Saturday 15 June 2013

La Source, River Adur

After an exciting full-day shoot in a studio with a Norwegian photographer and four other dance models, all posing en pointe and together in various tangles, I met up with Jeremy Howitt for our three-thousandth shoot, a quick themed piece by the River Adur in Sussex.

Jeremy had attempted a version of Ingres' painting, 'La Source', once before, but wasn't completely happy with his results (I personally quite liked his earlier version, but it just wasn't exactly as he'd intended), so he wanted to have another go at it using me as the model.

Here's what I'm talking about - 'La Source', by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres:


As seems to have been a recurring theme in some of my recent shoots (though I don't take credit for it) the weather was drizzly and required wellies, so I took my pink polka dot ones, bought in the Scottish Highlands (a lot less cool than the red hunter wellies I was gifted by a photographer once after a shoot, but nevertheless, pretty cheerful), out for another airing, having slung them readily in the back of my car.

It might look easy and serene, but holding a fairly heavy jug of water over one's shoulder and controlling the angle best suited to photographic purposes while not soaking oneself and turning one's hair into wet, lank waterweeds, while standing in damp, sinking ground is not the simplest of tasks. Blood (from a mysteriously cut finger) and a lot of mud went into this image, too. I thought you should know that.

Seriously, though, I absolutely love this first image, which is shown here in wonderful sepia, a process I think should be flaunted much more, as well as in a 'vintage' colour toning. Feeling like we'd possibly nailed it just a bit too quickly, I insisted that we do a few variations of poses with the jug afterwards (though they aren't quite as strong, probably), and then, on the way back to the car, Jeremy suggested we do a quick 5-min set on the little wooden bridge we'd walked over on the way there. I love the effect of the lens.






All hail the English countryside!






You can read Jeremy's forum post on purpleport about this shoot here: http://purpleport.com/group/share-a-shoot/16936/la-source/. Hopefully we'll be working together again soon - it's always a pleasure and I love the fact that we always do such completely different styles and distinct themes each time.

In other news, I'm reading an absolutely amazing, though-provoking and mind-opening book at the moment, that left me wandering around London yesterday in a total dream-state of awe at all the things and people around me. No, I'm not on drugs. Will maybe talk about it in my next post...