Miranda & Trav Indoors (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

My first indoor session for 2002 was motivated by both the desire to photograph, and the chance to test some equipment. My favourite 35mm camera lens for indoor figure and portrait work is an 85mm lens; I have tried 100mm lenses, and found them just too long for what I was seeking. With this session, I was using an ultra-fast 85mm f/1.2 lens - more then twice as fast as my current 85mm lens, and far higher quality. In addition to permitting me to work handheld in low light, the ultra-large aperture of this lens also would give me selective focus like never before. While I have worked with narrow focus before in my indoor work, I always had to work very close to the models to get
the narrow focus I sought; with this lens, I hoped to be able to pick out a single element of the image to be in focus, and have all other parts out of focus.

35mm negative

Even before I started working, I had decided the session would be only in colour; the de-focused effect is particularly striking in colour, and I wanted to make it as much the focus of the images as possible. I had thought this session would be with Miranda alone, but as it turned out, her partner, Trav, was also available to model, so it quickly shifted into a couple's session. As we were working at their apartment, the set-up was different from how I usually work, with the light coming across the bed, rather then from the far side of it.

35mm negative

The fast lens was wonderful to work with; I could see the shallow depth of field through the lens, and quickly grew used to how close I had to be to get the effect I was seeking. While there were a good number of successful images from the session, one of the strongest was totally dependent upon the narrow depth of field provided by this stunning lens. Trav was lying on his back, with Miranda behind him; even at f/2, there was too much definition in Miranda's torso for my liking, but wide open, the image was beautiful. This image could never have been made with my normal 85mm f/2 lens.

35mm negative

Without a doubt, this was a great beginning to the year; I always struggle with colour, but I was really pleased with the results; the tonality is what I was looking for, and the warmth of the models against the white surrounding worked well to pull the images forward. Working with the borrowed 85mm lens reiterated to me how important good tools are, if you can take advantage of them. I am not sure if the 85mm lens will make it into my toolset, but even if it doesn't, the possibilities it introduced to my work are good to know of.

Lilly by Cangle Light (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

I haven't made any new images of Lilly since 1999 but as she is both a good friend and model, we'd kept in touch. So, when she recently called me up and suggested a candlelight session, I was more then enthusiastic.

6x7 cm film

As it turned out, the best time for Lilly was on a Friday night, so we convened the session late in the evening after I'd worked a 10 hour day. I borrowed a medium format Mamiya 645 for the session, seeking a compromise between the impractical 8"x10"'s image quality, and the lower quality provided by 35mm film. After spending some time catching up with Lilly and discussing the procedure of working with candles (Lilly'd previously only modeled outdoors and in the studio), I loaded up the 645 with Ilford's Delta 3200 and we began.

6x7 cm film

Working with the 645 proved more challenging then I had expected; the lens on the Mamiya was much slower then the 35mm cameras I'd previously used for imaging by candle, which made both composition and framing difficult. Initially, I was confounded by this, because I'd done candle nudes with a 4"x5" in the past with an even slower lens. It was then that I realized that with the 4"x5", I was able to use a quality loupe to focus the camera, whereas with the Mamiya, I was using a prism finder. Once I'd removed that, and was just focusing and composing with the ground-glass, the session went much more smoothly.

6x7 cm film

After almost a full year dedicated to working with the 8"x10", it was interesting to work with a camera that gave a decent sized negative, and yet maintained a decent size; that, combined with the 3200 speed film yielded some quite pleasing results. I am certainly glad I tried the fast roll-film, which, when combined with the medium format negative, lead to a nice combination of grain and print size - certainly an improvement over the 35mm version of the film, which was almost as grainy as Kodak's infra-red film.

Victoria in a Dark Room (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

8"x10" film

In the fall of 2001, Victoria began renovating a small house she'd bought, gutting it down to the bare wood walls. This presented an unusual opportunity for image making; the top level of this house, when stripped totally, was almost black, with soot-darkened walls and floors presenting a soft, dark backdrop against which to work. When I asked Victoria if she'd model in the room, she was enthusiastic - we'd talked about doing more work together and the chance seemed perfect.

8"x10" film

The 8"x10" camera was perfect for the session, as the light was so low that I had to make each image with the lenses at their widest-aperture. Normally, this would have a serious impact on the depth of field with the images, but because of the ability to change the angle of the lens, I was able to compensate easily for this limitation and have the plane of focus follow Victoria's body. The limited light available in the room was less of a concern than the possibility of Victoria getting a splinter or worse from the floor, so for much of the session, she kept her shoes on.

8"x10" film

The most surprising images of the session came at the very end, as the sun was about to leave the sky. I had made all the earlier images with the portrait (375mm) lens, but wanted to finish up the session with a composition using the wide angle lens - such a lens would provide a much better sense of the room then the portrait lens had done. The composition that most caught my eye was placing the camera looking straight out the window, and them shifting the lens down so it could see Victoria, on the floor below. On the ground-glass the results were awesome, but I was unsure if there would be enough light to capture it. In the end, the exposure for the two images was 15 second each, with a reflector being used to add a little fill light to Victoria's body. The two photos go well together and probably will end up being printed as a diptych in the same frame.

