#seeingthelight

“One may see his behaviour as 'signs' of a 'disease'; one may see his behaviour as expressive of his existence. The existential-phenomenological construction is an inference about the way the other is feeling and acting [...] The clinical psychiatrist, wishing to be more 'scientific' or 'objective', may propose to confine himself to the 'objectively' observable behaviour of the patient before him. The simplest reply to this is that it is impossible. To see 'signs' of 'disease' is not to see neutrally. Nor is it neutral to see a smile as contractions of the circumoral muscles.” R D Laing

This lovely lady, who was called Ellen, was the first person I asked. We had a lovely wee conversation about photography, contemplation by the pond and how she feels better when her nails are done. Thank you for being such a lovely subject Ellen!

These girls were the second group I approached, and they were called Hannah, Olivia and Lauren, I think. I really liked the way they were all sitting together, having lunch. And there is something I like about this image, although I don’t think it’s very flattering. Which brings in some questions about the ethics of using photos of people you don’t know.

This lovely gal was called Katrin, and was really great at letting me take some portraits of her. I feel like there was great potential here with the shape and texture of her puffy coat, but sadly I think the pressure of the moment got to me, and I didn’t get quite the right framing for a hero shot. I also don’t think I quite got the focus right.

This was the wonderful Laura Guy, who teaches at GSA and is a super talented writer. It was such a pleasure to meet her.

This was Mr. Ahmed, who spotted my film camera and got chatting to me about it. He was interested that I was using film and told me about how a few years ago, he had given 9 old film cameras to the charity shop. I wonder how much money he might have made from them if he had hung onto them for a little longer.

This is Lizzie and her boyfriend, who I know through mutual friends. She was working and I liked the framing that was occurring through the hatch. I also liked the contrast of her blonde hair with the darker background behind her.

My favourite images:

Here are a few images I captured while on location last week.

Thank you Sio, Monika and Alice for modelling on the day!

A new photographer I researched is Vivienne Mok. She was born in 1986 in Paris and studied fashion design, when she developed an interest in photography and delved deep into it. She is entirely self-taught, which I find very impressive considering her unique, dreamy, romantic portraiture.

When asked about what inspires her in an interview, she says that nature, beautiful landscapes, moody movies and vintage objects that tell a story are the main source for it. Growing up in Paris, it seems that the tranquillity and aesthetics of her birthplace also influences her style.

Her photos are very expressive, almost like a part of a dream where time has stopped and looking at them exerts a calm which not many other photographers have done to me.

One can tell that she studied fashion design, as all the clothes the models wear are made by her and are unique, adding to the overall vibe of the portraits. She styles and preps her models herself, accenting on their natural beauty and focusing on putting a lot of shine and peachiness to their skin. She uses very low apertures on her lenses to give the images a defocussed, soft look, even venturing into using vintage lenses for a more authentic haze. She uses a DIY filter made from a very thin fabric in order to give her images the signature dreamy look without affecting the quality of her images.

Her posing is very natural, usually making her models look very relaxed, carefree or even asleep. The poses seem to be inspired by famous painters and artists from the Romantic period, and she says she researches a lot and has Pinterest boards ready for every type of background and shoot.  Lighting wise, she mostly uses natural window light, which she diffuses with different fabrics and objects. This gives a very soft look to her images, making her models look sun-kissed and ethereal.

Vivienne Mok’s photography inspired me greatly to DIY more props and be more experimental with the tools I use for my portraiture. In my opinion, her story shows that anyone who is inspired and motivated enough can achieve anything they want. If enough research is put into a photoshoot and with good pre-planning, even the most basic settings can produce ethereal results.