Portrait of RM with Heat
The brilliance of the sun on her and the chair and the piercing nature of her look were so intense that not only was it hard for her to open her eyes, it was hard for me to not be blinded while taking the photo.
Portrait of CS With a Window Behind Me
The Model CS. I scouted out this area before she was done working so I knew I wanted to capture someone’s face with the beautiful light in the tall windows behind me. She obliged.
The Saleswoman
She was the saleswoman at the Vintage Clothing Store who was also a photographer and an artist and knew about the cool show at the Center for Creative Photography and she was right, it was great.
I loved her great retro style with the bobbed hairdo and the ‘little house on the prairie’ dress. Her face was serious but not morose, filled with intelligence and just a bit of world weariness. She was a student and had a lot of study on her plate.
The Application
Models getting ready for a shoot are sometimes more interesting and fun to photograph than the shoot itself.
She had been running around off-set wondering where her lip gloss was, so when she found it I followed her into the kitchen at the auto repair shop/photography studio and took some shots as she put it on.
We were having a photo shoot in an auto repair garage that adjoins the photography studio. We had someone in who was giving a tutorial on studio lighting. At one point he asked this model to do some poses on a divan/couch with her shirt pulled up, exposing her abs and belly button. I could tell she was a bit uncomfortable with that and was worried about what her parents would think, especially her father. The poses weren’t exploitive as such, but they were on the cheesy side and I could tell she was a bit awkward about it.
Turns out she has the same name as one of my daughters and graduated from the same high school, a few years later. We talked a bit about her going to college and what she wanted to do. She seemed to like the photos I took off-set. I will have to ask her what she thought about the ones I mentioned above.
The Wide-Eyed Arrival
She was waiting for her man, a traveling sportsman, the longest they had been apart,
she had a new car, was hoping he would like it, he was tall, buy maybe not tall enough,
she goes to school full time and works full time, it’s been hard but she is excited to
see him, she was hoping she was in the right place.
Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma
7/29/06
The Texture of the Truth Beautiful
Day after day I saw a new addition being built about two miles away from our house.
The houses looked interesting, as much as a suburban tract house can. Finally a sign
appeared showing an open house so I went to check it out.
The woman showing the house was tall and willowy with a decided stylish side to her.
She showed me around and we got in a conversation about how she ended up selling real
estate and her background as a model. We went out onto the little front porch and as
we did so the light illuminated her face in a wonderful way. That clinched the deal
for me and I asked her if she would be willing to let me take some photos of her.
She agreed and that was that.
In the end, after many renditions and much more complicated collage efforts I kept
coming back to the beautiful detail of her skin in that light. The color was
fantastic but so was the texture all by itself so I landed on the monochrome/color
diptych as a way of showing off both those elements.
The Jeweler Who Didn’t Like the First One
I went into a jewelry store in Tulsa looking for something specific for my wife. I didn’t find it but had a great salesperson help me. She was informative and thoughtful. The whole front of the store was facing south with big windows and it was winter time so the sun was streaming in. It bounced off the floor and glass cases and landed on her in a wonderful way. I asked her if I could take some photos of her and she obliged me.
I did a collage and showed it to her a few days later. She was upset about how it looked, thinking I had made her look rather ugly. I didn’t think it did, but I didn’t post it out of respect for her discomfort. I did this one later, working with less manipulation and distortion and I think she was happier with it.
I love this piece because of how I got the hair and the line of her face to match up. She is the same top to bottom but then a second look obviously shows something isn’t as it should be. Just a bit of a skewed perspective on the portrait.
Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman #13