Victoria Dancing (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

On the first day I met Victoria, she was introduced to me as a dancer but in all our times working together, dance has only played a peripheral role in our images; Victoria has, from time to time, tried dance poses during a figure session but generally the dance and the modeling have remained separate.

35mm film

On this particular occasion, however, it was the dance that was the subject of the images. Victoria, and a friend of her, Jill, needed portfolio photos of their dancing, and I was more than happy to volunteer to do the job, though I'd never tried making dance photos before.

35mm film

Fortunately, the studio we had for the morning was full of light and this, combined with high-speed film (Ilford 3200 in black and white, and Fuji 800 in colour), made the process more then feasible. Working with the two dancers was quite a challenge for me as I am used to working with static subjects and, given that dance is all about movement, there were very few images that were totally static.

35mm film

After an hour of photographing, I'd learned a good number of things and made a number of successful images. The challenge of working with such a different subject was really enjoyable, and I hope to eventually return to work more with dancers, though first I have to overcome the issue of backdrops - more then half the successful images are marred by the pipes and radiators in the background.

St. John's Anglican Church (Lunenburg, Nova Scotia)

In a senseless act of vandalism, Canada's second oldest Anglican church was burned down in a Halloween night prank. A couple of days after the tragedy, a friend suggested a trip down to view the remains. We went and I was haunted by the devastation I saw behind the police-line tap: blackened and scorched walls, hand painted boards running with creosote and painted-glass windows lying shattered on the grass. After returning back to Halifax, and as a result of long conversations with me and on the phone, Joy obtained permission for me to visit the church site and photograph within its walls, behind the police tape and before the reconstruction work started.

8"x10" film

The first time I visited the church, it was not possible to approach it very closely because of the security measures. The second visit was totally different, with full reign being given to access the church and document the effects of the fire. The week that had gone by had changed the building greatly - the majority of the windows were now boarded over and much of the northern end of the building was wrapped in tarps to keep the weather out but, even with those modifications, the building was visually rich and heartbreaking at the same time.

8"x10" film

The richness came form the visual spaces created by the destruction - everywhere I looked there were possibilities from books emerging from inches of ashes, to creosote stains on the walls. The heartbreak was equally obvious in the same places, as my eye took in the hand-written notes still tacked to the bulletin board to the hand-painted patterns on the walls.

8"x10" film

I spent most of the day working in the church, carefully moving the 8"x10" camera from location to location and turning its detail-gathering ability on composition after composition. At the end of the day, I had over a dozen negatives which captured much of what I sought to convey - the beauty and pathos that existed simultaneously.

Miles and Partner Pose Together (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

A month after our previous photo session, Miles and J_ again had time to model, though this session was much later in the day. I was a little hesitant about the timing because the light was so low but decided that rather than cancelling, I'd use high speed film and fast lenses.

35mm film

In addition to the Ilford 3200 speed film, I also worked with a roll of infra-red. This was as a result of the shower session I'd done in September with Trav and Miranda where I'd had great success with infra-red in lower light. Both films are extremely grainy which lent a particular look to the session.

Rather then pull out the hid-a-bed and cover the window with a white cloth to diffuse the light as I usually do, I opted to simply cover the couch with my white cloth, and have Miles and J_ work there. This changed both the possible poses and the angle of the light we were working with. Most of my indoor nudes are back-lit, set against the cloth I use for a background, giving them a particularly luminous quality but with these images, the light was more dramatic.

35mm film

The limited combination of the poses possible on the couch, and the swiftly dying light made the session more about exploring different possibilities of a given pose, then the creation of multiple compositions. I actually really enjoyed the quality of the light, reveling in how it seemed to wrap around the models and gave a rich description of form, Unfortunately, the rate at which the light was fading kept me from dwelling too long on a single perspective. While there were several images I would have loved to have had time to record with the 8"x10" camera, many potential images were precluded by the swiftly diminishing light.

35mm film

On the whole, I am pleased with the session's results. The Delta 3200 film, which I'd only used occasionally in the past, gave a wonderful softness to the images which complimented the luminous brilliance of the infrared.

Miles and Partner (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm film

For almost two years, I'd told Miles and J_ that I'd do nudes of them together; Miles has grown, since I met him in 1998, to be one of my best friends, and an ardent supporter of my work He and his partner, J_ , have modeled for me off and on since then, but somehow, we've never managed to be coordinated enough to get together for a photo session about the two of them together. The end of the morning session with R_ presented this opportunity (albeit briefly) so we spent the last half-hour of the morning with Miles and J_ cuddling on the bed, and me working through the last of a roll of 35mm film.

