The Serious Hat

Last month Rich experienced something resembling a minor identity crisis. I blame Scott Church.

This predicament arose as a result of Scott’s London workshop, not because the workshop was bad (in fact it was most excellent) but because when he walked through the door of the Roost, he met himself, many times over. Every other photographer was in his forties, bearded, slightly overweight, wearing a black t-shirt and clutching a Canon 5D. It was like being stuck in that horror movie where there was a room of mirrors and his reflections came alive and talked to him (in the movie the reflections hacked the hero to death, but I am assured there were no axes at said workshop.) However, small wonder the poor chap returned somewhat traumatized.

Now Rich has always hated the very idea of conforming to any normal social stereotype, so an immediate makeover was mandatory. Individual STYLE had to be acquired, and pretty darn sharpish too. A new trendy man-wardrobe was acquired (no I don’t choose his clothes and I hereby disavow all responsibility for his attire), heavy on the leather jacket and tailored shirts I might add. He contemplated shaving his beard. I threatened divorce (I like my men furry, thank you) so he kind of shelved that idea, but then he decided to buy A SERIOUS HAT.

Now Rich has never worn a hat in his life (other than a bright red beanie for two months when he went through a snowboarding phase a couple of years ago, but that ended with a very wet and nasty fall, and the snowboard-plus-beanie were shelved in favour of an obsession with flying very fast, and therein lies a whole different story.) Anyhoo, back to the topic in hand. Well I am ever the supportive and devoted wife, so I put aside my reservations, and embraced The New Nude Photographer II The Sequel, remodeled, upgraded and improved for the new millennium. With The Serious Hat.

Few things define a man as clearly as a hat does. It is the most instantly noticeable thing he wears, and it emphasizes not just who someone is, but who he wants to be. It was therefore imperative that he chose the RIGHT hat. Now Rich is 6 ft 3”. He is not a small man, and any hat added several inches to his height. I suggested a fez (à la BT style) but hell would apparently freeze over before he emulated another photographer. So after several hilarious attempts, and largely because the latest Indiana Jones movie was on at the cinema, he chose a fedora. I refused to have anything to do with it (Harrison Ford is not normally my thang, too much whipping) so his Mum bought him one instead. Unfortunately she was a bit hazy on the concept of what constitutes a quality fedora, so he kinda ended up with a fedora-sorta-bush-hat instead.

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I didn’t quite know what to make of this hat thing, to be honest. Personally I’ve always found men in hats to be somewhat threatening. Freud maintained that when a man put on a hat, he was performing a phallic gesture. James Laver observed that times of extreme male dominance in history coincided with high hats for men. So was this sudden appearance of a hat just another example of Rich exerting his male dominance? After all, a hat goes on top of your brain, and it therefore emphasizes the presence of psychological power. Was this all about testosterone rather than style, and are the two mutually exclusive anyway?

Well, Rich certainly looked startlingly different in his fedora. It was a Borsalino lookalike, naturally (Harrison wore the genuine article, bien sûr, but that was outside mother's budget) and he had that distant, rugged, slightly sleazy look that comes from too much booze, women and adventuring for lost artifacts in far-flung corners of the world. Teamed with khaki trousers and a leather jacket he was a dead-ringer for Indiana Jones, so much so that all three kids took to humming the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme tune VERY LOUDLY whenever he entered the room, and we are now plotting a purchase of a bullwhip for his birthday.

Don’t you feel sorry for the poor chap? Who’d live with us eh? All he wanted to do was to look a little more individualistic, more stylish. And truth be told, he has achieved that certain level of jaunty elegance which goes with wearing a fedora. It’s taken me a while to get used to it, but I finally like it, at least I think I do. Trouble is, I’m not sure whether The Serious Hat changeth the Man, or whether the Man always was The Serious Hat underneath. Either way, it's actually kinda fun to be married to a movie hero.

And at least the models do seem to like it. Time for a new photographic series maybe…Nekkid Chix In My Serious Hat. Hmm…

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Images are of fashion model Iveta, stylishy (and patiently) modeling The Serious Hat.

Art, Attire And Austerity

An economic fashion post. No nudes either. Yikes! Grim stuff.

In case you’ve been wondering what on earth has happened to the blog this past week, I’ve been celebrating a week of economic and artistic doom and gloom. Yes indeedy, recession fever is hitting the UK pretty bad at the moment. Economic statistics are miserable, our Prime Minister is miserable, the unwashed masses are broke and miserable, and most importantly, fellow photographers and artists are universally and extremely broke and miserable.

