The first two images I posted of model Theresa in High Park were to some extent dominated by lines and background. Today I return to more familiar territory: the amazing landscape of human facial expression.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL camera, Tri-X exposed at E.I. 800, developed in Diafine 3+3)
Today another image of Ren from the Steampunk shoot the other day. This image is very different from the one I posted last time: there is no anonymity imposed by dark goggles. Instead, an intriguing, complex expression. Ren is a complex person — creative, driven, certainly not shallow, and hungry to experience everything life has to offer. I think that comes through in this image.
Expect to see more steam punk images over the next little while! Today’s image is of Ren Brockhouse, who I know through a Toronto theatre group. One of the things that appeals to me about steam punk is how it celebrates technologies that were accessible: things you could build, repair, change or hack with the right tools or know-how. So much of technology today is hermetically sealed away and abstracted; we seem to know so little about how things work, and that is a dangerous state of affairs!
I think I’ve mentioned before how so much of my portrait work is close-up; I am addicted to the biography (indeed the landscape) that is the human face. I have to force myself to pull back ever now and then, and let more of the setting into the story, or even become the story, as I think it does in this image of model Theresa in High Park.
A wavy fence in High Park really caught my eye, and I had to work it into a portrait!
This is my second hand-tinted print where the colours are somewhat surrealistic. It is model Keira, taken in Kensington Market, where the colours are already a bit surrealistic, to my eye.
It has been a productive weekend for hand-tinted portraits. Today’ image features Jinxy, an alternative model with a unique and vibrant esthetic.
Today’s image was created on Kodak Portra 400 colour negative film using my Rolleicord IIIa camera, which is a Twin Lens Reflex camera. Normally the term twin lens reflex refers to the fact that the camera has two lens — a viewing lens, and a “taking” lens directly below the viewing lens. With this camera though, twin lens for me could refer to the large difference in image sharpness when shot with the taking lens wide open (at f3.5) compared to stopped down to a smaller aperture, say f8 or f11. Stopped down, the lens (a Schneider Kreuznach Xenar) is reasonably sharp. Wide open though, I get a softness that I just love. It is great for portraits, such as this one of Emily.
Yesterday I had a great shoot with model and photographer Amy Sarfinchan, using the infamous “shipwreck” located along the Q.E.W. (exit 55) in Southwestern Ontario. I shot a number of different cameras and film: Colour and black and white instant film, traditional black and white film, Infrared/Hybrid black and white film, along with some digital. One of my favourite shots is from an instant print, where I scanned the negative from the Fuji FP3000B print. I think the retro, low fidelity look really compliments Amy’s timeless, haunted expression.
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmeadows/7926327794/” title=”Waiting 2 by John G Meadows, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8315/7926327794_450eb25c82_z.jpg” width=”491″ height=”640″ alt=”Waiting 2″></a>
Today’s image in a sense has a complicated genesis: the original image was an instant photo, shot on Fuji FP3000B instant film. The negative portion (originally meant to be simply thrown away) was preserved in a delicate and wet state, and carefully dried, resulting in a low contrast negative image. This image was scanned, and brightness/contrast adjustments were made to the scan. The scan was then printed (inverted as a negative) on transparent stock for contact printing using the Van Dyke Brown process. The look is vintage, with the texture of the paper subduing detail.
My Third Eye 
