The view from the hovel's verandah, Winter
(six months before Erika arrived).
HAVE you noticed how many pop
songs talk about "that Summertime feeling" and the overwhelming
mood of the song is nostalgia? It is almost as though every year is
a lifetime in microcosm and Summer is your youth. Therefore every
Summer as you grow older a little piece of your youth returns to you
(perhaps a little less each year but the flavour is still there).
This year what returned
to me was a sense of adventure - those madcap escapades only the young
with their unquestioning belief in their own immortality would undertake.
The whole exercise of inviting Erika to fly from the USA to Tasmania
to be my model and apprentice for a month was an insane notion, but
it worked.
There was a strong element
of luck, I admit, in that success. When I met Erika at Hobart Airport
I already knew a lot about her from our email contact over eight months,
but when I held up that sign and she stepped out of the crowd to say
"At least you spelt my name right" I was temporarily at
a loss for words because she was more beautiful than I dared hope.
The most I could come
up with was "You're not THAT tall" (on her, six foot doesn't
look excessive). Another piece of luck was her intelligence, her sense
of humour and an emerging photographic vision of her own. Like everyone
else who met her during the visit I instantly liked her.
As we began to talk
it took about five minutes for her to reveal herself as a strongly
independent lady who was taking no shit from anyone, least of all
me. Through the miracle of email I already knew that we had similar
tastes in movies and music, and similar views politically (though
I'm afraid she will never forgive me for burning plastic bottles in
the fireplace - no garbage collection out here you see). And she liked
cats.
LEFT: Tony and
Bruce by Erika
What remained unknown was how
two people of opposite genders and different generations would live
together at very close quarters in comparative isolation for a whole
month. In retrospect I have to admit the sleeping and cooking arrangements
need improvement. The hovel is warm and cosy but small and very basic.
The entertainment budget
also needed to be larger than I anticipated. Apart from the dangers
of cabin fever a bored and surly model makes lousy images (not to
mention being no fun to live with). So we went out a fair bit and
Erika went off on her own several times with people I was reasonably
confident about. I did notice that when her new friends visited us
I became the adult of the group, to be treated with cool disdain and
monosyllabic answers to anything I said.
Erika had phone and
email contact with her US friends and family the whole time she was
with me but at least part of the brief tension between us boiled down
to Erika spending more of her money than she anticipated and me being
concerned that I wasn't getting as much in the way of film shot that
I expect I would with a model on tap.
In the end however she
was able to cram presents and souvenirs into her tiny case and still
have some cash in hand. When I collected all the negatives together
I found that the quality of my work was very high because I was not
working under the pressure of cramming as much as possible into my
usual four-hour shoot. If an idea didn't quite work we went back and
shot it again. Now back in the US she seems to be all fired up to
pursue her photography, tracking down models and organising darkroom
access for herself. If she is able to keep going I am confident she
will do well.
Erika was right; I do
miss her. For the first few days after her departure I went through
a highly sentimental period, going around the house and collecting
trophies of her period here: the weird-smelling soap she used that
did something wonderful (but I can't remember what), the herbal tea
bags, the big fluffy white towel she couldn't fit in the case, a pair
of blue socks, a packet of incense and a stack of healthy food in
the fridge.
I must admit I do feel
better in the wake of her total intransigence on the question of diet.
I think my photographic technique has benefitted from that intense
focus too (Erika's steely gaze as she asked 'why did you do it that
way?').
I would do a similar
project if the opportunity arose though I think both parties need
to make their needs and expectations clear on paper before the deal
is closed and any planes are caught.
-
Tony
Ryan
1 February, 1998
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