UE Model Shoot at Fort McClary
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From the first shot I took with my pinhole camera in junior high school, I avoided photographing people. I dreaded times when my one of my photo teachers would give us an assignment that involved photographing human beings. If you’ve ever wondered about the name of my site, I actually chose it before I got in to photographing abandoned buildings. My goal when I created the site was to take pictures of buildings, specifically and painstakingly avoiding having people in the shot. I wanted to use architecture as a way to capture emotions and communicate more indirectly about the human condition.
When I started urban exploration, though, photographing models in abandoned buildings was kind of a “thing”. I appreciated the alternative style of a lot of the models that were doing this – tattoos, dark clothes, big boots, etc. Their aesthetic and the aesthetic of the buildings meshed.
My friend Rana X put together a group model shoot at Fort McClary in Maine. There would be several models and several photographers. It seemed like a low-stakes way to try out a different genre of photography. If my pictures sucked, there were other photographers there so that it wouldn’t be a waste of the models’ time.
In the end, I really enjoyed the day. It lead me to a lot of other model and fashion shoots that I never would have gotten involved with otherwise. I’ve always been enormously grateful to Rana X for setting up this shoot and setting me on the path to create that work.
Models obviously aren’t a primary focus of my photography, so I have always viewed these shoots as a collaboration between myself and the model. I am not great at telling people how to pose. The shoots are more stressful for me, but the results are worth it. I have a couple of model shots in my main portfolio.
All the models this day were fantastic. I enjoyed shooting with every single one of them. I wound up doing two other shoots with Lauren (with the shaved head) who is an amazing model, amazing at posing and knowing what her body is doing down to small details, and is just generally a fantastic person to hang out with.
From the first shot I took with my pinhole camera in junior high school, I avoided photographing people. I dreaded times when my one of my photo teachers would give us an assignment that involved photographing human beings. If you’ve ever wondered about the name of my site, I actually chose it before I got in to photographing abandoned buildings. My goal when I created the site was to take pictures of buildings, specifically and painstakingly avoiding having people in the shot. I wanted to use architecture as a way to capture emotions and communicate more indirectly about the human condition.
When I started urban exploration, though, photographing models in abandoned buildings was kind of a “thing”. I appreciated the alternative style of a lot of the models that were doing this – tattoos, dark clothes, big boots, etc. Their aesthetic and the aesthetic of the buildings meshed.
My friend Rana X put together a group model shoot at Fort McClary in Maine. There would be several models and several photographers. It seemed like a low-stakes way to try out a different genre of photography. If my pictures sucked, there were other photographers there so that it wouldn’t be a waste of the models’ time.
In the end, I really enjoyed the day. It lead me to a lot of other model and fashion shoots that I never would have gotten involved with otherwise. I’ve always been enormously grateful to Rana X for setting up this shoot and setting me on the path to create that work.
Models obviously aren’t a primary focus of my photography, so I have always viewed these shoots as a collaboration between myself and the model. I am not great at telling people how to pose. The shoots are more stressful for me, but the results are worth it. I have a couple of model shots in my main portfolio.
All the models this day were fantastic. I enjoyed shooting with every single one of them. I wound up doing two other shoots with Lauren (with the shaved head) who is an amazing model, amazing at posing and knowing what her body is doing down to small details, and is just generally a fantastic person to hang out with.