“O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim”
– John Keats
When Unraveled Academy reached out about doing The Artist’s View, it was an automatic yes. It’s always such an honor to share my creative insights and Unraveled is truly the most supportive community. I knew right away that I wanted to do a womanhood portraiture session inspired by romantic poems and paintings. The Romantic era has been speaking to me for a while now. When I first studied the era in university I remember thinking – why all this nature talk? I mean, I understood it from a theoretical perspective (I have a degree in English after all), but it wasn’t until I started connecting with Nature on a personal level that I finally understood why the literature community is horny for Wordsworth. Natural elements have this metaphorical quality that speaks to our emotions and a true poet knows how to make these connections in a way that moves us. This is what I wanted to convey with this session (lofty ambition, I know). But I didn’t just want to do a traditional painterly session. I wanted to work with movement and slow shutter and I wanted to push myself creatively. It is outside our comfort zone that we hit alchemy, and I knew I either had to shoot the entire session with a manual focus lens, or with a shutter speed under 100. I did both.
All images Edited with Sasha Casta Presets – primarily my Editorial Film pack.
I wanted a shot where her face was completely in shadow and this was the closest I got, so I decided to try blacking out her face in post. It’s a strange edit but I like that. I’m sure there are easy ways to do this in Photoshop (and ways to do it better), but I just used masking in Lightroom, decreasing my exposure and taking down highlights and whites. I built up the masks until I got the look I wanted.
I also like having different black and white versions of the same image. 8mm is my go-to bnw edit, but I really love a classic bnw tonality as well and usually make a copy so I can have both.
Candle light drag due to my inability to stay still while I shoot. I didn’t know that this would happen but it’s visually interesting. I think this is something I should play around with and see if I can make it more aesthetic.
I am in a constant state of editing crisis. I’m learning to deconstruct the narrative that says we have to be consistent and that using multiple different edits (that are sometimes drastically different) means that we don’t know who we are as artists or that we don’t know how to be consistent. I know how to edit consistently and I know my tonality inside out – but I love playing with drama. A classic edit is a trickling stream, bubbly and soothing to the soul and it’s beloved by everyone. A dramatic edit is an oceanic wave during a hurricane – it punches you in the face (I’m into it, but not everyone is). Because I can’t choose between them (as they are both integral parts of who I am), I often do both.
I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t make sure that botanicals were a central focus in all of the images. I think the images with the solo candle would have tied the theme together a bit more had I ensured she was holding a flower as well, but maybe I’m being critical. Candles are very romantic.
