Saturday, August 13, 2016
Valentina
I often do shoots where the model wants to remain anonymous in one way or another. One way is that I do not ever display their images on the internet if they are in any way recognizable. I'm not particularly fond of that method, but I can respect it. Another way is getting creative with obscuring the face just enough to make recognition of the person in question impossible. Yeah, her name isn't Valentina...
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Jade Vixen
I fancied up my "Sitting on a Bar Stool" series by draping some black velvet background over it. VoilĂ ! Instant elegance! I love simple solutions like that.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Lady Lazurus
A certain elegance to this one– despite being one of those "Oh, look, my breast fell out of my dress!" shots that I typically try to stay away from. It probably works because it has some abstract qualities, a nice moodiness and that sweetly coy look in her eyes– even though it's still just one of those "Oh, look, my breast fell out of my dress!" shots...
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Meira
There's some kind of vague Bill Brandt quality to this one. Not any image of his in particular— just the general feel. I've read so many photography books over the years, and all of it gets sort of mashed up as influences, and then I'll just spit out a little bit. It reminds me of someone who made his lunch sandwiches with a slice of tomato, but then he took the tomato off. So then the sandwich simply had the "essence" of tomato, but no actual tomato. True story. This image has the "essence" of Bill Brandt.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Devorah
Yeah, this is one of my tried and true shots— model laying down with eyes closed and letting hands and fingers roam, while I shoot it all from above and behind. I basically developed it as a way of getting a sure shot for paid boudoir shoots involving a green subject who is nervous and has never done a shoot before. I have some other set-ups like this, but this one is practically guaranteed to succeed every time. The secret is that she can become oblivious to my presence (eyes closed & listening to good music), with the added bonus being that closed eyes remove the need to make that often difficult emotional connection to the lens. Yeah, the cat's out of the bag... closed eyes= instant soulfulness! Not that I invented that, as it goes back to the beginning of photography with photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron in the 1860's, and every one since. It is a nice trick to have in the arsenal, though.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Dessa
I was a painter (although not a particularly good one) and a designer (not too shabby) before I became a photographer, so I learned ahead of time to think abstractly about composition. From the beginning through to now, I've always thought as much about the composition as much as anything else. This is a good example of that— the head goes off towards the top corner as if it is trying to escape the boundaries of the photograph. Likewise, the hand is pressing down the middle bottom. Along with a couple other details, the overall effect is that she is visually trying to push out of the box she is contained in. Which, in turn, creates a visually dynamic image. This is a primary part of my thought process— both when I'm shooting and as a final image. I've never really stated this here or anywhere else, but it is truly one of the main things I'm thinking of when shooting. That, and trying to get the lighting right. I'm not ever really trying to tell a story or execute an idea. I hate "ideas"! I don't, however, tend to do this consciously. I shoot too quickly to do that. It's more of an automatic process that I've trained myself to do. I pick up the camera and simply shoot. When I'm editing, I then more or less consciously pick the ones that work in that way...
Monday, August 1, 2016
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Heff
The tight cropping really makes this one— as if she's boxed in and trying to escape the imaginary boundaries of the photograph...
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Sylvia
I've been doing different versions of this shot for as long as I've been shooting, which is about 25 years now. It usually does not work, as hands on the face photographs typically look either stiff, forced or fake. Often, they're absolutely painful to look at. I always think of the hand on the face scene in Napoleon Dynamite! What makes it work are the hands and their owner- the combination of photogenic hands and someone who knows how to bring them to life. Hands can be just as expressive as facial expressions. Hell, they can be even more so- think how much sign language can convey. Human hands can paint the Sistine Chapel, pluck a guitar, maneuver surgical instruments, chisel a David, forge steel, and write poetry. They can grasp, scratch, poke, punch, feel, sense, evaluate, hold and mold the world around us. No other species has appendages with such a remarkable range of capabilities. And yet, so some weird reason regarding photography not liking hands on faces, I can count on one hand how many people out of everyone that I've photographed have amazed me with their hands in an image...
Monday, July 25, 2016
Jade Vixen
Confession: the single biggest influence on my lighting style is George Hurrell, the Hollywood glamour photographer from the 30's & 40's (although he worked until he died in the 90's). George Hurrell never did nudes, though, let alone anything explicit or erotic. Sensual, yes— but definitely not sexual. Everything else about my work tends to differ from his as well. Well, except occasionally, when it doesn't. The image below (as well as some others that I've done of Jade Vixen) is a homage to Hurrell's images of Anna May Wong. There is a little nipple slip in one of his prints that I've seen, but that is about as close as he ever came to showing nudity— and I doubt that it ever made its way into publicity shots.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
Emily
Early on, one of my biggest influences was Man Ray, among some other early 20th century masters. I've got away from directly emulating this photographer or another. Years of pouring over photography books, though, have left indelible memories that get spit back out every now and then— whether consciously or unconsciously. This one definitely seems to remind me of Man Ray. That is not necessarily such a bad thing...
Friday, July 15, 2016
Devon
It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary. ~David Bailey
Monday, July 4, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Meira
If someone considers my work to be porn, although I don't think it is, at least I'd like it to be considered porn with a certain amount of gravitas...
Monday, June 20, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Thursday, June 9, 2016
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