Frozen Light

Digital original

I walked into my office, and saw this window right in front of me, glowing with a magical light, as the neighbour's light shone through the frost. Whatever one might say about single pane windows in a cold climate, the certainly make for great photos!

A Pregnancy Session

Digital original

Directly after the session with L_ and Elisabeth, I had arranged to work with Christina, a new model. The session was to take place in my own apartment, revisiting the small bedroom where so much of my indoor work has been produced over the last couple of years. I have known Christina for several years through her sister, Victoria, but this was my first time working with her as a figure model; the purpose of the session was to begin to document her pregnancy. Just like the work made with Aurora last fall, the images of Christina would focus on the last four months. The gift of being able to work with her is a hard one to describe; pregnant models are uncommon, and coming so close to my work with Aurora, it permits me the opportunity to continue building on my pregnancy imagery.

6x7 cm film

Christina was somewhat nervous about modeling initially. It wasn't that she had any doubts about wanting to have the photos made, more that she was nervous about taking the first step. She'd asked Victoria to come along for the company but there was a scheduling conflict, so Christina came alone. Once we began working, however, she relaxed and became much more comfortable. Because of the small bedroom we worked in, almost all the poses were either lying or sitting on the bed, which was both natural and restful for Christina, both of which only helped her confidence with the session.

6x7 cm film

The greatest frustration of the session was the same as I felt with most of the other pregnant models - a sense of loss for missing the first stages of the pregnancy. It is a wonderful gift to be permitted to work with Christina while she moves through her first pregnancy, but I can't help think of how rich the series would be if it moved from pre-pregnancy, through all the stages of gestation, through to portraits of mother and child afterwards.

L_ & Elisabeth Indoors

Digital original

After the success of the images made on New Year's Day, I was keen to return to L_, Elisabeth and Krista's apartment once the days were brighter, and see what the possibilities were with the 8"x10" camera. Two months later, I thought the details had been worked out, and I ventured back to the apartment. Unfortunately, while L_ and Elisabeth were available to model, communication broke down with Krista, so as opposed to a revisiting of the New Year's Day session, I changed the plans to a two-model session.

Fortunately, while the three model sessions plans had to be modified, the other factor, the weather, was in my favour. I couldn't have asked for better light, with the sky filled with light clouds that let the sun shine through intermittently.

Digital original

When I first worked with colour transparency film, starting in March 2000, I quickly fell in love with Fuji's Astia, a beautiful film specifically designed for skin-tones. When Fuji pulled the product from the Canadian market in 2002, I was at a loss, for no other colour transparency film gave me the tones that Astia provided. With this image, however, I see hope in the digital medium, as it took very little effort to match the skin-tone of L_ and Elisabeth. I hope this indicates that I will not be leaving colour photography behind, as more and more products are swept away by the inevitable digital tide.

The rest of the session was spent working alternately with a digital camera I was testing and my view camera. Working between these two very different tools emphasized two things; first how different the working process can be, depending on the equipment being used, and how little the tools being used mattered to the success of their use, as long as the relative strengths and weaknesses can be used to advantage.

8"x10" film

With the smaller digital camera, I could sketch quickly, making images that had potential, without expending limited resources (I can only take a dozen or so sheets of 8"x10" film per session), and then bring the larger, slower view camera into play when a particularly striking image was in the making. This is much the way I work with infra-red film, but added the element of colour, which is normally not a medium I work in. The dance between the digital camera and the 8"x10" was one that worked surprisingly well, with a great number of images being made as possibilities, and a select few compositions being created with the film camera.

An Indoor Session with Victoria

6x7 cm film

The more I work with Victoria, the more I come to appreciate the gift that comes with her long term involvement in my work. When we first met, it was in such a casual, haphazard manner that I had no idea what would grow from that first session with her and Ingrid. As each session builds on the earlier work, the overall richness of the work we've produced increases by leaps and bounds.

Victoria and I have worked indoors with the white sheets as a setting many times, so this session was less about exploring a new approach then simply making new images. As such, the focus was more on Victoria as a person, then exploring the juxtaposition of her body and the space around her.

6x7 cm film

All that being said, the first image that caught my eye from the session was a composition focusing on her knee, and her out of focus torso behind it. A simple image, I was immediately caught up by the upward sweep of her hand, which pulls the eye back into the image just as it is being lead out of the frame by the line of the knee.

