Location

Paris by day ~ Travelogue!

ERWhittington 2 Comments

As promised in this Paris-by night post, the day-time evidence of recent Parisian frolics (with photographer J H) is here!

We went for a black-and-white colour scheme with a fashion travelogue feel; some posed scenes incorporating some recognisable sights plus some obligatory casual cafe breaks… Although a little cold at times (here’s hoping the June visit will be a little warmer!), we had a lot of fun wandering around and getting through our book of metro tickets, then setting me up to pose in front of such picturesque and famous skylines! I basically wandered around in an ‘I love Paris’ daze, I think, and enjoyed the sophisticated-to-playful outfits (I think it would have been a crime not to make the most of the merry-go-round when modelling in a short playsuit!).

Quai de la Tournelle:

Ile de la Cite et Ile Saint-Louis:

Le Jardin des Tuileries:

Some funky disco:

Trocadero:

And finally, the hotel rooms and my room’s balcony:

 

… Thanks again to J for such a fun and productive trip! 🙂

Swathes of Lavender

ERWhittington 5 Comments

Remember this post (‘Fertile Lands’), SEVEN months ago? Well it turns out that shortly afterwards, the wonderful Imagesse had sent me a whole other batch of images by email which I did not receive properly! If you are a friend of mine on facebook you will be aware of my recent horror at discovering that my smartphone has been displacing the occasional email at whim and deleting it from my inbox. I happened to come across a folder accessible only on my computer (and invisible on my phone) called ‘POP’, where hotmail keeps emails that have been deleted on ‘a device’ and which it wants me to check shouldn’t be kept. Clever hotmail. No fewer than 1174 emails over the last few months ago were found there lurking, unopened. Luckily, most of them were ones I had meant to delete from my phone, or else not important, but more than a very generous handful were very important, or sweet, or offering me highly-exciting work, and a few included images I had (seemingly rudely, I imagine) never seen or acknowledged! And there was me wondering why people hadn’t got back to me on one or two things!! Urgh. That was a stressful evening. Unfortunately I still need to be able to delete emails on my phone as I often make the most of spare minutes when out and about in order to keep the stream as clear as possible, but at least now I know to check my ‘POP’ folder (a bit like a ‘junk’ folder, but for non-junk that your computer doubts you meant to delete) for hidden jewels.

I’m on top of the problem now that I know about my phone’s mischievery, but hey – if someone doesn’t reply to your email, consider this post encouragement that a gentle nudge is sometimes necessary!! Technology, eh? Who’d have it?!

Without further to do, here are some beautiful (I think) images taken in a lavender field in Gloucestershire during summer last year. I think the colour is so eye catching and I haven’t seen (m)any images in this type of location before, so extra points to Perry for finding somewhere special! The flowers were so vibrant and fragrant. Modelling in places like these is so incredibly pleasurable – I’m not sure I would ever have visited a lavender field otherwise – I certainly hadn’t seen one before. Mmmm, lavender honey…. And I’m now remembering for the millionth time that I need to buy myself a new calming lavender rollerball fragrance bottle to take when travelling, since they are so relaxing (and mine ran out/leaked everywhere a few trips ago). Why is lavender so calming? I was having a similar thought recently when driving through countryside… Why do humans tend to find blue and green colours so relaxing (as opposed to, say, red or orange)? Why did God choose those colours to paint the majority of the world in? Did he want us to feel relaxed/peaceful/stop killing each other, etc..? Or do we feel relaxed because the natural world is blue-y green and we find nature relaxing? And then I thought I’m thinking an absolute load of nonsense, as really an object’s colour is only a secondary (not primary/essential) quality (as said philosopher John Locke), not independently objective… i.e. the colours of a lump of matter depends on the perceiver and context, like weight (where mass is fundamentally part of an object’s character) …but then maybe if we were designed to see something a certain way then the fact that we do is all that matters… Hhmmm. I’m awesome on car journeys… If I were the sort of person to write ‘dot com’ after words to emphasise my feelings, I would probably write ‘I miss studying at university dot com’.

The Spirit

ERWhittington 9 Comments

Desiderata — written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s —

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul. 
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

More from Billy Sheahan:

Boundaries

ERWhittington 4 Comments

My personal integrity is more important to me than money. I am confident in my values and aware that maintaining my boundaries is what will enable my modelling to be sustainable and as enjoyable as it is.

Sometimes imposing limits (on creativity, your time, or on your output) is the most liberating thing you can do. It amazes me that some people don’t protect themselves from other people’s demands, and from their own addictions to achieving what they think (and often this thinking is unexamined) is ‘successful’. I have felt (since I started modelling 3 years ago) that I have never reached my ‘potential’, that I don’t shoot as much as I could, I could travel far more (though I am travelling across Europe and across continents a fair bit these days, with global plans emerging for October onwards) that I should either shoot more or less (but can never decide which it is), that I should accept more bookings even if I don’t like a photographer’s portfolio or trust in their abilities, that I should give people a version of myself that they want…

…But then I think, actually, I’m doing it fine. I have to protect how much I love this ‘vocation’ by listening to my inner voice and blocking out what other people might be impressed by.

