The book: Zoe Fest 2009, Mission Beach, Australia will be finished printing on September 17.
Tag: rei
Categories
Elandra
Did I post these. I don’t think I did. I don’t remember. So much has happened since we were in Australia. I would love to be back there again… NOW.
I think I may have gone a little extreme with these images and my solarization. But, they are kind of growing on me. I like what solarizing polaroid’s does to the skin, how it makes it seem like polished titanium. And of course there are a few here that aren’t solarized. I just think the other’s stand out more and kind of kick you a bit.
Like most good things, it started with a delicious dinner.
A month or two before arriving at Mission Beach, Michael Marlborough and I met up to eat Ethiopian food and chat about travel plans (and before anyone says it, yeah, Ethiopian food – kind of an oxymoron, huh? But it’s awesome. Try it). Some wine had been drunk and we were throwing out ideas for shoots. There was a nautical theme going on – we talked about anchors, rope, and sailors. Then I said, “Giant squid!â€
Michael’s eyes lit up.
Now, I wasn’t exactly joking when I started talking about cephalopods. You know those images you have in your mind, the ones you hope someday with enough time, resources and the right people to work with, you’ll get down on film? Well, one of the ones in the back of my head, taking up important room, involved a many-legged sea creature. Turns out my photographer friend had a similar affliction. Perhaps we were onto something. Since both of us live inland, shooting near the ocean is not something we get to do very often and our access to sea creatures is limited. We had to take the opportunity while we could.
Weeks later, driving from Townsville to Mission Beach, we procured ourselves the largest frozen octopus we could find, with the help of a very bemused fishmonger. This was Octavius.
He was so big that, once thawed in a bucket of iced water, we needed an assistant just to keep him in position. Plus rubber bands, several chairs and afterwards, a lot of soap. But we worked it out and Octavius turned out to be a pretty decent model.
There is nothing quite like seeing an image you’ve had in your mind, exactly as you saw it, finally come into being on the preview panel of a camera or a proof sheet. It was one of the best moments at Mission Beach and something I’ll never forget. The feeling of having a large octopus draped over my face has been largely blanked out, so there’s nothing but happy endings to this story. Oh, and some pictures.
Have I told you all how much we loved Mission Beach? I can still feel the ocean breeze and humidity in my mind. Our house didn’t hurt the vibe one bit. I still wish I had video of Rei dancing her Bollywood dance. So I could post it here! She’d probably throw a smack my way all the way from Canberra though! All in good fun. I’ve known Rei for years and we worked together in 2004 for the first time with successful results. Many book publishings and magazine publishings with a few of our images. Now from this time working together I’ve already sold one of our prints. What a great feeling for both of us to know that someone wants to own a fine art piece from our work together. One of the prints from this session sold… the “Jim Morrison” pose. 😉 I was excited when we peeled the negative back and saw the unique destruction of the print that you only get with the Holga/Polaroid back combo. Nice. I hope the owner of the new print enjoys seeing it on their wall for a very long time. Thank you.
Categories
Diva Moment
Polaroid Type 85 went right after SX-70. It’s understandable about Type 85 really. I mean, I’m the only one I know who ever shot nudes with it. Maybe someone else is out there? If so… let me know! I want to see your work too. Holga w/Polaroid back and Type 85. I still have mass amounts of film left.
I thought I would go through 12 packs in Australia, but alas… I broke my Polaroid bucket once I got to OZ and had to use a bowl from the house I rented so trucking around in the rainforest wasn’t so optional. Improvising is fun.
One day I photographed Rei and Muse at the house we were staying in together. The quote of the day was, “Ladies! Quit talking about boys and start talking about POSES!” I was running back and forth from the bowl to the shooting spot with Polaroid goo on my fingers and the paper stuff stuck to them while trying to hold two developed positives in my mouth at times. I swear if I ever had a “diva moment” that was it. Muse and Rei continued to taunt me about it for days. I’m certain my hair MUST have been sticking out all over the place too. It wasn’t… but it ads to the drama so play along. I was acting very exasperated because I was actually upset at the sun. See, it was moving way too rapidly and I needed it to stay where it was for at least another hour. But, of course time doesn’t play that way… so exasperated I was. Here are some of the “diva moment” photographs. With Type 85 of course.
It’s a cliché, but something I love about modelling is the variety of people I meet. There are great photographers from every country I can think of. They discovered their love of photography in many ways – art school, elementary school, post-work hobbies or a serendipitous encounter with a random camera. There are full-time professional photographers and photographers who work different jobs so they can pursue photography in their free time. I once worked with a photographer who made his money digging graves (We had some interesting conversations). Basically, there are a lot of interesting people out there with cameras and great ideas.
One of the places where this becomes most evident is at Zoefest. At Mission Beach this year, on meeting our diverse group, my first thought was – we’re all so different! How are we all going to get along for 10 days?
I needn’t have worried. The problem, it seemed, was how to keep us away from each other. How to stop our post-slide show chatting and get to bed at a reasonable hour. Wrapping up great conversations and actually, y’know, go out and shoot. Turns out when you get together with friendly people who all share a common love of creating beautiful images, it couldn’t matter less where we went to school or how we pay our bills.
No disrespect to the wonderful photographers at our event, but one of the things I enjoy most is meeting other models. Ah, the life of a fine-art model is a solitary one. Working with multiple models is not unheard of, but it’s hardly the norm. We’re often admirers of each other’s work, but it’s rare that we’ll get to meet. One particular model and I had been working with the same photographers for years. It wasn’t until this year’s Zoefest that we actually got a chance to sit and talk. And when models get together, we have a lot to talk about…
At Mission Beach, I also got to spend time with two awesome people who have experience on both sides of the lens. They are models who are also photographers, or photographers who are also models (I’m going to avoid using a cutesy portmanteau like ‘modelographer’ as I value my life). They are great fun to work with and have unique perspective. They give direction on a shoot knowing how a pose feels, not just how it looks. And they understand the concerns of a model completely – from, “This isn’t my best angle†to “I might look awesome on this slime-covered jagged rock, but we need to act quickly.â€
Below are a few images created with these two talented photographers.
Vive la difference! I hope I get to see all you unique, exciting and lovely people next year… or even sooner.
Oh all the Polaroid Negatives to wade through… All the 120 and 35mm to develop. My lab will rescue me. But, in the mean time… here are a few finished works from me. Thank you to the models. More coming soon…
Categories
October 5
Today was spent being extremely mellow after all the traveling we had to do to get here. The room I have lends itself well to shooting and relaxing so I did a bit of both.
I see heaven out my window. Friends at the pool, tropical flowers on the walkways, and butterflies and Wallabys around every corner.
Soph and I had a shoot about 2 hours ago and I can’t wait to develop my film when I return home. In the mean time you will all just have to get an idea from my iPhone snaps. 🙂
Now if you’ll excuse me… I have a date with the swimming pool! Rei and Muse are already there.
