Such a delightful outpouring of comments and messages about a recent shoot with Liv – so a bit more attention is merited.
The setup was a bit of a tribute to Richard Avedon’s In the American West, which was one of the black-and-white instruction bibles for me when I was studying photography. White cloth, open shade, as little shadow as possible, and not much to hide behind. Just the person and the photograph.
The very copy of that book collection, that so long lived in the classroom of my early teacher, mentor, and friend Tim Schoonover, was gifted to me by his wife Alice – my now close friend and confidant. A constant inspiration.
Liv is a remarkable subject for such a setup because she gives so generously of her energy. She’s dynamic, funny, fearless in front of the camera, and also a friend; which takes the production out of the collaboration when it’s just a couple pals chasing a great image together.
For this shoot I used a mix of lenses. Some of the images were made with a vintage (see: 70’s-80’s) Japanese Rexitar 80–200mm – a machine not especially interested in making a sharp image and I respect its choices.
My math is likely suspect here, but Avedon was working with an 8×10 Deardorff view camera and a 360mm Schneider lens, a million miles away from my Canon body and my zoom from Goodwill. He was close for a level of intimacy – but the camera, lens, and format still gave the work that flattened, formal, almost confrontational presence. The duality of that always appealed to me.
The Rexitar s the longest zoom I own, so I tried it at the long end to get somewhere in the neighborhood of that feeling. I think it works.
To hedge my bets, I also shot with the Canon 24–105mm zoomed all the way to 105mm, because romance is nice but focus is also useful.
Mostly, though, it was white cloth, shade, minimal shadow, and Liv being Liv.
…which was more than enough. Thanks Liv.
Follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/theoliviayoungers/?hl=en
More images from this shoot are in the Vignettes page.
