Eva
Muses ! Inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs, and myths that were told for centuries in ancient Greek culture.
Overtime the new concept of the muse for the artist became an entity that supports and inspires. It can be anyone, it can be anything. It’s like a well that you can keep going back to over and over and fill your cup up with art for the sake of it.
Meet Eva.
I can’t exactly remember how I found Eva, but I know it was online. We spoke a bit and decided to hang out and take some pictures. She needed some polaroids taken and I needed to practice. I had only recently gotten the profoto b10 and really wanted to see what it could do for me.
Her intelligent approach to modeling, her kind demeanor and good conversation led to a wonderful collaboration of many shoots over the last 2 years.
The first day we met I shot her with my nikon fm2, and stuck to hp5 ilford film because I knew I was going to develop them myself and I was lacking confidence in dealing with any extremely sensitive film that week.
Working with Eva gave me the opportunity to spread my wings in portraiture, to play with light, both natural and to create my own. I very quickly found a balance that worked for me.
I used a profoto b10 with a small octa to light up her face in shadow. See below for BTS shots.
There’s one thing people tend to forget - that the interaction between the muse and the artist is not one way at all, but the muse influences the artist with their aesthetics as well. Whenever I would think I have a direction I want to go towards, input from Eva would lead me somewhere new.
Eva shot with the Hasselblad 500cm - Kodak Ektar 200
I’ve always wanted to play with projections, but it’s been limited as I’ve never owned one! It’s been this haunting need to try it for myself. Lucky for me, Eva had a projector and she brought it over for us to play with one day.
I used a go pro hero 7 to make a photo timelapse of the shoot.
Now, one could assume that the muse is not only meant to inspire during time spent together. But even after she leaves, the work we would do together calls out to me and asks me to consider it, over and over.
When both of us need a boost, we meet. We eat, we talk art, cinema, plants and life. We shoot when we are moved to, and sometimes even when we aren’t I’ll do a few tests.
The best thing about our connection is that she inspires me to return to analog over and over again. I pulled out my Minolta Maxxum 5 after more than a decade of it just sitting in my cupboard, dusted it off and it’s working perfectly. I thank Eva for inspiring me to try old things as well as new.
As delicious as that black and white is, ultimately we are in tune because we are both looking to have fun through a creative mindset.
It goes to show, doing one off shoots is fun but it’s not always a deep learning experience. When you shoot the same person over and over again, you develop with them and as time passes you connect better and better. The communication only improves. I already have more images in the can with Eva, and we are always discussing attempting random things. Our collaboration is ongoing and a great source of comfort and a constant challenge as well.
I also recently started collaborating with another artist, and I asked Eva to join us for a performative experience. This project is ongoing and we have no idea where it will lead us, but I can’t help but share some works in progress.
In the meantime if you have any thoughts or questions comment below and I’ll add them to this post or respond !
