Every year we share images from our entries to the Australian Professional Photography Awards – here’s the first of four images for 2016, Selfless.
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One of the things we love doing with images is telling a story. If you’re new to this image, take a minute or three to check it out, and see if you can hear what it is trying to say. Maybe you can see part of your own life in the image.
Conception
Late in 2015 we had an initial meeting with a couple that became one of our wedding couples for this year, Francesca and Jeff. (I’m pleased to call them both friends now!) It was a pretty normal first meeting – have a chat, talk about life, talk about the wedding plans, and shoot some photographs. You might remember them from their session a few months ago. It’s important to us to get to know our wedding couples pretty well, so we can give them the coverage they want and capture the details that mean a lot to them.
Francesca is bright, fun, chatty, and enthusiastic – just the kind of person you want to know. While we were chatting, she was really open about her life leading up to the point where she met Jeff. Francesca is the kind of person that is always there for her friends, and will drop whatever she’s doing to help them out when they need it. Unfortunately, there was a long period where she had some significant problems of her own, and it took her a while to recognise that she was pushing her own needs away and putting everyone else first, which of course only made things worse for herself. She put on a brave face and was all colour and light to the outside world, even when that’s not how she really felt. She was so open about this part of her life, even though it would be easy to skip past it.
After our chat, we had our session, got some great images of Jeff and Francesca, then called it a day… but her story about that part of her life stuck in my brain. I thought if I could convey that feeling she had, it would be a compelling story. After a little while, this composition started to take shape.
It’s a little scary to pitch an idea to someone where you ask them to basically play themselves, in a stylised interpretation of their own life. I’m fortunate that Francesca was on board right away, keen to collaborate and make it a reality.
Planning
I go through the same steps each time when planning an image. I didn’t mean to set up a little algorithm, but it just worked out that way. 🙂
This image was always going to be shot in-place, with the camera locked down on a tripod, and multiple image components shot separately and comped together. We needed to find a nice interior location with an uncomplicated foreground, and enough hallway stretching back that we can have a room in the background. Had a few options, and one of them ended up being pretty perfect.
Casting. Having actor friends is the best thing ever. I put the call out, and my actor friends Drita, Rose and Siobhan answered the call. I think the brief was along the lines of “sad, non-blonde female.” Rose also came through with a perfect location to tell the story – thanks for letting us borrow your house Rose 🙂
Styling. The three foreground Francescas needed to be bright, happy and colourful, but not identical, with lovely makeup and nice hair. The dresses in primary colours were pretty perfect for styling those three characters. By contrast, the three sad friends, and the Francesca in the back room, needed to be down, drab and desaturated.
Set dressing. For the most part, gotta keep this one clean, with just a few elements to reinforce the location, or to inform the circumstances of each of those little stories.
Execution & Post Production
How nice is it to have a shoot and have it go off without a hitch? It’s very nice! I think we moved through the three foreground vignettes quite quickly.
For the back room, I was actually back there and out of sight, shooting remotely and observing the results on my tethered iPad. Francesca was pretty incredible for this bit – we talked through how she felt again, and she completely went to that place. It was a moment when I was marvelling at how much trust she placed in me. So I’d better do the image justice.
Queensland Professional Photography Awards
At the QPPAs, this print did pretty well, scoring a Silver award. There was no discussion in this particular case, judging moved straight on to the next print, so nothing specific from the judges around what to work on.
I did have a word to my judging mentor, Adam Hourigan (a particularly awesome fellow and a good guy to know), about the difficulty some observers had with associating the small figure with the three girls in the front. I’d assumed Francesca’s blonde hair would be enough to carry that association, but it wasn’t. Full credit to Adam for observing that it would help if those three dresses were in the back room with her. Lightning bolt! Yes! So for the Australian awards that back room came forward a bit, the dresses went on a stand, and a few other aspects changed as well.
At the Australian Professional Photography Awards, very pleased to see this print score an 88 – Silver Distinction. Thank you to Tristam Evison of EV Photo for as always for getting the best print out of every image.
Here’s a short video that shows the evolution of the print, from start to finish. Enjoy 🙂
Fundraising!
One of the pretty significant issues that was (and still is) impacting Francesca’s life is lupus. There’s a lot we don’t know about lupus, and most importantly we don’t have a cure yet. Francesca’s alter ego Goldie Bardot is running a fundraiser event on September 23, Boop Out Lupus. If you’d like to be part of it, or donate, visit her facebook page Goldie Bardot – Lupus Warrior, donate at her Everyday Hero page, or come to the massive Boop Out Lupus fundraising event!
