The camera I used
was a Miranda
Sensomat which had
a viewfinder at the
top. I used it with
a 50mm lens and
Kodak Tri-X 400 film.
For the prints I used
standard chemicals,
paper and a very
old enlarger.My Equipment
I found a haystack
to shoot my shadow on.
Due to its curved shape,
only half my shadow
showed up ,creating
a split looking image
in camera.What I wanted to bring out with this,
was the feeling that I was completely
immersed in nature. Through the images,
I could examine my position with respect
to my surroundings. When I am in the
countryside, I feel small and almost
fragile against the immensity of nature.The Process
To get such a sharp shadow, I needed a lot
of sunshine. So, most of these images were
made in the summer months in Italy or UK.
While I made some images when I was out
shooting Animals, I realised the photographs
were better when I set out to shoot just the
self portraits.
I started the project in 2010 and as I went
along, the photographs changed. I found
that as I projected the shadows on different
surfaces, I came up with ideas where
I looked decapitated or half-eaten and so on.
The camera that I used for the series had a
viewfinder that allowed to me see my pose.
I would experiment with different positions
and surfaces until I got the best result.
With these images, the biggest challenge
I faced was getting the shadow to stand
out from the background. It is an exercise.
I had to think of a very dark, almost black
subject that had to pop out and look
distinct. Another thing I had to consider
was the surface. It couldn’t be too black,
too grey or too dark. I had to find a balanceI made this image
with the idea of my
metamorphosis into a
porcupine or a hedgehog,
because of the spikes of
the plant.Better PhotograPhy aPril 201582
on assignment