Thoughts on Final Folio

I have been tossing around a few ideas on the final folio and keep coming back to the same idea. I would like to capture people 'behind closed doors'. Capture who they really are in their relaxed state in their own private surrounds. People are intrigued by people and hold a certain curiosity about what happens behind closed doors. I understood it could be confronting for some people but the negative response I have had from friends has been overwhelming. All have been intrigued by the idea and the first question has been 'Do I have to get my clothes off?' Even my husband was reluctant at first. Though I have one brave girlfriend who said yes. She asked me to capture her love of music that many people don't know about her. She plays guitar as a personal escape. She also had her heart set on a photo she had seen and wanted it replicated as herself.

We decided to take her photo by a gum tree playing her guitar. It was quiet a beautiful day with the slightest breeze and a hint of spring in the air. She settled quite nicely at the base of a large gum tree and strummed away as I lay in the wet grass and took photos of her. It was very easy to photo her as she was so comfortable being who she is with no inhibitions or expectations.

Through some chatting about her playing her guitar we decided to take the photos one step further and take some shots of her semi naked as similar as we could from the photo we had seen. She did lots of poses and we laughed a lot trying to imitate the pose of the other girl in the photo. It just wasn't working, it wasn't looking comfortable and relaxed so we took another approach and I gave her her guitar. Her whole demur changed and she fell into her own skin and became one with the moment. I quickly clicked around her as she was gliding back into her self. I ended up taking fifty something shots of her before we found the right angle, lighting and she felt comfortable with the shoot.

The photo shoot went well until she saw the photos of herself on the computer. She was very confronted by what she saw...although happy with the photos. Again it is putting people in a place that they secretly want to go but are to frightened to be confronted with their own reality and privacy.

I am going to pursue my adventure with this idea, whether I use it for the final folio or not remains to be seen, but for now I am going to give it my best.

Here are a couple of shots from today.