Yes, something gripped my imagination.
It started with looking at images from my favorite artists. I wanted to reverse engineer what I was looking at to see how certain effects and composition might be applied to my work.
As a line out of an old Mel Brooks movie goes, "Something funny happened on the way to the Coliseum."
I find it's true in nearly 100 percent of the cases where I reverse engineer something, work to implement changes in my own work and ways of seeing, only to come out the other end with something completely unexpected and nearly fully my own.
This is what happened on my way to shooting a series of white on white images.
One of my favorite models needed to get in front of my lens and we were kicking around ideas for what we might do. I like the very Portland style bohemian fashions that turn out in this city. So we talked about white on white, but heavily layered and heavily textured.
When Eyerish showed up at the studio both my wife and I were stunned and instantly appreciative. The level of effort that went into the costumes that Eyerish and Lulu created is nothing short of amazing.
We worked for three hours together and turned out some really fun work.
Not a month later, another model asked if I would photograph her dance troupe. She wanted to be photographed against a white backdrop too.
Taking liberties with the idea, I continued to deepen and expand the white on white theme that I started to develop with Eyerish. The results of the bellydance photoshoot are also, in my mind, outstanding. I find I really enjoy the high key lighting over textures and skin tones.
For all the liberties that I took with everyone, I need to thank them for allowing me to risk their publish printed "look" in allowing me to work in the processing manner that I did. Behind each image is the straight, normal photographic image.
As I've come to learn about myself, I can't leave straight, normal photographic images alone. Not when where is something glimmering and attracting way down the processing line.
