OK – I know I’m milking this a bit (though no more than most, I’d say) but I decided to go with another glove today just because I thought I would. I realise there will be imprecations from some quarters but I don't care.....as ever!
It took me a few goes to get what I wanted here – I started off with an ‘abandoned on the floor’ shot, in a way not dissimilar to ‘strip’ (do take the time to go back and check that one out - it's well worth it) from a couple of years ago, decided that wasn’t getting me to where I wanted to be so hit on this idea. It kind of reminds me of the cover shot of Paula Yates’ seminal tome, ‘Rock Stars in their Underpants’ – a book hailed by Andy Warhol as ‘the greatest work of art in the last decade’ and I am very sorry to have to report that my copy of this wonderful, frivolous, BRILLIANT idea for a book has walked off and left me at some time in the last twenty years. Grrrrrr. Anyway, its cover did, I think from memory, have a pic of Sir Bob’s underpants hanging off the brass bedstead. I’d have done this shot on our brass bedstead if Pickfords hadn’t destroyed it when we moved.
The lighting then became essential – front lit it had nothing like the soft sensuality of this but back lit the glove receded into black nothing-ness so my trusty ‘long exposure with a bit of tungsten’ came out again and of course the warmth the tungsten gave was enough to lift the whole thing. I’m very pleased with the outcome.
Personally I reckon this is just as suggestive as yesterday’s shot, if not more so. Yesterday’s was definitely about ‘undressing’ whereas this could be about what’s gone before or what’s yet to come.
Don’t you just love that ‘what’s yet to come’ feeling about love, sex or whatever? You know – to use the words of a collaboration between two of my favourite bands, Squeeze and Elvis Costello ‘the power of persuasion is no match for anticipation….like a finger running down a seam…..’.
So, is this the delicious promise of what’s yet to come, or a reminder of something hot and spicy? Use your imagination……..either way, I reckon it's sheer good fortune.
Last year, I was shooting in the studio for the first time in ages!