Fire and Ice. Held at Blockhouse Bay Library as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography 2013.
This exhibition was inspired by the song "This girl is on fire". When I first heard Alicia Keyes singing it, images of girls and fire came into my head. I started off creating images just of that theme but as I progressed though the project it occurred to me that I should put some contrasting elements into the mix. As fire is hot I decided to use cold as the contrast and so ice became the contrasting element. These elements have been depicted using redheaded and white haired models.
One of the challenges I experienced in executing this project was to find sufficient models who fitted the theme and who were willing to take part in the project. I contacted and interviewed many models but only a few were committed enough to actually take part. I did not want to have more than one photograph per model and as a result the project took many weeks to get enough material to avoid having more than one image per model. Some models had two photo sessions before I was satisfied that I had captured what I wanted to. Most of the images were created in camera with minimal post processing while others are composites. The majority of images were taken in my studio. So I thank the models, makeup artists and body painters who donated their time and expertise and made it possible for me to create this exhibition.
Images at this exhibition are printed on a different media than the usual photographic paper, matt and frames.