Feeling inspired by Gairm
Harry was another artist I met whilst travelling around Scotland. I stayed with him and his wife for a few days which really gave me the opportunity to get to know him. Harry presents himself online as a photographer, but that title really doesn't seem fitting. Whilst he is a proficient photographer, I feel the term artist describes him better due to his approach and thought processes (from my observation) which in its self is fascinating! By spending some time in his home the evening before we were due to shoot together, it gave me chance to talk with him about his own inspirations and thoughts towards art and photography. We talked about a whole range of topics including objectification (and work by Jemima Stehli), the role of the model, expression through photography and the difference between the model's modelling persona and her real self. In Harry's words: "It was invaluable, when we started to shoot, that we'd had that chance to talk both about what we wanted to achieve, and about the ideas behind the work, and there was a real give and take of ideas". The actual shoot was challenging at times as its very easy to fall into 'model mode' which was not the aim, so I enjoyed pushing myself to work in a different way and am very hopeful that we created some really interesting artworks together! Whilst being photographed by Harry I also started to see things from a photography point of view, I started picking up my camera and documenting my surroundings (and the unfortunate events that sometimes happen 'behind the scenes'):
Harry was very encouraging of this, which made for some interesting conversations and outcomes. Two (of the many) things me and Harry have in common is our love for loose leaf tea and Japanese Kimono. We decided to use an obi from a kimono for a set of nude images, it took me a little practice to remember how to tie one and brought up all manner of conversations about my time in Japan. This put me hugely at ease and I found it to be a very personal insight to my 'real life' that I shared through these images, as a combination with my 'model life' (as shown through my nudity). Whilst preparing for the shots I noticed the angles I could see myself in the mirror created an interesting combination, so again picked up my camera. If I remember rightly, Harry may also have images of this from his perspective too.
e moved into the bathroom for the main set of images, Harry wanted un-posed, natural shots, rather than anything that looked like it was a 'typical model pose'. He often asks models to bring something personal to them into the shot, and for me I happened to have my camera, so again I took more photos from my perspective and of Harry photographing me.
This idea of me photographing the photographer as they were photographing me sparked something that set me onto the beginning of a new project. I had started this journey of meeting people to try and find my place within the art/photography world as I was struggling to find motivation/inspiration after my last term at uni and this was the first time I really found something I was enjoying and had great scope to pursue. I discussed the idea at length with Harry and he also thought it would be interesting to capture the range of situations I find myself in as a model, and the vast amount of set-ups and locations I see, along with the variety of people I work with. Of course, not everyone will be happy being photographed so I decided to try and keep it fairly anonymous in most cases, probably covering the photographer's face with their camera to keep some level of anonymity. Its a project I am very excited about and have begun to document since my talks with Harry.
