My Third Eye

Today’s image is another in my Women and Camera series, featuring a wonderful model named Fallon. One thing I am doing my best to avoid in this series is an expression I call “the pout.” It seems that a lot of photographers, fashion magazines etc. want their models to look angry, bored, petulant or generally hostile. These are not the expressions I’m going for, and Fallon was amazing in delivering a number of subtle, nuanced expressions that helped the pictures tell a story. Long live the Pout-Free Zone!!

Today’s picture is of a model named Galana; she is posing with my Super Baldina 35mm rangefinder. A very interesting person; we ended up discussing education and when I mentioned that I had a degree in Russian and Chinese history, she asked me “Has there ever been a Communist state?” I’d have to say that all the models I have been shooting for this series have shown a lot of intelligence; the stereotype of the ditzy lightweight and vain model has been completely absent; each model has brains to go with beauty.

Here’s an image from the latest shoot for my Women and Cameras project. My model Amy is holding my Argus A, a 35mm camera from the mid-1930′s, and very important in the history of 35mm photography. What really grabs me about this image though is the eyes: they dominate the picture, and the mood.

Once again, I celebrate photographic “obsolescence.” I have been wanting to try medium format photography for some time, and last week a listing appeared on eBay for a Mamiya 645J with three lenses. This camera takes 120 roll film, and creates negatives 6cm x 4.5 cm in size. The seller was local to Toronto, so I could avoid shipping/customs fees, although I did have to pay tax. Still, for about $400 I got everything I need to try my hand at medium format film. To put that cost in perspective, the list price for a modern digital equivalent to this camera is well over $5,000 no lens included. I’ll be able to shoot a lot of film with this price differential .

The image below was from my first test roll, shot beside the Don River in Toronto yesterday morning.