There's two stories here, the one that actually happened, and the one in my imagination.
The actual story starts here with some almost abstract images done in B&W. Those grew out of some images Michelle had seen. That was a really fun session. Our friend Antje was there during a video call to review the photos, and wanted in on the action.
From there I started thinking about other dark and shadowy images, plus watching The Maltese Falcon, and that's what led to the noir detective look. Both loved the idea, and we started playing with it. My first thoughts were to start by playing with light, going from the high contrast abstract images in those first three blog posts, and working towards portraits with more conventional lighting, sort of channeling Karsh or Beaton. I'd done lots of photos of Michelle, so I knew a portrait would be easy. The hard part is choosing which emotions for her to show the camera. I'd taken lots of photos of Antje in the course of various activities, but never an actual posed portrait, so I didn't know how that would go.
Telling Michelle a story helps her get in the mood and project an emotion for the camera. We've done this with some of our other sessions. Our Black, White, and Red session here is an example, and that leads to others.
Here's the story my imagination produced.
So these two tough detectives walk into my photo studio. At first I was terrified, thinking someone had hired them to investigate me to within an inch of my life. The senior one said she had just hired a new partner, since something unspeakable happened to her last one, and don’t ask. She had been convinced she needed photos of them to create a website. The boss was old school, tough as nails, and cynical because she had seen it all. To her, photos were what brought down the dirty rotten scoundrel who had cheated on his wife. She had never really thought about photos of herself. The other was younger, trying to present a more modern image to the profession, while bringing a bit of a twist on what she saw as the tired old look. I could tell she’d been around the block a few times, but hadn’t found a body in the gutter. They wanted to choose from a variety of photos, some B&W, some colour. I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t use a cigarette or anything to do with booze as a prop, and don't ask why. Her look gave me a chill so I didn't. I worked hard, trying to get photos that projected the image they wanted. I asked to think of various events in her career, and the memory showed on her face. She shared a few war stories, and the improbable tale of how she had met her new partner. Once I got the lighting set up, and a few trial photos taken, they could see I knew what I was doing and started to relax. Some black coffee and chocolate chip cookies later and we were all buddies.
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There more of the behind the scenes and some of the portraits will show up on my other blog. If you'd like to be notified of blog updates, please email me keith @ nucleus dot com, and ask to be put on my mailing list or leave a comment here. I post to this blog only when I've got a project I want to show. The personal blog gets updated much more often.
