It began in the mid-80′s. I shot this with my Nikon F2. I used Tri-X film rated at 400. The models are Charlie Brown, yes that’s really his name, and April Gauthier.
I started off with the idea that I really loved the black and white ads for Calvin Klein that Richard Avedon shot. If you’re not familiar with Richard Avedon – too bad!!!
He’s incredible for those that need a reference; remember that photo of Nastassia Kinski she’s laying down on and it’s a black and white and a really long slithering snake is on her covering all her good parts? That’s Richard Avedon! Or how about the shot of Stephanie Seymour also in black and white she’s wearing a black see thru dress and she’s pulled up her dress revealing her – well her privates… That’s classic Avedon!
The shock I suppose of the photo is what makes it memorable… but that’s only part of it – the art is also memorable you can’t just take a snapshot of something similiar and hope to have the same affect that Avedon’s photo of Stephanie Seymour did when it was first published!
I have several shoots scheduled in the next several weeks. Hopefully I can follow these ideas and themes and keep up with the style. Stay tuned for the next several weeks and let’s see if i can keep it going!
It is my contention that the idea of a scantily clad woman in a hotel room where you cannot really see who the person is adds to the mystery of a woman!
I have been for a very long time interested in shooting this type of thematic photography, dark, sexy, risque, but not too dark, not overly pornographic in nature, remaining sexy and remaining to the idea of mysterious!
It’s always been my belief that even though you don’t see or know very much about a situation the mystery remains a very exciting part about the whole process. What’s the addage again, about the excitement being in the chase and not the kill… LOL… and no i’m not into that either… Like I said not overly dark!!!
All of this stems from a time in my childhood where an experience seems to have motivated these types of ideas. Here is the introduction that I give to relay what it is that i am intending on producing:
Private Moments
I must have been about 7 or 8 and it was the early 70′s. My aunt used to own a small clothing boutique, to those familiar with the island of Guam it’s where the Alupang Beach Hotel/Condo now stand. I was there wandering and playing and walking to the back I notice what I now know as fitting rooms but didn’t realize it then. Not knowing what to expect I moved toward the curtain and looked in hoping for an adventure!
That was when I saw a woman admiring herself in the mirror; she was dressed very well. There was a look on her face I had never noticed on anyone before. Not necessarily of passion or anything dirty like that more like a sense of confidence. The idea of observing a woman in a private moment was intriguing to me something that I felt should be shared! I was intrigued even more because my uncle caught me peeking and told me that if it was behind closed doors that it was meant to stay that way!
A secret…
… A Private Moment!
I have more ideas and photos to come please return and leave comments, quotes, or ideas about what you’d like to see my experiment with, and also I will eventually put all of this in a book so that folks can have it at the tips of their fingers readily available for all to peruse!…
Enjoy!
I have always had this, fascination for lack of a better word for women with light eyes. I suppose that may be stating the obvious as I don’t have light eyes and as the old addage goes we always want what we don’t have or the grass is always greener on the other side or something to that extent…
I met Sara again yes on MySpace and as I have said before I don’t usually go around meeting girls to shoot on MySpace… I do it on ModelMayhem.com, there are more models there… LOL…
That being said I always know that I can find a large assortment of women to shoot in and around the island of Guam. I remember when I first decided that I wanted to photograph women on Guam – subjects were difficult to come by, especially because I always had a different idea of things – that and I always wanted to “surf” the edge of what was acceptable and not acceptable in terms of risque photography.
But as time has come and gone I have come to realize or perhaps I’d always known that there were always women that were not comfortable with my ideas and that there would be others that were! This “blog” is about that vision… those visions that I cannot share on my www.oftana.com website as the intention of that site is to promote me as a photographer in the world of commercial, editorial, portraiture photography on this island.
So for those that are ready sit back relax and get ready to take a trip through my mind’s eye! Veni, Vedi, Vici!
