A naked artist, a nice police man and me...

Every good photograph is an opinion; it says something revealing about the subject. Achieving that magical, fleeting moment is the essence of portraiture. It's truly collaboration between photographer and sitter. - Joe Budne

A couple of nights ago I collaborated with an artist friend of mine. She wanted me to photograph her in a small stream near where we live with water gliding over her skin. Using a long exposure we wanted to create a silk-like layer over her body, creating shapes from body parts emerging from the water... 'best laid plans of  mice and men...' and all that!

So, it turned out that the stream was a little shallower than we had anticipated ;-) we couldn't really attempt to get the images we had planned but I am actually quite pleased with shots we got in the end anyway. 

It was a fun experience, public nudity is definitely not something that goes unnoticed by passers by but no-one bothered us as we took the shots. At some points Genna, the artist and collaborator extraordinaire, was standing in her own little world with her head under a small waterfall. She couldn't hear me when I was calling to her asking her to stand still, change position or to tell her the exposure was finished, but we got there in the end... it's got to be said she has some serious 'mind over matter' skills. The water was freezing and she managed to stay solid as a rock and come across as serene and tranquil. Beautiful job Genna.

The shoot came to quite a sudden end as a police man rode past on his motorbike. At this moment, Genna's head was submerged in water and she stood beneath the running water with her eyes closed, blissfully unaware that the police man was even there. Luckily, he was a lovely man and I managed to convince him that for the sake of art I needed to take a couple more shots. He was actually more worried that some bad men could get the wrong idea at this time of night and told us we could be here just not so naked.

Anyway, these images aren't exactly what we were going for but it only gives us room for improvement! Next time we will check the water is deeper than an inch and that nice policemen on motorbikes won't be interrupting us.

Self...

When I think about it, and when I look closely at my pictures, they are ALL, in their own way, nothing but self-portraits, a part of my life. - Christer Strömholm I have never attempted a self-portrait before. I think it is because part of me just thinks it's an artistic kind of vanity and I don't want other people to think I like taking photos of myself. I don't want to come across in the wrong way... and then I thought... that is exactly the reason I should do it.  I shouldn't care what someone else thinks! It's the one chance I will have to take any photo I want and the subject can't complain because the subject is me.  So, I am doing a week of self-portraits, trying to capture how I'm feeling each day in as many creative ways as possible... wish me luck! (click an image to enlarge) Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Black and White...

Black and white are the colours of photography. To me they symbolise the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Most of my photographs are of people; they are seen simply, as through the eyes of the man in the street. There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough--there has to be vision, and the two together can make a good photograph. It is difficult to describe this thin line where matter ends and mind begins. - Robert Frank - From pages 20-22 of Aperture, vol. 9, no. 1 (1961)

Not much to say about these really, just missed playing with black and white so...