8"x10" film

The shift from the formal approach to posing that was required for the images of R_ and the other models, to the fluid, spontaneous nature of the images of Miles and J_ was swift. From the first image to the last, about the only direction I had to give was "don't move".

35mm film

After making the images of Krista and L_ last month, and subsequently the images of R_ and the other models, I have spend some time thinking of how I photograph couples. I have come to realize that, with only a few exceptions, I betray my heterosexuality in this work - almost all the images are about the male's adoration, love and affection for the female. Not that I see much of a problem with this (after all, it is how I feel, on a personal level) I did make a particular effort to present the opposite aspect - woman's love for man...thus the image of J_'s chaste kiss on the brow of her lover.

Three Models Pose Together (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

As R_'s main reason to come to Halifax was to work with other models, our session with the 8"x10" camera came to a close with the arrival of Miles and J_. The plan was to spend the best of the morning light working with R_ and one or the other of the additional models, and continue to build on the previous evening's work.

6x7 cm film

Because of the limited time we had to work together, I had decided to use small and medium format cameras for the session, trading off all the advantages I describe above in favour of the ability to make the most of the session's possibilities. With enough light, I could easily have worked with the 8"x10" camera, but I was worried that with the lower light levels of the natural setting, I wouldn't be able to get enough depth of field to make the images successful.

6x7 cm film

The images of R_ modeling with Miles and J_, both individually, and then all three models together, had much in common with the images from the session with R_ and Miranda. Much of the effort of the session was put into generating the poses, with the actual image-making being the secondary stage of the process. This came as less of a surprise then it had the day before, and as a result, there was somewhat more of a focus to the session as a whole, with more of a structure imposed on it by myself.

6x7 cm film

Probably the most engaging and inspiring images from the session were the images of the three models together. I hadn't any idea of how this would work (or even if it would happen), but as soon as I saw the three models lying together, lit softly by the window, I knew I had an image that met what I was seeking - that particular blend of intimacy, sensuality and beauty that is ever elusive, but always seems to creep into my work when all the elements come together in the right proportions.

R_ Poses in Natural Light (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

The first half of the final morning of R_'s stay in Halifax was spent working with diffused morning light. During the previous two sessions, I'd used medium and small format cameras, but for this series of images, I set those cameras aside, and returned to my 8"x10", making seven negatives over the 90 minutes we had to work.

8"x10" film

The influence on process which camera exert cannot be overemphasized; smaller cameras lend themselves to spontaneous, quick images, while larger, slower cameras demand more attention be made to every aspect, before an exposure is made. This session, in contrast to the previous evening's work, was all about careful seeing, and exact framing. The drawbacks of the larger camera - less depth of field, slower physical operation, and fewer images a session, are more then compensated by the increased care that these aspects force onto the process.

8"x10" film

The narrow depth of field of the longer lens (on the 8"x10" camera, my 375mm lens has the same angle of view as a 60mm lens on a 35mm camera, but much less depth of field for the same F-stop) is somewhat off-set by the ability to tilt and swing the lens, so the focus flows along the body, as opposed to parallel to the film. The slower operation that the camera demands simply increases the care of composition and exposure, and the limited number of negatives per session further reinforces this care. With smaller, faster cameras, the inclination is to make many images, and then edit afterwards to get the best images - with the 8"x10" this just isn't an option; after six images are made, I am half way through my film, so I strive to make every exposure count.. And of course the biggest reward and reason to use the larger camera is the larger negative. The results in terms of image fidelity and tonal range is reason enough for all the changes it requires to be made upon the process.

8"x10" film

The morning light, when diffused through a white sheet, provided me with a delicate, descriptive light, which worked well with the curves and lines which I chose to focus upon. In some ways, this work is the antithesis to my outdoor work, which is about the body and landscape and how they visually interact. By contrast, these photos are about R_'s body alone.

Miranda by Candle Light (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

6x7 cm film

Later the same night, I found myself with twenty free minutes, several unexposed frames of high-speed film, and an enthusiastic model, Miranda. While waiting for friends to converge on the house, in advance of a social outing, we made a small series of images, Miranda's first with candles. The first photo was pretty traditional, but still an approach I enjoy taking; the frontal portrait with a candle has a classic quality which I return to again and again. In fact I think I have done with pose with every model who's done candle nudes, though few are as successful as this one - the 3200 speed film allowed for a shorter exposure then I usually use, which in turn provided a less motion-blurred result.

6x7 cm film

The second (and more interesting) image was more of a whimsical experiment, then a serious image; I framed Miranda's body and the candle against the deck-doors, which were splattered with raindrops shimmering with the light from the road beyond. I was a little doubtful that such an image would work, as it looked a little cluttered through the viewfinder, but as soon as a saw the negative in the darkroom, I knew it was surprisingly successful. On some levels, I think it has origins in my Simulacra imagery, but at the same time, it has other, less clear referents, and is very provocative. I suspect that this image is only the first of more, though how the descendants will manifest themselves, I have no idea.