nonetheless, to try to provide a sense of what I am discovering in my focus shift investigations.

6x7 cm film

While I worked with the focus effect on the view camera, I was exploring the same poses with the Pentax 67. As above with Aeyla, I tried to use the same pose to compose totally different images, ones which relied upon colour for their success. I approached the images in the same manner which I used for my B&W work, but instead of using the focal shift as the centre of the image, I made them as graphic as possible, relying on the simplicity of line in the images to hold them together. As opposed to being about colour, however, I now realize these images were about planes. Just as I played with focal planes above, and in earlier sessions, with the colour images, I differentiated the image into planes, this time by use of colour.

6x7 cm film

On the whole, January dramatically pushed my work in two major ways. Where normally I viewed the studio as a practice space, and a source of frustration, I managed to shift it to a challenge, by adding previously underutilized elements. How these elements will blend with my work as a whole I have no idea, but I do know that they have dramatically changed how I think of image making. As infra-red forced me to re-evaluate my dislike of grain, these studio sessions have challenged my ideas of focus, and how it can strengthen an image by reducing it.

A Second Indoor Session with Cheryl (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm transparency film

The image above is one of my favourite colour images ever - the dynamism which comes from the upward sweep of Cheryl 's leg, in tandem with the brilliant white above, creates a very successful photo.  The strong perspective comes from working with a 35mm camera and a 24mm lens in close quarters, which is a technique I have used extensively with infra-red film. The vast majority of my work with the Nude is in black and white, but this photograph gains much from being in colour - the warmth of Cheryl 's body against the sheets and blanket makes the image stronger still.

35mm transparency film

The second available light session with Cheryl  was vastly different from the first. Where before the light was cold and blue, and only barely bright enough to work without a tripod, this session was full of warm, bright sunlight. In order to avoid the harsh shadows inherent in direct sunlight, I  hung a sheet over the front window, which diffused the light wonderfully, while still providing a rich warmth to the room.

4"x5" film

The other two images displayed here both draw upon the large, diffused light of the sheet-covered window. The lovely quality of light which this provides is hard to reproduce in a studio, so it was a joy to work while the light remained. A softbox, my favourite light source in a studio, approximates this lighting, but lacks in comparison to the real thing. Cheryl  and I finished the afternoon working up close to the window, taking advantage of the wealth of natural light.