Fairies 1

This was basically Erika's gig. She found her own model by putting an ad in a health food restaurant and the location was suggested by another of my models, Jodee.

So how did I come to capture these two bad fairies on the beach? Erika's model was Geof Waterfall who is a storyteller. The fairy costume is part of his act and as soon as I saw it I wanted to use it in an image of both of them. Erika wanted to wear the wings. Now one of Erika's pet peeves with me was her belief that I don't give enough direction to my models. It is true that I do gamble a lot of film and time looking for the spontaneous, unexpected gem. It's a calculated risk. Sometimes too an image is planned to the last detail but in this case I saw an opportunity for a comment on gender roles in that most primal setting - the water's edge.

I made the two fairy images after Erika had her shoot with Geof and all I told them was to put on the costume and stand in the water. They assumed I wanted a comic image while I reasoned that had I told them about the gender roles idea they would have become too stiff and self conscious. This image was made first.