studio

Strength in the Dark

ERWhittington 5 Comments

How lovely ’twas to work with eccentric and passionate, Holland-based Brit Eric Kellerman, at his home studio in Nijmegen recently. We’d been in contact since 2009, according to our online message history (back when I was nervous about flying alone…. fast forward to now and I’m happily jetting about all over the world by myself!), and having been a long-time admirer of his beautiful and intriguing work, it was an honour to finally be involved in his vision. Eric has very kindly sent me some images after our shoot – 125 to be exact!! My inbox is happy. Eric is currently working on a number of different projects based on female figure nudes, the current accumulation of which can be seen on his website, gallery by gallery. Many of you will have heard of his infamous ‘box’ project and we did indeed work on that with some cool results (Eric is publishing a book on it later this year), but first, here are some strong, dark, moody nudes showing muscle and grit! I love these – a far cry from the softness I usually project.

Working with Eric is a liberating time as every strange ‘imperfection’ of the body is celebrated; although some shots may show bones, slenderness and strong definition in my abs, others show rolls of fat, bulges and creases which appear when the body moves, slumps and folds…. it’s all the same body on the same day (and my weight never fluctuates at all anyway) and just shows how variously a body can be portrayed, with the creation of different lighting, and to interesting visual effect.

I think my favourite is the fifth from the bottom… What do you think?

…More soon!

Let’s Dance!

ERWhittington 3 Comments

Hello from Dusseldorf!!! (Sorry, no umlauts on this laptop!)

Just wanted to show some recently-appeared-in-the-inbox movement nudes from my last shoot in Paris last month. This was one of the most tiring shoots I’ve ever done, simply because there was one rule – do not stop moving. (Actually that’s not true – the other rule was ‘have fun’!) It was such a work out, and for photogapher Jeremie Nassif too, as he was literally following me around, up, down, left right, swooping around, ducking and lifting and jumping… pretty good exercise, I’ll say that! I absolutely love these results; I’ve always loved movement in images, and these are so cool in my opinion! So without further ado:

 P.S. I sincerely hope everyone has watched the film ‘Eagle vs. Shark’, which I am reminded of everytime I hear the song ‘Let’s Dance’. Basically, all the lead actor has to do (whose name I’ve gone blank on, and don’t have time to google at this present moment… Jemaine Clement!!!!) is curl his lip in that ‘I’m so cool… I’m so complex’ kinda way, and I’m in hysterics. He floats my boat in Flight of the Conchords too. I actually adore him. Off topic… Hope you like the pics above. 🙂

Busy Bees and Alien Zebras

ERWhittington

I’ve had a mad little day so far today, writing all morning then busy organising everything in the entire world ever (aka up and coming modelling trips to Germany, Holland, Scotland and now Dublin, since my postponed trip seems to have resurrected itself!). Flippin’ ‘eck, I feel like I spend most of my life on skyscanner.net. (In related news I am now the proud owner of a 4-wheel-drive suitcase, which means I will swivel marvellously through airports, in theory, and not get grumpy.) Off to zumba later (after a quick phone call later about another Paris visit that’s happening in June… I know, I’m just showing off now) and have also managed to get in an enquiry about a local life drawing class I’m thinking of trying out. I didn’t get to study art at school, since it clashed with music on the timetable, but I’ve always found drawing really relaxing on the rare occasion I’ve had a go. I wonder if I’d be any good at it – I really have no idea and could almost definitely be terrible, but I used to enjoy it a lot and I think it would be really fun to try. I’ve also never ever modelled for a life drawing class, only one-to-one when it comes to traditional-media artists, so it will be interesting to see what it all feels like.

Anyway, I modelled again for the brilliantly inventive Colin again recently. We had lots of fun trying out various projector themes on me. (I’ve written about his methods previously here.) I also suggested during the shoot that we try movement/motion blur, something I don’t think Colin had really worked on before, and it produced some really really cool (and surprising) effects, we thought, and required the invention of an alien zebra dance which amused me greatly. You feel off in your own world a bit when modelling for these projections; everything seems pitch black or blinding; with the heater on loudly as well, communication between photographer and model isn’t the easiest! Maybe I’ll be able to show some more movement-y ones at some point, but anyway, here are some good ‘uns to be getting on with! Thanks Colin!

Finery Drapery

ERWhittington 3 Comments

I’m back from a very successful and enjoyable trip to Paris (more on that later, I promise!) and have some new shots to show from photographer ‘Penfoldpc‘, taken in Worcestershire last month. We had lots of fun shooting in various styles, but the following are my favourites. Paul wanted to create a very classical scene based around the natural nude. I like these a lot!

There is something about the colour red that always works so well. Just a slither of it is so beautiful!

Costume changes!

ERWhittington 3 Comments

I love these shots by Mike Croshaw, taken recently at a studio day (its first!) at Cheltenham FilmPhoto Studios. Considering we only had a two hour slot together, and quite a bit of the beginning was taken up with me having to be laced into my wedding dress (I doubt any bride ever had to dress herself…), I think it’s impressive how much we got done. Here are a few from our session together. Very much looking forward to working with Mike again sometime. And for anyone interested in trying out the studio, I’d recommend it and can get you a good deal!

I’ve not really done ‘pin-up’ before, but Mike wanted to give the theme a try with me and I really enjoyed playing the part of a 50s cheeky-grinned starlet. I’d love to give pin up a real go, actually – I think it could possibly suit me quite well. Thanks Mike for choosing something fun and new to shoot with me!

This next shot has featured here before, but in the interests of comprehensiveness (of themes covered)… Gorgeous lighting and soft pastel hues:

I happened to have brought my brand new Asian bridal saree along with me to the shoot, in hopes of shoe-horning it into a session… I think it’s so stunning – I really really love ‘World’ costumery and I love India in particular so much. I spent some time there a few years ago (mainly in the north) and have been aching to go back ever since. Every year I tell myself it will be THIS year. I think it’s such a beautiful country, and I love how brightly coloured the women’s clothing is, as well; fanciful decoration and ornate, intricate beading is everywhere, and there is no such thing as too much adornment. It’s impossible to take a bad street shot there! Mike and I think a plainer background would probably have worked better for this shot (or I would love to shoot with it in a grand house, with the full works!), but for the garment’s first airing I do love this.

Below is a composite image in a classical ‘Old Masters’ style, which is a theme more traditionally suited to my strengths…

And finally we spent some time doing some movement and ‘swirly’ images. I love the golden curves of the fabric here, and its flaring wisp to my left in the composition (camera right?).


…Let me know which you like! 🙂

Some fashion-y bits from Pierus

ERWhittington 7 Comments

Hhhm. How many photos are too many for a single blog post? I always post too many (it’s definitely true that there is more impact when a viewer sees fewer shots per set), and I might even learn one day to post more selectively, but since this blog is my designated place free of such rules and limits, I shall continue to overflood the area. On the plus side, maybe it shows that I can get a lot done in one relatively short shoot… (And not that I’m just really indecisive.) Yeah, I’ll go with that.

Photography by Pierus, from a recent trip to Cambridge. Muchos appreciation to him for kindly sending these!

The last one reminds me somehow of an actor’s shot.

And since I’m here… Here are some of the nudes we did as well – nice, simple shapery with lovely fine-detail lighting: