My New Muse?
Sunday, March 20, 2016
In my 30s and 40s I was very often accosted by women at
functions or phoned asking me to take different pictures. I soon understood
that different was a euphemism for undraped (undraped being the euphemism once
used at Emily Carr for their figure models).
So I photographed many in my studio or in their homes doing my damnedest to avoid banal and cheesy boudoir photography.
My figure photographs became sexy photographs and then there
was a decline (or the opposite, be my guest to choose) to the erotic. I toyed
with pornography but got nowhere as I could not supress my inherent good taste.
Now in my 70s I find that eroticism is almost all cerebral.
Cerebral involves subtlety and a lot less nudity.
But finding subjects has been tough. It must have
something to do with my age. I must be seen as a dirty old man. There is no
memory in this city of my previous efforts in galleries and magazines.
Vancouver always is clean slate for the artist even one who has been at it for
a long time. Recently at a crime writer’s festival I noticed a veteran writer
(a local one) who was not only better than ever but superb. Few other readers might
agree with me. New is the new black.
On Saturday Andrea posed for us. By us I mean my friend baroque bassist Curtis Daily who is a photography enthusiast. He lives in Portland and was in the city to play with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. He stayed with us in our new little house. He enjoyed his guest room which he labeled a garret. This was his third photo class.
In the small studio it was difficult for me to maneuver from the corner to take my shots with a Nikon FM-2 and a 50 or 35mm lens. Film was Fuji Superia 800 colour negative. I had to shoot mostly from the hip and wide open. I love the look of this picture even though the crop was the wall on Andrea's left.