Some of my (quite mundane, actually) self imposed rules include:
– Don’t work on Sundays. I generally don’t now, unless on a trip, as I have been brought up to see Sundays as special, and involving walks in the countryside, family time and rest.
– Don’t shoot more than 3/4 times a week; my writing discipline would suffer, as would (probably) my enjoyment of modelling, which can be emotionally as well as physically demanding. Again this rule disappears when on trips, and in practise working every day can be energising and intensely creative, just not if it’s longterm. I usually take a few days off every month and value that time to catch up on other things and rejuvenate.
– Don’t shoot work which is overly sexy or provocative, whether nude or clothed. This is kind of frustrating for myself in some ways as (throwing all modesty out of the window, in both senses), I know that I would be bloody good at it. It’s also a lot of fun. However, that sicky ‘hhhm, what am I doing?’ feeling I would probably get shortly afterwards would not be enjoyable and is just not worth it for me, and doesn’t sit well with my beliefs or values.
– Don’t accept agency booking for shoots that advertise things I don’t particularly want to put my face to, however wonderfully paid they might be and however pleasing I would be to the agency if I were to accept all castings/bookings like a good little model. NO to the BP/Shell ads. In fact, ‘no’ to the general effing business of telling people they need things which they clearly don’t. Art is much more honest; I’m prouder of being naked on the internet for art than I would be for some other quite ‘normal’ things.

Here is me gazing wistfully into space while double-checking my boundaries (taken in Mexico by the lovely Gerald Oar):

And by Neil Huxtable:

Silk in the Dark

ERWhittington 5 Comments

I really love the style of these ‘boudoir’ shots, which seem to cover ground somewhere between ‘hollywood’ and ‘victoriana’. I love the effect of the soft, illuminated silk against the darkness around the frame.

…Voila some ‘retro’, elegant and slightly mysterious glamour. (Photographs taken by Barry Barker; you can see some more of our work previously blogged here):

The edge of the world

ERWhittington 1 Comment

Wow, if Carlsberg made photographers, they’d come in the shape of Chicago-based Billy Sheahan. I appreciate and enjoy all of my shoots and often forge friendships with photographers when things have gone particularly well and repeat bookings are made often, but there was something about this shoot that was really special for me.

Billy picked me up from the airport in Mexico after I’d flown west from Mexico City (a place I can’t wait to visit again), and drove me towards a week of intense creativity. Billy was the first photographer who’d booked me for a shoot, and we found the most sublime beach, early in the morning, totally empty. We had to walk through various exotic trees and cacti to find it and when we first glimpsed it, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. So perfect and serene. It was so quiet, too, and the whole thing felt like such a privilege.

Billy is one of my favourite photographers ever. He is such a kind, jolly, positive person that is so much fun to be around. He was, as he called himself, the ‘model taxi’; carting us around to grocery stores and to and from meet-ups in his hired car. He even drove us and waited patiently while some of us browsed (slowly) a Mexican charity shop (I think ‘thrift store’ was the correct term; I bought some particularly eccentric black and white geometric-patterned trousers), looking for Halloween costumes. He crashed his car (well, ‘crashed’ is unfair; it was a tiny tiny bump) and got over it in half a second. He is always smiling and incredibly open to the moment, which was why this, Billy’s first real outdoor-location model shoot as I think he told me, was so successful and such a joy.

I know I sound like I’m gushing, but I just felt so incredibly FREE during this shoot. Billy just left me to prance about along the shore line, in and out of waves, jumping off rocks and strolling around in front of his camera. He was a fair distance away for a lot of the shots, and took millions of frames, hoping to catch the ‘moment’ of whatever I was about to do at any given time, since we couldn’t really communicate well in the conditions. So in some ways I felt, for a lot of the shoot, like I was alone in nature, just experiencing the place in all its head-knocking beauty. I’m so grateful for Billy for allowing me to feel that way, and for framing so much open space in many of the shots that reflect that state of mind. Looking at these shots makes me feel so happy.

Billy has written very eloquently about our shoot here and here. Please do read what he’s written – it’s so nice and really sets things in context!

Yes, there will be some monochrome/colour indecision. I love the blues in the ones looking out to sea!

Click to view them large (you’ll need to; I’m kinda tiny in some of them), and please let me know your favourites!



…And some in colour:
 
 

Ceci n’est pas une pipe (‘The Treachery of images’)

ERWhittington 2 Comments

What is an image is only ever an image. That was the point made by Belgian artist René Magritte in 1928/9, who painted a picture of a pipe and wrote in large letters underneath ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’. The painting is a representation of a pipe, not an actual pipe itself, hence the negative caption given.

Furthermore, any image of Magritte’s favourite pipe painting found by googling ‘Magritte Pipe image’ would only be a digital representation of that painting and not the actual painting itself…

Anyway, it’s a little joke photographer Mark C Haskins wanted to play with and refer to when photographing me and a few other ladies. He gave each model a pipe (a real one) and photographed what we did with it. Mine is above and you can see others in a slideshow video here.

It was fun to work with Mark in Mexico after failing to align our schedules in Germany previously. I remember laughing with him over an Eddie Izzard sketch – no idea how we got on to that!