HappyComeLucky

I am absolutely thrilled to post the first part of an ongoing project for me. In this project, I am challenging myself by giving over total control to the photographer. I am working very hard at not telling them which parts of me make me uncomfortable. I am very lucky that the wonderful @exposing40 has taken the plunge for me and worked her magic with a wonderful set of pictures. Below are her words about the experience and, of course, her pictures. You can find her blog here.

Photographing Honey

Honey first suggested I photograph her back in the middle of March. I was pretty blown away, being only three weeks into my little project at the time and a complete newbie to this Twitter community. I liked the poetry of it though; Honey selecting my anonymous photo for the Sinful Sunday round-up at the end of January had given me the final little confidence boost I needed to fly solo.

A couple of days after she suggested I photograph her I spotted a reference on Twitter that gave me a clue that we didn’t just live in the same city, but the same neighbourhood. We did. Fast forward a few Saturdays and we’re holed up in a local pub and four bottles of wine later we’re wobbling down the street and I am calling her pocket-sized. How rude!

What regular followers of Honey probably won’t be surprised to hear is she is just as friendly, funny and warm in real life as she is on Twitter. I can also tell you she has the most glorious smile and wonderful laughing eyes. I have snuck one photo that shows her smile into the collection I have edited for her; whether or not that photo makes it to general viewing will be her choice.

A few days before she was coming to mine for these photographs I took myself into my garden with a G&T and my iPad and visited every post on her blog. I think it is a huge privilege to be asked to kick off a project like this and it’s a responsibility I took seriously. There is courage in allowing someone free reign to photograph you how they see fit and I wanted to honour that courage by putting thought into it.

I wrote notes, picking out themes in her photography and writing. With her photography there’s almost always a prop or focal point – from floggers to butt plugs, Lego men to carpet beaters, flowery stilettos to labels on her own body. With her writing Honey is deeply reflective, brutally honest and alternatively strong and vulnerable.

Writing this I have just this moment looked at a list of words I’d jotted down as I flicked through her blog: honest, strong, vulnerable, acceptance, warmth, reflective. I think I have used all of them in this piece without even making a conscious decision to do so but they were also words I wanted to bring to life in my photography. I wanted to bring a bit of her writing into my photography.

And I do think Honey’s new photography project echoes the courage (I know I am over-using that word) she often displays in her writing and also has the potential to trigger her own reflections on how people choose to capture her body and spirit. I wanted these first photos to be a very literal interpretation of that; stripped back, reflected and reflecting, vulnerable yet strong. I also wanted some photos that showed her in all her gorgeous, womanly glory – hence the bed shots where I blatantly consulted a favourite Bill Brandt image and shot from angles that emphasised her curves.

I hope you like these, Honey. Thank you very much for allowing me the honour of photographing you.

I hope you agree that @exposing40 has done an amazing job. I am very grateful to her.