Thanks. It was taken in full daylight across a street cafe table, so the irises reflect mostly that. She was a professional volleyball player as a way to finance her studies. We did a Via Ferrata TV-documentary together in Brenta and she was the guide (I had known her almost 10 years already). The year is 2006. Besides desaturating the image and cleaning backgrounds the lipstick color (she really did not have any) is made to match her tank top.
Nice attention to detail re. the lipstick! I always preferred natural light to anything else, but obviously enough, living in th UK meant a studio was pretty much unavoidable if I wanted to work every day.
As the general mid-field decline began to hit at the end of the 70s I ended up doing more cheap stuff in the studio against white Colorama, but also more expensive stuff abroad for calendars. It was, it seems to me, an era for the two extremes of work, with the centre ground getting hit harder and harder. Some folks think it only hit us in 2007/8, but I sensed it going pear-shaped a long time before that. It was so noticeable with the younger competion: they cut ever lower: free model-girlfriend offers for fashion shoots, on and on down the hill towards today. The 80s saw stock supply overflowing in every genre you could shoot on spec. and digital soon appeared to make that even worse because not only did the main players not want more material they hadn't specifically asked for, they themseves began to feel the pinch from all quarters.
I really respect those still able to make a
good business out of photography today: we had it much simpler and pretty much knew where we stood, year to year.
Rob C
