A Lovely Paradox Of A Face
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
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
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
