Tag: B&W photography

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Found Images:
Women Before 10am by Veronique Vial

RePhotographed images Women Before 10am by Veronique Vial 1

I think I came across these images while I was doing research in the Michaelis/UCT library during my graduate year in 2005. I photocopied them and stuck them into my visual diary of the time, here they appear re-photographed from my diary as well as a few more lower down which I grabbed from google image search.

RePhotographed images Women Before 10am by Veronique Vial 2

RePhotographed images Women Before 10am by Veronique Vial 3

I can’t exactly put my finger on what it is about them which draws me so much,- maybe its the graininess of both the film and those first moments of the day? I wonder also how she approached her subjects- did she ask them to stay as they were when they had awoken? Did she style them or ask her subjects to just be naturally reactive to the concept and moment?

Sarah Jane Wylde by Veronique Vial

Editorial reviews I found and liked about the book:

“Imagine being let into the bedrooms and bathrooms of 96 of the world’s most beautiful actresses and models to photograph them while they’re still sleepily themselves, without makeup, defenses or clothes. These heavenly creatures loll in expensive sheets, smoke, drink coffee, play with their dogs and children and let it all hang out.” – Paper

“Intimate, messy, revealing – photos of fabulous females in their precaffeinated state.” – Elle

I love the description “females in their pre-caffeinated state”!

There is a strange parallel I find between the intimacy of the captured scenes and  the element of the staged (who wants to look unattractive in a portrait sitting after all? Did they adjust their hair? The light? The room? Makeup?)

Women Before 10am by Veronique Vial

I previously knew nothing about French-born-living -in-America photographer Veronique Vial and went to her website to find out a bit more about her work.
I was a little disappointed sadly- I had expected her work to be a bit more content rich, more conceptual, but her work has much more of a lifestyle/stock photography feel for me.The book and the theme and the style in which she shot it was much more atmospheric, and I also loved the incorporation of her own handwriting. The images I kept all those years ago are still inspiring, so much so that along with my Polaroid project I’m considering shooting a new series in B&W film on my old cameras.

Women Before 10am by Veronique Vial
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Projects

Self Portrait Project: #7

I had researched Shibari (the oriental art of rope tying) when I was writing my graduate dissertation and I produced an image using it during that time. I was also commissioned a while back by a Cape Town architect to shoot a group of girls tied up for his annual New Years card to his clients (but more on that later).  I’ve therefore got a heck of a lot of this really pretty textured white rope in my collection of “stuff”.

It is a beautiful and rather intersting prop to work with in images because of the contrast in tone to skin, its implications of control and restriction and the aesthetic value added by whatever form one choose to create with it within the picture space.

The idea to shoot this self portrait came from no where in particular that I can pin point. I had wanted to shoot an image with very classical B&W dramatic lighting which is one of the things I achieved with this image. I love the shapes, lines and tensions of this image and creating it was an experience in itself…

So on Tuesday I asked friends Barbara and Cara to help make me into a kind of rope sausage. I have tied ropes for several images in the past as mentioned above, the techniques, after doing a bit of research, were pretty logical (to me), and the logistics of working with such a medium and a model also equally need to be prepared for.

With wine, gossip to catch up on and possibly not the right amount of explanation of my idea we began. It was a lesson in patience and friend-appreciation as my hands slowly went totally numb while they drank wine and chatted distractedly while a tried to be bossy unsuccessfully from the inside of my constrains.

Still, it was a great and funny shoot with a strong outcome. One would never imagine the kinds of things that go on behind-the-scenes of image making and what is put into creating such a simple image.

Self Portrait Project 007 Leah Hawker 2014

Categories
Projects

The Debut Girls

This small body of work which I produced in 2008 is inspired in part by iconic images of religious saints, martyrs and images of women from myth and legend as rendered in 19th Century academic paintings.

"Girl Hiding With Horse, from The Debut Girls 2008
“Girl Hiding With Horse”, from The Debut Girls 2008
"Blossoms", from The Debut Girls 2008
“Blossoms”, from The Debut Girls 2008

The photographs deal, superficially, with purity and innocence associated with age old perceptions of the virgin/maiden/bride, although at heart lie concepts of the truth about assumed and chosen identity, the crux of being individual and alike in our society.

"Blossom Bride", from The Debut Girls 2008
“Blossom Bride”, from The Debut Girls 2008
"Gloves", from The Debut Girls 2008
“Gloves”, from The Debut Girls 2008

The Debut Girls comments on changing views of gender perception; here utilising the archetypes of innocence and stereotype through the use of certain symbols and objects in the picture space.

The subjects and objects are documented so as to communicate a sense of isolation and the duality between beauty and restriction, perception and reality.

To see the rest of the series you can look here. Below are pages and details from my visual diary from the time.

Pages from my visual diary of the time shows the reference images I begin this process from.
Pages from my visual diary of the time shows the reference images I begin this process from.

The images from these pages reflect the process of thinking and creation to some extent. The main portrait shoot took place in a beautiful nectarine orchard and on a stud farm in Paarl where I brought my models (family members and friend) along with specially selected “props”. I shot the series on my twin lens Mamiya C3.

Images from my visual diary of the time show contact sheets, test strips, notes and sketches.
Images from my visual diary of the time show contact sheets, test strips, notes and sketches.

I exhibited the series as part of the Month of Photography in 2008.

Details from my visual diary during The Debut Girls production.
Details from my visual diary during The Debut Girls production.

 

Categories
Women I've Shot

“The Housewives”, Private Commissions:
This is Jenna

(Note: “The Housewives” was a term I fondly coined in 2006 after I started getting shoot requests from private, individual women who became my clients. Many of the women who contacted me were married and in their mid 30’s and were doing the shoots as gifts to their husbands. The folder in my archives is still called this and so I’ve stuck to it, in part just for the irony: most of these women are not “housewives” at all, but strong independent and forward thinking women who I have had the honour of documenting.

All are private commissions and the demographic has changed substantially over the years. Some I’m still in contact with, others I’ve totally lost contact with, some have become friends, some may wish not to have their real names used, others don’t mind, some may have their faces obscured for privacy reasons, others have generously shared their experiences of being photographed.)

I photographed a short series of nudes for Jenna little while back. The images where mostly high contrast silhouettes and routines of her body and the images were, I think, commissioned as a gift for her soon-to-be husband.