When Bianka was about four years old, she suffered
an accident in the kitchen with a hot drink. Her left breast still shows the scars. Using a shorter focal
length lens (135mm, compared with the standard lens of the 3A which is usually around 160mm) on the Kodak, and with the
bellows extension provided for the original lens, I was able to focus much closer than the Kodaks were originally able
to. The images of Bianka's breasts are taken from about 75cm. I am interested in scarring as evidence
of the 'agonistic', and in Bianka's confidence in her scarred body as a testimony to her strength.
2. The first three images
below were taken with the 3A, having swapped the original
lens for a 105mm taken from a 6x9 folder camera. The 6x9 lens can't cover the 6x14 film I'm exposing with the 3A when the
lens to film distance is relatively short (i.e. with focus at relatively long distance ... in fact it gives full coverage
of 6x14 from about two metres). The first three images were taken from a distance of about 1 metre. Using a well-known image
by Edward Weston as a guide, I simply wanted to see how it would look in the 3A. I find the marked vignetting somehow suits
the image, and I also like the fact that it is evidence of the natural shape of a photographic image ... which is a circle,
since this is what lenses naturally project. The fourth image below, using a 3A with its original lens, came out of discussions
with the model, who did not want to show her face, and who herself suggested the similarity with the hooded head of a person
about to be hanged.
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