 Once we'd exhausted ideas in the living room, I proposed to Victoria that we finish off with a couple of quick rolls in the shower. Since my work with Aurora last fall, shower images stick in my mind and have made a new series of water nudes with L_ and Miranda. Though I've worked with Victoria more than any other model to date, we've never made shower images, so this seemed like a good time to start.

6x7 cm film

As with other shower sessions, the biggest problem was keeping the shower steam from condensing on the camera lens; for most of the session, this wasn't a problem - I wiped the lens off between rolls, but the entire last roll swiftly degraded to low-contrast mush which wasn't much use at all. Probably the best images came from the colour roll which kept a good level of contrast, and being 800 ISO, helped freeze the motion of the water as it arced along Victoria's shoulders.

Carol Modeling Indoors

Carol and I haven't worked together since last summer, not for lack of interest, but for lack of time - though I see her all the time, we never seem to have the same time available for making more images. Fortunately, Carol had this particular morning off, so we made plans to work together. Our first session last spring was indoors, but not at my house, so this session gave me the opportunity to work with Carol in the white spaces that I have become so enamored with over the last couple of years.

6x7 cm infrared film

Even before Carol first modeled for me, she was enamored with the dramatic looks of infra-red portraits, between the luminous skin-tones and dark eyes, so I decided to work with some near infra-red film (Ilford's SFX) to see what images we could create indoors. Working between the SFX in the Mamiya RB camera, and conventional film in the 8"x10" camera, we made images for a couple of hours, enjoying the bright morning light that filtered through the sheets over the double doors beside the bed upon which she was lying.

6x7 cm infrared film

Almost all the images that we made together were portraits, working with the beautiful soft light. The near infra-red film was a little difficult to work with, in terms of finding the correct exposure, but a number of the images were very successful, lending a dreamy quality to the skin-tones and the mysterious dark eyes which Carol was so interested in even before she modelled.

When a particularly strong images appeared in the viewfinder of the Mamiya, I would finish with the near infra-red film, and switch off to the larger 8"x10" camera to make a more refined version of the composition.

8"x10" film

By the end of the session, I was certain that there were a number of strong compositions among the dozen 8"x10" negatives and 4 rolls of SFX that I'd created. Carol also felt that the session had had a particularly positive flow. As soon as I saw my negatives after being processed, I knew we had succeeded. I seldom use infra-red films other then Kodak's HIE, but the beautiful quality that the Ilford SFX film gave to the couple of images that worked was quite lovely, and might encourage me to continue exploring the possibilities of this film.

Miranda Returns to the Bathtub

6x7 cm film

The second candle session with Miranda was much like the first. As a way to inject some variation into the session, we began the session with a smaller candle, that didn't need a holder. Because this had a broader base then the taller candle stick, we could sit it directly upon Miranda's body, which moved the light source very close to her body, which in turn made it easier to include the candle flame in the image. The first successful image uses the glimmer of the candle in the water to define the lower reflection of Miranda's hip in the bath water, while the pure white glow of the well-lit tub and back wall helped separate her hip in the other direction.

6x7 cm film

During our first session, every image we'd made worked with Miranda lying in the water, but for this session, we explored some of the possibilities offered by her sitting; the specular highlights of the water running off her body struck me as quite beautiful. The obvious problem with this approach was that the longer exposures required by working with a single candle presented some problems with Miranda keeping still. Fortunately, she could push her back into the wall of the bathtub behind her, and keep steady that way. The narrow focus required by the image was quite suitable for the image; Miranda's hand and the candle just a little soft, and the water drops on her face and breast are in sharp focus.

6x7 cm film

The final images of the session worked with the reflections in the water, similar to the work at the end of our previous session. Again, I was frustrated by my inability to get the camera low enough (the edge of the bath was in the way), which make me even more interested in eventually pursuing the idea of building a space in which to do studio-nudes in water; the reflective possibilities pull me back to the Simulacra work, while the visual possibilities of water on skin are self-evident.

Another Session with Elisabeth

6x7 cm film

Elisabeth's comfort with the camera was crucial for the session. Probably the hardest pose to ask of a model is to simply stand in an empty space and gaze directly at the camera. It takes a great deal of poise and confidence to make such a setting work, for the first half of this session, that's how we worked; with the flat frontal lighting and the strength of Elisabeth's gaze.

6x7 cm film

All the sessions to date with Elisabeth have been working with her posing on beds, lying down below the windows and deck doors. In order to make some images with a different flow to them, I opted to work with her standing before the white sheets, with the light coming from behind the camera. This changed the lighting from edge and rim lighting to a flatter, more frontal lighting. While I don't use this approach often, I do like the quality it lends to the Nude, giving pronounced, soft shadows to both edges of the figure, and lending an almost surreal quality to the images as a whole.

