Sweet Sixteen (2006)

 

Sweet Sixteen
Front Royal, Virginia
June 8, 2006

I generally have a rule with models these days: no one under 18, with the only exceptions being minors whose parent(s) I know. Why? Because I won't shoot a model under 18 without a parent being there. And parents can be really, really annoying.

A good example was when I shot S---, who was sixteen at the time. She had responded to an ad I had placed along with a picture of herself which showed her (for lack of a better term) goth style. I've always thought fire-engine red hair was awesome, so I immediately started working on ideas for her shoot.

Unused test shot for Sweet Sixteen.

We set a date. Her mother came along and I immediately got the sense that I was going to be under scrutiny. A certain amount of scrutiny is fine, even encouraged, but this lady was a bit too pushy. She asked to see the shooting list, which I gave
her, then started to freak out when she saw the
word "nude"... telling me her daughter was in no
way, shape or form going to be doing anything
nude, she's only sixteen so that would be illegal.... until I pointed out that the shooting list said
"nude hose," as in pantyhose - part of that shot's wardrobe needs. Sheesh.

While there were another annoyances that day,
the one that sticks out in my mind was when we
were shooting Sweet Sixteen. I had set up a party backdrop for the model to sit in. The scene was a somewhat desolate looking birthday party with the character not at all happy to be engaged in an
event so cliche and sickingly, well, sweet. In frustration, she pounds her fist through the birthday cake and let's everyone know with her expression that she's had enough of the BS.

The "wasted cake" after the shot was completed.

S--- liked the idea and found that a
nice punch into a cake could be fun. Her mother, on the other hand, spent what seemed like forever lamenting over the wasted cake. The four dollar store-bought cake. Again... SHEESH.

While it's funny in retrospect, at the
time, these things tend to distract
from the focus of shooting, and many times (especially in the case of overbearing boyfriends coming to the shoot), distract the model from
getting into the mindset of the shot. But... it's also a necessary evil when
it comes to working with models who are under 18!



Domino (2008)

Domino
Front Royal, Virginia
January 7, 2008

 

Domino is one of my all-time favorites. To me, it is the merging of many perfect elements into one photo. I could best describe it as rustic erotic surrealism.

W--- prepping for the shot.

The rustic enviornment was key. My friend W--- and I found ourselves with the advantage of shooting in an old carriage house on the property where I lived at the time. The desolate - yet warm and oddly inviting - background gives a striking contrast to W---'s outfit and the mask. The character wants to stick out from the dreary norm. However, notice the similarities between her hair and the wooden wall behind her: parallel streaks of varying degrees of brown. This suggests the real roots of the character. Here you have someone with human normality at her core, but is striving to break free from assimilating into society.

The mask on the ground was, as I later discovered, more than likely a subconcious reworking of Billy Joel's album cover for The Stranger, which I would often find myself absorbed in as a child. The mask on The Stranger represents the illusionary front people in relationships put up for each other.  In Domino, the mask is completely personal - in fact, almost a mirrored foreshadowing of how the character is to develop. We do not see the her real face, only the ornate falsehood she wants the world to see her as staring back at her. Her true self, it seems, is all but lost.





Unused test shot for Domino.

Underlying all of this is the photo's sublime sensuality. The character's upper body pose and position of her hands suggests that she may be getting ready to crawl on top of the mask's "body" as some sort of psychological initiation rite. Her right arm severs the photo down the
middle, seperating the top half of her
encroaching body from the more passive bottom half. The sexy
strapped heels, the intense blue
tights showcasing the sensous curves of her legs and the temptress-inspired scalloped mini-skirt, reveal the allure that the character is trying to develop to escape from the hum-drum world.



The name Domino is a reference to the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut, in which a prostitute (named Domino) lives in a small apartment with a collection of masks on her walls. Domino isn't happy in her world either and her masks partially represent the face she wears to get through life.

Domino's apartment in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

Domino represents those of us who don't feel as if he fit into the world and spend our life trying to carve out our own niche, no matter how difficult and painful it may be at times.
 

 

The Beloved (2008)

The Beloved
Front Royal, Virginia
February 11, 2008

For nature photographers, every so often they run across a river, forest scene or mountain that they HAVE to shoot.  They are compelled to try to replicate on film (or, these days, in pixels) the beauty that calls to them from the scene.  Photographers who, like myself, shoot people, have the same compulsion from time to time.  Our problem is that not everyone we see that we want to shoot wants to be shot!

So was the case with a co-worker of mine, A---.  From the very first day I met her, I knew I wanted to photograph her.  People sometimes confuse this to be similar to a crush, which it's not.  I grew to love A--- dearly as a person and a friend, but my sights never extended past that.  Nevertheless, there was an absolute compulsion to photograph her.

For over a year I tried to work up the courage to ask her.  Once we became closer as friends, it was a tad easier (although not much).  To my surprise, she was reluctant as she was somewhat self-conscious and didn't think she would be photogenic.  I felt it was my job to prove her wrong! 

Thankfully, she put her trust in me and agreed to a shoot.  We set up a date and time and she arrived at my house.  My landlord lived next door and I had wanted to use some of his property to shoot around.  When A--- arrived, a landscaper has also just arrived at the landlord's place.  For some reason that I'll never figure out, I told her we'd have to reschedule.  This was stupid... we could have shot in my house.  I took a severe gamble here... she was already weary of shooting and this was the perfect opportunity to get out of booking another date.

The original "Standard Pose" shot.

To her credit, we did manage to get together a second time, only two months before I left the area.  We did a number of ideas together, some of which turned out well, others not so much (as is usually the case in any shoot).  I had her take part in "The Standard Pose Project" in which models of all different sizes and types wear the same bikini top as a satire on the fashion industry (who still believes models should be the same stick-thin size).  It wasn't until after the session when I was looking at the shots, that I realized one of the Standard Pose pics was really intense.

I cropped her face from the shot and added some digital effects.  The result was amazing.  Her eyes are so incredible and emotional.  Best of all, I was able to capture her beauty exactly as I saw her every day we worked together.  That is the goal of every photographer, whether they work in portraits or landscapes -- capturing the essence of something or someone.