Portraits

Through the leaves

*Through the leaves*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Laura
Texture: Foliage

Another foliage silhouette that I quite like. The motion of the leaves is reflected in the implied motion of the pose.

Obscured by Dieffenbachia

*Obscured by Dieffenbachia*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: David
Texture: Dieffenbachia Seguine

There are some leaf textures that I really love and come back to repeatedly. Such is Dieffenbachia Seguine. It has this lovely contrast of light green to dark green that works really well with double exposures.

 

Wistful

*Wistful*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Lara
Texture: Unknown

Control of the models over their images is a very important aspect of this project for me. I fully realise that posing naked is not a trivial endeavour, and I’ve heard too many stories about callous photographers. All this to say that in the initial selection of shots from this session, the model wasn’t sure about sharing this one so it wasn’t shared. But a couple of months ago, Lara changed her mind, which made me really happy because I adore this image.

My mind is in the clouds

*My mind is in the clouds*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Christina
Texture: Foliage

One of the tricky things with the « inverted treetop » technique is to avoid excessive wind because the image is then blurry. But as always with this double exposure project, I get accidental winners, such as this photo of Christina. Here the foliage was clearly in motion, but it creates this strange blurry bokeh effect that I find beautiful.

Bodhisattva Bokeh

*Bodhisattva Bokeh*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

I love the subtle bokeh of the GW690iii, but it’s not always easy to find the right conditions. It took me a long while to find a statue at the 10000 Buddhas Monastery that was not leaning against a corrugated iron fence, that was in the shadows enough that I could open up the lens and that looked good. But I did (this was the last shot in the roll!)

Buddhist Trio

*Buddhist Trio*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

I was quite taken by these three statues and the sign above their heads. I kind of wich I hadn’t cut down the base of the statues, but my angle of view wasn’t wide enough. Still, there’s a serenity here that I find quite striking.

Bearded Bodhisattva

*Bearded Bodhisattva*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

So all of the statues that line the path up to the 10000 Buddhas temple are painted gold, but some of them are fresher than others. I think the ones I liked the most were the older ones where the pain was seriously flaked already. They had a more statuesque feel to them, especially in Black & White.

Flaky Abbott


*Flaky Abbott*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

Despite our inability to travel over the christmas holiday (same as everybody else) we tried to make the most of it and check out HK spots that we’d missed so far. Such was the 10000 Buddhas temple in Sha Tin. A long strip of concrete path lined with lifesize buddhist statues leads to the temple itself up the hill. Fascinating place and great opportunity to shoot portraits of monks, abbots and stranger things.

Dieffenbachia Suit

*Dieffenbachia Suit*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Christina
Texture: Dieffenbachia Seguine

The challenge with big leaf textures is that they paint themselves across different parts of the body and sometimes that breaks the abstraction that makes this series work. Yet here, the texture seems to espouse the model’s skin to the point that it looks like a painted wetsuit, and I think that makes it effective.

Peeking through

*Peeking through*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Lia
Texture: Branches

Another successful photo (if I say so myself). I love the way that Lia’s eye shines through despite the mess of branches around her face.