A Lovely Paradox Of A Face

A few months ago I photographed Caitlin L. a woman with a beautiful face and demeanour but with an expression that paradoxically changed while being always the same. I would define her face as an enigma. As you can imagine I have been most excited at my two sessions with her. For a while I had to leave her photographs to rest, both in my files and in my memory.

The second time she came she walked into my small living room studio wearing a bright orange Mexican dress. I sat her down and then I had the idea. I asked her to pose in the same way while wearing different outfits.

The complex part of the idea is that I decided to do it four ways. With my Mamiya medium format firmly on a tripod I shot with Fuji Reala colour negative and with Ilford FP-4 Plus b+w. With a Nikon FM-2 I snapped Fuji Superia 800 Colour Neg and lastly with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera.

I must diverge from the thread by stating that a tripod in many cases can make a photograph as good as it can be. I have placed here the version shot with the Nikon where the camera was not on a tripod. Notice how some of the pictures are bigger than others and how the height of my camera varied. I believe they are a disaster.

The ones with the camera on the tripod look more standard even though Caitlin got up every time to change her outfit.

I have known how to balance the colour of colour transparency because I have been doing it for years. But the colour negative has given me a bit of a trouble. In particular this Fuji Reala film which produces results that are startling but with a lack of uniformity in colour and contrast. Note that the gray background that I used looks different in every shot.

I would think that the b+w versions would be the most that would blend in a pleasant uniformity.

What is obvious here is the remarkable model that Caitlin is.

The sensational Caitlin

Caitlin Legault - Art Model

The colour of skin - part II

Madonna at the garage door

Henri Fantin-Latour

John Singer Sargent would might have drooled