8"x10" film

The session finished up with a total change in setting; the afternoon's light was soft and diffused, so I set up a black-backdrop right beside the window, and asked Elisabeth to model right by the large double-doors. The results took full advantage of the contrast between the light, and the black background. So much of my indoor work for the past couple of years has revolved around the Nude on white background that the stark contrast of the figure on the black field is quite striking to my eyes. I am not sure if this will provoke an entire new body of work of indoor images against black, but it certainly ended a session of engaging images on a high note.

A Natural Light Session

6x7 cm film

My first session with Natasha was in the studio, though a good portion of that session was actually spent working with the available light that came through a door. For this session, Natasha and I worked in my living room, with the diffused light through our double-deck door. Unlike the studio, however, we had a pull-out bed to work on that provided a broader variety of poses for Natasha to explore.

6x7 cm film

For this session, while I had the Mamiya RB set up and in use, most of my attention was focused upon the 8"x10" view camera; the diffused light through the sheet was more then enough to work with, and the success of the images I'd made with Natasha three weeks earlier made me want to explore the possibilities natural light offered. Also, Natasha was interested to see how the two approaches differed; she was pleased with the studio images, but agreed with me that the studio seemed a less then perfect setting. As it turned out Natasha was much more comfortable in the available light setting, though I suspect this was a much a reaction to approaching the session as an experienced model as it was to the space in itself.

8"x10" film

On the whole, the session flowed well; often I explored the possibilities of a given pose with the Mamiya, using the lighter camera to discover the angle or perspective that worked, refining the pose and composition, and then setting up the view camera to make the final exposure. This is very similar approach to how I have traditionally used 35mm infra-red film outdoors, and it seemed like a natural evolution to take that tactic to my indoor work. The precision and planning necessary to make an image with the 8"x10" camera is something that I revel in, and it was wonderful to have the time and patience granted by Natasha to work at the pace such an approach demands.

A Session with Elizabeth

8"x10" film

 When a day is as bright and luminous as this afternoon was, the opportunity to work with the 8"x10" camera is seized instantly. For all the demands and limitations the larger, heavier camera places on my working process, I simply see better with the larger camera, finding the most fluid tool to express myself with. Elisabeth hadn't work with me and the 8"x10" camera before, but because we'd made numerous successful images the first and second time she modeled, I had little concern about the longer poses the large format camera would require.

8"x10" film

 With the small space we were working in, the limited number of exposures that the 8"x10" camera permits also worked well; we began the session concentrating on portraits, and then moved to bodyscapes and more abstract images. Where often with smaller formats, the pressure in a session is to come up with ever more poses and compositions to record, with the twelve negatives per session with the 8"x10", it is more a case of making the most of what limited images can be found.

8"x10" film

When we'd made our dozen exposures, Elisabeth and I brought the session to a close. The natural flow of things, between the slower camera, and more considered poses, seemed to pay of with a number of striking poses in all three styles - pseudo-abstract bodyscapes, nude portraits, and more traditional figure images. I am fully aware that more images would have been recorded if I'd used the smaller, lighter Mamiya RB, but I seriously doubt that any better images would have been made. That, and the extra fidelity that the 8"x10" negatives provide left me with a great feeling of joy after the session - the singular pleasure of making such a striking series of images.M

A Second New Year's Session

6x7 cm film

The second half of the afternoon was spent working with Krista and her partner, Greg. The winter afternoon's light was fading, but the opportunity to work with a couple was not to be passed up, so I changed to higher speed film and set about seeing what would come to pass.

6x7 cm film

Usually I avoid high-speed films, preferring the more delicate tonality of fine-grained, slow speed films. That being said, I still would rather make the images that need making then refuse to photograph with high-speed film, which is coarser and less detailed then I prefer. If I'd had the choice, I would have loved to have worked with my preferred slow-speed films, and captured the details I am used to realizing, but the light being what it was, I reached into the camera back, and brought out the Delta 3200 (in 120 format).

6x7 cm film

Though Greg had never modeled nude before (let alone met me previously), the session went well - I have always held that indoor sessions with couples generate their own energy, and it was certainly true of this afternoon. While I wasn't familiar with Greg, my previous work with Krista laid the groundwork for a level of comfort with her that was picked up by Greg and which flowed through the images of the session.