Dan Matthews

Mirror Mirror

Sometimes a location crops up that's got so much potential that it dominates a whole shoot. That is what happened when I noticed these old mirror panes propped up in Eva's shed.

Straight away we could both see the potential, albeit with some need to move things around on the opposite side of the space to make room for me to get into a decent shooting spot (part of why everything was shot from the same angle).

At the time I'd recently been inspired by editorial fashion work, hence my direction to Eva to go through both traditional figure-study poses as well as more characterful ones. Combined with the recent return to shooting with film, this gave a wide spectrum of end-results, despite the unchanged lighting & setup.


What did this shoot teach me?

Firstly, it provided a dramatic comparison of film vs digital, but helped me appreciate the positives of both. For film it was the cinematic grain adding to the sense of immersion of the 'scene'. For the digital images it was an appreciation of the detail and fidelity which is available that maybe we take for granted if we've not used analogue formats for a while (or at all).

Secondly, it was the difficulty of co-ordinating a models pose in two places. I have many favourites within this set, but in only one case for me is both the pose and the reflected pose optimal, in the rest one carries the other to a degree (the film shot with arms wider, facing the mirror).

Thirdly, heels. Traditionally I've never used heels in art-nude work, but in this case it worked well, providing extra definition in the Eva's stance, but at the same time not diminishing the art-nude feel of those images more at that end of the scale.


What would I do differently?

Given the chance to shoot this again, I would revisit not moving my position. Yes it would have taken a significant amount of effort to clear more space, but I feel that there were other great shots waiting to be taken from alternative angels or closer in.


Equipment:
- Canon 6D Mk1 / Canon 300V
- Canon 35mm F2.0
- Kodak TX 400 film