©Kirk Tuck.
I think in the middle years of my career as a photographer what I really spent most of my work time doing was designing and contructing light. And mixing it with dark.
Sure, the rapport with a friend who dropped by for a portrait was important but the lighting was equally a priority for me then.
For this portrait of Michelle I came into the studio hours and hours before she arrived. I started by setting up my favorite canvas background far behind her. It was an era when space was cheap in Austin and I had about 60 feet from my camera position to the back wall to play with. I love the look of a background so far away that there was no way to keep it in focus. Then I'd bring in other drapes in between to play with cascading feelings of depth. I always used flag to tone down light anywhere on my subject but the face.
My goal in those days was always to light a person so my light could come into the frame from the left (from camera position) and produce a triangle of light just under the eye on the (model's) left. I don't know why I always preferred to bring my main light in from the top left of the frame but it just felt so much more comfortable to me.
My favorite expressions were the quiet ones. The contemplative moments.
We had lots of cameras back then as well. It never seemed to matter which one I used as long as it was bigger than the 35mm frame and we had the right film in stock.
But however we shot one thing was constant --- I always printed my own final prints. There was just too much creative potential in a negative not to try and coax it out onto nice paper.
I'm not sure it's a style I'm still completely comfortable with now but it's a nice starting point.
My only tip: Long, long lenses and lots of distance. It's a look I don't see often these days and it's so visually interesting...
