Rob C is back again

[GrahamBy]

"That reminds me of the room in Diane Arbus's 'Jewish Giant' photo."

I'm thinking it's just because a large amount of plain ceiling is visible... in the Arbus photo you obviously see the ceiling because the point of view is upward, and the Giant's head is jammed against it. It happens to also to be a plain, flat ceiling. Funny the things that trigger visual memories :-)

In fact ceilings are interesting things. Normally I don't notice them, and I'd previously lived in houses with either small rooms or high ceilings. The house I bought in Lyon is relatively young (well, same age as me) and I set about demolishing interior walls (a nice feature of French constuction is that usually only the exterior walls are load-bearing. An architect friend took one look and warned me:
"If you make the space too big, it will look like an airport terminal: ceiling too low for the size of the room."

And she was right, so I used it as an excuse to not repair the plaster after I ripped out the walls :-)

[Rob C]

Which is all very well, but also demonstrates one of the penalties of a life again without a PC lens...

I sometimes dream of an entirely open space: no internal doors, and central heating, all in white, and lots of framed pix on the walls. Then I think of the bloody cold, the heating bills and sanity returns in the form of doing nothing!

If there's one thing I miss about l'Écosse it's the central heating. Our neck of the woods had water so pure I used to do the car battery with it... here, radiators would probably explode with the cal deposits - much like a heart attack, then.

But summer is just a few weeks away.

;-)

Rob

[Rob C]

Rob C stopped posting on LuLa in December, but yesterday he came back with a very wonderful post. Rob's a retired pro who did all sorts of work with models here and there around the world. Recently he did a shoot of a very lovely young woman and posted the results at http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=101927.160. You need to scroll down the page to find the post and the link to the little book Rob posted, but here's the link: http://www.roma57.com/interrelate.html.

The young woman in the shoot isn't a model, so the problems and solutions Rob faced in getting these fine shots ought to be interesting to any amateur (or pro) working with someone who's not a professional model. I've been trying to get him to write an article for LuLa about his experience as a pro -- but especially the problems he faced with this shoot. If you think that's a good idea, pile on.

Well, Russ, against my better judgement, I've written a brief article as you suggested.

If it sees the LuLa daylight, you know the various 'whoms' to hold responsible for disappointments and brickbats!

With all this fanfare that's gone down, I think I should now take a long cruise far away from computers and the Internet...

Rob

[fredjeang2]

Rob C stopped posting on LuLa in December, but yesterday he came back with a very wonderful post. Rob's a retired pro who did all sorts of work with models here and there around the world. Recently he did a shoot of a very lovely young woman and posted the results at http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=101927.160. You need to scroll down the page to find the post and the link to the little book Rob posted, but here's the link: http://www.roma57.com/interrelate.html.

The young woman in the shoot isn't a model, so the problems and solutions Rob faced in getting these fine shots ought to be interesting to any amateur (or pro) working with someone who's not a professional model. I've been trying to get him to write an article for LuLa about his experience as a pro -- but especially the problems he faced with this shoot. If you think that's a good idea, pile on.

Hey...I like the Rob's book.
One B&W pic actually reminds a lot of a Peter Lindberg
Portrait.
Nice work.

Ps: I think professional models are only linked with
A product's sales. High-fashion ain't the same as prêt à porter
And models have to reflect that. In Prêt à porter we'd need
The "next door good looking girl", in fashion we'd need
The woman you never find on the streets. An ideal (arbitrary)
Etc...but out of commercial needs, or a particular will of
A photographer who can afford the very best, there is no reason to
Use a professional model. IMO.

But ironicaly, the master of the masters in haute couture,
(Chanel and Dior said: "he is the master of all of us")
Never matched since: Balenciaga, never used specially good
Looking women nor the very best top models.
And the guy was absolutly against ready-to-wear.
So it's fun to see that the one who was the most prestigious
And recognized to do the most perfect and sophisticated
Clothes, obsessed by perfection, did not attached much importance to the models.

[Rob C]

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the nice words re. the new girl.

Not so sure about the model philosophy, though. Specifically: I like the 500mm mirror optic, but to use it means that I'm going to be at walkie-talkie range and not a chance, on a beach with not-so-gentle zephys and waves, of making myself heard, never mind understood. So, you need a girl with experience, a girl who already has a routine - a 'thing' she can do on her own without photographer input. Then it becomes a matter of catching the bits you like... Arnaud de Rosnay was also very partial to the mirror lenses. If you look at his stuff you see he was very much with Marisa Berenson, hardly an inexperienced chick!

I also had the hellish experience of working with some local dodos; my last calendar for one of my best clients was the last one because of that: the PR guy decided to use local 'talent' instead of the London professionals that I always booked for that company (when the gig was always, previously, handled by the Marketing Director) I protested at the time, but you know what I was told? "Then you'll just have to work harder, won't you?" That is NOT an exaggeration: it's a straight quotation. I took the gig, too big not to take, and did a TMAR production. I never worked for them again... You travel that route, you pay the price for when it goes tits up. But when you know it's already sunk, you salvage what's salvageable.

Thing is, if the girl has got it - as my only muse of the 60s/70s had - then the first time you shoot is as good as it gets, and you don't need more than to trust her ever after. It isn't the normal experience, IMO!

Rob

[fredjeang2]

Hi Rob,

There is no question that pro models (and not the locals
As you point) is the way to go when professional
Assignement is involved.

Most local models are just good looking women a bit
More good looking than the average next door girl and very
Much inexperienced. Yes, there is the luck of the beginner
 But it's a bit playing with fire.
They are useless with 15cm high heels and then you have
The pudor of nudity and so on...no...too many hassles
On the corner.

There are things you can't do. Imagine for ex a James Bond
With me instead of Connery..it would not work only as a parody...lol...
Same with girls.

I would have loved to work with Betty Page.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... Imagine for ex a James Bond
With me instead of Connery...

Not that hard to imagine. Apparently, anybody these days qualifies.

[Alan Goldhammer]

There is no question that pro models (and not the locals
As you point) is the way to go when professional
Assignement is involved.

That's quite true.  A a couple of decades ago I was fortunate to be in a couple of test shots at a benefit with a well known model.  There was not much need of middle aged male models at the time so I was never going to look at this as a mid-life career change.   We did have a chance to talk a bit and it was clear that those at the top of the profession work very hard. 
 
Alan