Three Willies, Old Style
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/8, 1,3s, ISO 1000
Model: Guillaume
Another shot from the 1930s session that I ran last year for the Dreamhounds of Paris book. This one did make it in the book (I think), but in a different format. Because Guillaume was wearing a top hat I thought this one would work as an old process emulation, more 1890s than 1930s. Oh, and sorry about the bad pun, since the model is called Guillaume (William in English), it was too tempting…
Creepy Collage
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/4, 1/5s, ISO 2000
Model: Achille
Today’s shot requires a little more explanation than I normally give, but bear with me a moment and all will be made clear. About 18 months ago, I had a conversation with the good people at Pelgrane Press about a role-playing game supplement they were working on based in Surrealist Paris. I did a series of shoots with models costumed as the period dictated, but they weren’t surreal enough, so I started experimenting with collages and double exposures. The book, entitled Dreamhounds of Paris is being released next month, and some of my pictures are featured. I thought I would share some of my favourite, both those that weren’t used and some of those that were. This is one of the ones that didn’t make it.
Le Retour de Landru
Canon EOS 7D, 35mm, f/8, 1s, ISO 1000
Models: Aurélie & Guillaume
This week I’ll be posting photos from a couple of series I did recently with 1930s models. This first one is suitably creepy, the title refers to the infamous Landru, our French equivalent to Jack the Ripper (except he was caught and executed). The photo was shot with street lighting (hence the long exposure) with two great (and immobile) models. It was edited in Snapseed to accentuate the yellow night glare.
Bowler vs. Stovepipe
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/4, 1/4s, ISO 2000
Models: Guillaume & Achille
Another shot from that strange and (if I say so myself) wonderful session back in October. Street lighting forces some off compromises on you, especially regarding exposure lengths, but it does have its atmospheric results! This was processed in Snapseed to accentuate the strangeness a bit.
Creepy Lady
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/4, 1/4s, ISO 1000
Model: Aurélie
This is another shot in my series of experimentations for the Dreamhounds of Paris book by Pelgrane Press. I tried to imagine how surrealist photographers might have experimented with form, and came up with this idea of using a negative as a positive and scratch the negative for added deconstruction. It was all done digitally of course (the processing is a mix of Lightroom and Snapseed). I quite like the result, though I suspect it’s not surreal enough to make it into the book.
Bowler Hat Army
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/4, 1/15s, ISO 400
Photoshop Composite / Model: Achille
Lately I’ve been working on some photos evocative of 1930s Paris with a surrealist edge for the upcoming book by Pelgrane Press »Bookhounds of Paris« . I will publish a few although I should stress that these are works in progress. For this one I was trying to put together two motifs of surrealist art: bowler hats (through Magritte, mostly) and repetition of characters (also Magritte, but others too). These were my first attempts at cloning in photoshop and I was quite pleased with the results. The three shadowy men remind me of Marc-Antoine Mathieu’s Julius Corentin Acquefacques for some reason. The photo was processed in photoshop and then Lightroom with XeL 2.0 emulations for the black & white.
Three Monkeys in Top Hats
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/8, 1.3s, ISO 1000
Model: Guillaume Levillain
The session which I finished by shooting series of 3 monkeys with the models (see Three Monkeys in the Thirties) was really one of the best photo shoots I ever did, both in terms of having fun shooting and in terms of the results that came out of it. This photo of Guillaume was tricky because the three shots superimposed each other quite a bit. It forced me to do some very careful work in Photoshop, but I got there in the end. The photo was processed in Snapseed.
Three Monkeys from the Thirties
Canon 7D, 32mm, f/8, 0.8s, ISO 1000
Model: Aurélie
I’m currently working on a project on surrealist Paris (possibly more on that later) for which I recruited a bunch of really cool period-dressed models. At the end of the session, I decided to try to do with them something that I’ve been meaning to do with my kids for a long time: a three monkeys shot. As you may imagine this is a combination of careful photo work and careful photoshop work (although the latter turned out to be surprisingly easy). The picture was then processed in B&W in Lightroom using XeL 2.0.
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