Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Portraits a la Avedon





Hey y'all - 

For the past few months, I've been participating in a weekly photography challenge group. Each week, one of the women picks a theme and we all submit a photo based on that theme. Last week was my turn to pick, and I chose "Inspired By." We were each to pick a photograph that inspired or perplexed us in some way and take our own photo inspired by it. 

I chose the portraits of Richard Avedon (above), and tried to duplicate the simple, raw feel of his images of political leaders and larger-than-life cowboys taken with a large-format 8x10 camera...by hanging up a white sheet in my bedroom and roping in my children. It felt about 20% less silly than it sounds. My plan had been to get everything set up and take a ton of pictures of Laney until I got one I liked. Figuring that she was older and more willing to sit still - and was even willing to brush her own hair for the photo op - I chose her as my model. 

But then, right as I got everything in place and turned on my light, Hagen wandered in, sat on the stool, looked into the camera and killed it:

One take wonder.

I've since shown this photo to Hagen and asked him, "Hey, who's this?" And he said, "Dat's just me - Hagen - and my boobies." I'm obviously doing an A+ job teaching anatomy around here.

I took dozens of photos of Laney, at her request, but this one felt the most "her" -



Fun exercise.

Love,
Mom

P.S. For this same group at Halloween, I tried to take a "Scary" picture by lighting one of Laney's Barbies on fire.



I figured she would melt in a really icky way and become horribly disfigured and would make for a really scary/grody image... but nope. 

Turns out if you light a Barbie on fire, her perky smile remains 'til the end, and she starts to smell like molten jelly beans. Go ahead: Try this at home. 



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