Bow Arts Open Studios

Saturday 29th June was the Bow Arts Open Studios  event which is where I am based.  It was a great opportunity to open the doors of the studio and invite people in to see the work I've been creating.  It was also open today and I had a great time there during the day and enjoyed the DJ set and food in the courtyard.  It was also very inspiring to see all of the other creativity that is going on around me.

Lola II

Years ago Philippa and I created a character called Lola.  We made up our own story based around her solitude in a hotel room.  Lola's poses had an air of sadness and uncertainty about them but this time we felt it was important to show she had moved on and grown stronger.   Again she is in a hotel shower room but this time she wears a different expression.  She's happier and comfortable with what she sees in the mirror.  As with the first shoot I looked to one of my favourite photographers for inspiration.  I love the way Ellen Von Unwerth photographs her subjects as if they don't know she's there.  Like a voyeur who has just happened upon a moment worthy of recording.  Only in my last photograph is Lola aware of the viewer.  Ellen Von Unwerth has also done many shoots with a grainy black and white film and that essence I wanted to capture here in my re-imagining.

Self-Portrait

The Dreaming

I'll never tire of taking Philippa's portrait.  This image forms part of my Dream Sequence and is a technique that I've been trying to perfect over a number of different shoots.  It is a single exposure so relies largely on chance.  The idea was to show a confident woman moving forward and tentatively leaving the past behind.