I photographed dear friend and fellow artist Lynette with her fiancé Stephen early one morning on Camps Bay beach. She was eight months into a difficult pregnancy and these images seemed to come like a ray of sunshine before their tiny son Liam would arrive. We spent an hour or so in the sun and sand, it was a perfect morning, the beginning of Spring and felt to me like a positive premonition of what was soon to come.
We had discussed a playful and sweet, 50’s inspired feel and Lynette brought along some simple single coloured items which leant themselves to the look perfectly. The images come across like happy treasures, nostalgic and warm.
I love the simplicity of the approach we had on this shoot; the linear elements of the background contrasted with the round, organic shapes of her body. We left the beach feeling happy and inspired and headed to my studio in Woodstock for the second half of the shoot which was intended to be more of a nude portrait of Lynette on a bed of white linen, photographed from above. More on these images later.
Katja was on holiday in Cape Town when I met her in 2012, she was 6.5 months pregnant with Tim. Our idea was to take some natural light portraits of her and her partner and a few images of her alone.
We shot at the reservoir near Rhodes Memorial. I had planned to have her in the water but there were two eco-officers lying on the far side wagging their fingers at me when we started to wade in to the water so instead I worked with her at the waters edge.
It improves a shoot when your subject is comfortable or at least feels she can say when she isn’t. I asked Katja if she was alright posing totally nude for a few shots at this location, knowing the two officers were likely watching from the far side in-between napping. She agreed, and this image below is by far my favourite from the day. It is feminine, magical and has a soft, dreamy vulnerability about it which reflects Katja’s shy beauty.
I used a light colour filter on the background of the image in post production to enhance it a bit bit otherwise the image remains natural.
(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 met and photographed this client in March 2008 at both Llandudno beach and the Ruth Prowse photo studio while I was still still part time lecturing there.
Our studio shoot was based mostly on ideas of body symmetry, movement, dramatic lighting and form. Her body, which to this day is one of the most lean and toned ones I’ve ever worked with, definitely leant itself to this and many of the images came out very beautifully.
I remember that this was one of those shoots where I was still grappling with lighting even though I got it right, I was frustrated.
The shoot we did on the beach was fantastic: early morning light, rough gigantic granite boulders and the lithe sculptural shapes of her athletic body which were even more defined with oil.
(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 met and photographed Janine in December 2012, I already can’t believe it was that long ago. Colleen joined me to do her hair and makeup in Noordehoek and we drove through to Witsands beach between Kommetjie and Scarborough for the shoot. I remember that she felt a bit self conscious about her body (as most women do) and expressed concerns about areas she felt uncomfortable about at that time.
She is uniquely and has beautiful dark hair and yes and I was amazed how incredibly femininely her body photographed. The beach was (almost) deserted and we trod up into the sand dune area in the wind to prepare the last details and styling before I began shooting.
We shot a series of images up against the windbreaks, the still quite early morning light was diffused by thin clouds and the reflection of the sand around her. The wind picked up substantially during the hour or two we were there and by the time we were shooting the last images it was blowing up a mini-sand-storm over the dunes and looked magical. I asked her if she would run up into it for some pics which she did. The images were beautiful, aerie and dramatic and afterwards she and I and my camera were caked in sand!
I really loved how natural these images are. There is also a strong tactile element due to the sand on her skin and the movement caused by the wind. She was thrilled with the images (as was her partner) when he received them for Christmas. I had the feeling that for both of them it was very powerful to see her body from this different perspective. They are images I still really love.
And behind the scenes on this shoot day…..
Behind the scenes on a private nude commission photo shoot on Witsands Beach in Cape Town South Africa. Photo taken by Colleen who was doing hair & makeup for me on this shoot. You can see the wind is howling!
