April 17, 2020: Early on in my development as a photographer, I self-assigned a project to photograph the same person once a week for a year. The idea was to push the point of view of the photographer while the subject stays the same. This idea was one of the key building blocks in my developing my photographic style.⠀ ⠀ I was lucky to collaborate with an acting student from @DePaulU whom I met at a local coffee shop. Her name is @gilliana, and I will share a few of our images made together for the next few posts. This image was made with my 8X10 #Deardorff camera with a #Kodak Portrait lens. The light was an 11-inch reflector with a grid attached using #Speedotron strobes. I created this in the studio using color negative film.
April 18, 2020: This image is from my year-long project with @Gilliana outlined in the prior Instagram post.⠀ I was very much interested in the contact sheet as final art. Thus, I planned out the shooting sequence in which to make a single image appear in the correct order. I shot this in my studio using a #Hasselblad 500CM fitted with extension tubes to aid the #150mm lens to focus closer to the subject. The final was printed on traditional black and white silver paper toned in a custom #sepia tone that I created
April 19, 2020: This image is from my year-long project with @Gilliana outlined prior on IG.⠀ ⠀ I was very lucky that in addition to having wonderful acting skills in front of the camera, Gillian additionally had impeccable taste in her personal style of dress. I leaned on her a lot to bring clothes to use in the project. I have always had a soft spot for vintage hats.⠀ ⠀ This image was made with my 8X10 #Deardorff camera with a #Kodak Portrait lens. The light was an 11-inch reflector with a grid attached using #Speedotron strobes.
April 22, 2020: This is one of my favorite images from my year-long project @Gilliana. For me, the beauty of this frame is the addition of a tear on the edge of her eye. You can see in this frame; the tear is forming in her eye but I caught the frame before the tear dropped. Gillian had amazing control of her being and could take direction to reach any emotional level. It was a true pleasure to collaborate with her!⠀ ⠀ Because all of these images are analog, I have yet to have them all scanned. Hopefully this year I will post more.⠀ ⠀ This photo was made with my 8X10 #Deardorff camera with a #Kodak Portrait lens. The light was an 11-inch reflector with a grid attached using #Speedotron strobes.
April 23, 2020: Again, from my year-long @Gilliana project I am sharing a different tear image than I discussed earlier. I was always very interested in exploring a wide range of both photographic visual treatments and human emotions during this project. Because Gillian had amazing control of her being she could take direction to reach any emotional level. If needed I could ask her to tear up anytime it seemed appropriate.⠀ ⠀ This image was made with my 8X10 #Deardorff camera and my usual #Kodak Portrait lens. I used the same lighting as several other images which was an 11-inch reflector with a grid attached using #Speedotron strobes.
April 24, 2020: This image is the last image for now from my year-long project with @gilliana outlined prior on IG.⠀ ⠀ Like I mentioned earlier, Gillian had amazing hats. I like working with a hat because it often brings the focus of the image into the eyes of the person being photographed. Gillian’s command of connecting with the camera is unparalleled.⠀ ⠀ This image was shot with a #Hasselblad 500 CM and an 80mm lens. It was shot on what the studio called the “Lunar Backdrop”. The Lunar backdrop is one of the many I created early in my career. Painting backdrops was how I made money to really get my studio rolling. The lighting is a 11-inch reflector with a grid and a diffusion panel powered by a Speedotron power pack and head.
Photography courtesy of paul_elledge.
