Chakra

Libby and I met via social media during the pandemic and since day one of seeing her work I have been a huge fan. Like myself, Libby has an affinity for color and I knew we would have to collaborate at some point. I approached her back in March about a studio session and we began the process of concept-ing. I went into this collaboration with an open mind, knowing we could put our heads together and come up with something really cool. Libby had the idea of drawing inspiration from the seven chakras of meditation and I was instantly hooked.

The concept of chakra involves two things that I absolutely love; primary colors and geometric shapes. Geometry has been influential in my work and I have incorporated many shapes in different projects over the years. And of course my primary area of focus in photography is color… deep, vibrant, saturated color. So this was right up my alley. From here, Libby solidified the wardrobe and props, I brought my studio mate Chance in for HMU and I designed the lighting.

Like all my studio sessions, I like to do a proof of concept shoot weeks before the day of production to design the lighting and lensing. For this particular concept I knew I wanted to incorporate as many circles as possible. I have found that it is much easier to shoot with constant light when working with shapes and defined lines and shadows. I opted for the projector to achieve the “spotlight” and I used my actual spotlight to light the front side of the subject.

After getting the shapes dialed in with lighting, I wanted to take the circle motif further. I had two lenses in mind for this project. For the first look I wanted to produce an image that looked warped and obscure so I reached for my Minolta MC 16mm f/2.8 fish-eye and achieved some very interesting frames that had a unique perspective. For the second look I knew I had one lens in particular that produced the most beautiful circular, red flare when shot towards a point source light and that was my beloved Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4. This lens produced several images that had a beautiful array of pale red flares across the frame. All of these elements combined made for a stunning production and I am looking forward to producing more works like this in the very near future. Check out some select images below as well as some BTS frames. Thanks for reading. Cheers!