We went into the studio to photograph James in June 2010 and I had a clear idea of the basic shot that I wanted. The camera was the Pentax K20D with SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm f/4 lens. Lighting was studio flash, unusual for me as I tend to prefer continuous lighting. I was aiming for harsh light, which is often looked at as male lighting, but I use it for female models as well as I like shadows and mystery.
I wanted to present James's strong personality and confidence, but withold the details, hence he looks at us half enveloped in darkness.
I then brought him slightly out of the shadows, first looking at the camera and then looking away.
Finally, the man in isolation eveloved from the basic shot.
This evolved via Photoshop into a study of negative space, showing the isolation of One Man against a field of black. The first version has the white keyline as most of my images do. The second does away with that, the reason being it can then be used on a black backdrop on a projector or on EPZ and place the figure in an even vaster sea of black.
I think my favourites from this are the first shot, where I knew what I wanted and just shot it straight off, and the last one where a concept evolved from the session.
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