This nationwide aura of gloom will undoubtedly be reflected in all areas of society and art. Despite the fact that photographers and artists tend to go for the Te audire no possum, musa sapientum fixa est in aure approach (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear,) nevertheless it’s inevitable that wider economic worries affect artists’ moods. The tendency at the moment is towards dark art (hurrah! My favourite!) and I suspect this sombre trend will be reflected in most areas of art, including writing, painting, photography and even in the world of high fashion and couture. So you might well be feeling colourful and summery now, but having had a peek at the winter fashion collections in Vogue, I can honestly say that doom rules. Severe cocktail dresses, tailored suits, sharp conservative attire, all in varying shades of black (with a teensy bit of white ruffles.) It’s like the catwalks have been taken over by the cast of Ally McBeal. Everyone looks like lawyers or accountants.

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Rowena acting all prim and proper for the Winter Collections

Art reflects not just current styles, but also how we feel and what is going on in society. Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute has noticed that when folks become more concerned about the state of the world, they become more conservative in their tastes. She thinks that wearing sharp and stylish black clothing makes people feel more in control, more empowered. This makes sense. As a colour, wearing black shows you are taking life (and your planet) seriously. Black is sober, practical and makes the wearer feel more intellectual. It shows society that you are sensitive to the problems in the world and that you dress accordingly.

The old adage is that if you want to know the imminent economic fate of the world, then look at fashion. Like other artists, fashion designers are the ultimate psychics. It has always been thus. Coco Chanel designed the iconic little black dress just before the 1929 economic crash, the drab punk look evolved just before the 1970’s oil crisis, and the Goth movement (ah, fond memories!) developed just before the 1980’s UK recession and property market crash.

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Genuine bona fide Goth model from the Scott Church workshop. No idea who she is, but we call her Elvira

When times get tough, people want clothes which are austere. They want dark colours and classically cut clothes that are going to last several seasons because they won’t have much dosh to throw at their wardrobe. I could be wrong, but I also think this could be a moral reaction to the last ten years of spend, spend, spend. The winter fashion this year may well precede a full-blown consumer backlash due to the proles’ growing revulsion against excess, waste, consumerism and cheap 'n' tacky Chinese imports.

Fashion design, an art-form in itself, is getting sombre on us all. It is a psychological mirror for the masses. Expect both your art and your wardrobe to be very dark indeed this Christmas.

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Hip fashion goddess, misery guts, and doom merchant to the nude blogging world

Looking on the bright side: For a boring old accountant like myself, after a lifetime of having the fashion sense and style of a hairy warthog, for the first and only time in my life this winter, I can at last realise my dreams and be a trendy fashion icon!

Hurrah! Bean counters rule the world!

Who is the Mystery Model?

This is Rich’s favourite model from the Scott Church workshop last weekend.

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Unbelievably Rich has forgotten her name (hey I thought I was the one with the memory problems?) and she left early so they couldn’t exchange contact details. So if anyone reading this knows who she is, please let us know!

Incidentally Rich has a bit of a thing about Christina Ricci, to whom our lovely mystery lady bears more than a passing resemblance, so I’m not entirely surprised he was rather taken with her. That’s polite British lingo for:

Yay! I’ve finally found a model that our dear photographer has a crush on! O.K. so it’s not much of a crush, but seriously , I was starting to worry that he’s seen so many scantily clad laydeez that he was becoming immune to the charms of beautiful women. It’s only healthy to sometimes be attracted to whom you’re photographing, you know.

What’s the point of being a photographer if beauty doesn’t move you?

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The ravishing-Christina-Ricci-lookalike-mystery-model-with-the-sultry-steamy-pout. She doesn't do nudes incidentally, so don't get your hopes up.

The Scott Church Workshop

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of going to one of Scott Church's workshops in the lovely, if rather eclectic location of 'The Roost' in London.

The Roost is an interesting location with multiple mixed up rooms, peculiar decor and mismatched furniture that reminded me more of student digs than of a location studio. Its large windows gave each room as much light as was available on what was a very overcast and cold day. Unfortunately the basement area, which was very reminiscent of an Austin Powers Set and would have produced the most interesting images, was not well lit and without a flash or tripod shooting there was out of the question.

So the basic premise of the day was to shoot using natural light and see what we could come up with. In many ways it felt more like a group shoot with minor supervision from Scott, who was always willing to lend a hand with posing of the models and general guidance.

My main reason for going was to gain some supervised experience at shooting a location with natural light. Thanks to Scott this is exactly what I got!

However, working at ASA400 (oops ISO400) f2.8 and 1/60-1/80 was pretty limiting for me and I found myself thinking too much about the camera, depth of field problems and camera shake rather than posing of the models. Having worked pretty much constantly in the studio for the last few years I did find myself wishing for some flash equipment, even if was only a simple off-camera strobe.

It was an interesting day and the models and Scott were lovely. I think though, that if I decide to start location work, I may invest in some small portable flash heads and light-weight stands. I guess it just appeals to the control freak in me.

Anyway after subsequently looking at all the images, I suddenly realised that all the photographs I shot were portraits and I prefer them all in black and white. I guess it's just how I see things nowadays.

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This is Jen.