Take it Like you Give it
Much of my portrait work is done on location. I think that has a lot to do with the styles of filmmaking I was trained in, but largely I have had very little exposure to proper studio photography.
I find that locations can grately inform not just the work as a whole, but also the model and photographer. The vivacity of an environment directly contributes to the feel on the shoot and the results in the final images. That being said, I have always admired studio shoots- the level of control and the lack of that context suggests the abstract in a way that is more digestible to most audiences.
Now that I am out of school, having access to studio spaces is at worst very dificult and at best expensive, but there’s no reason I can’t mimic the approach to creating art. This shoot was done entirely in my bedroom using small light set-ups and a crinkled bedsheet as a backdrop.
I call this collection ‘Take it like you give it,’ a reference to the Aretha Franklin record of the same name. Largely the names of my projects mirror whatever album or song I was listening to as the concepts for the shoot emerged and developed, but I think Franklin’s powerful and rebellious additude through the record have a lot in common with the insistance and attention I was trying to work with here.
I go through phases of loving black and white and this particular work was made during the latter half of a recent monochrome fixation. Stripping color away from an image goes a bit further in suggesting the abstract, but it also forces my attention toward contrast and contour of light.
I hope you enjoy this collection, I had a lot of fun making it! (Shoutout to Dillon for being every bit as awesome of a person as he is a model).
Until next week.
