Ghosts of Yesteryear...

Another piece in my "Visions" project: an ongoing exploration of fantasy; pre-Raphaelite; and Victorian classicism inspired images.

This particular image reminds me of the ghosts of women from another era...it's not exactly an attempt to recreate an old photo--but rather, to capture the *feel* of an old photo--something by Julia Margaret Cameron, or the Allen Sisters--the photographic equivalent of the work done by the Victorian classicists and pre-Raphaelites. I rather liked the slight overexposure on it--it made it feel more authentic, to me--and didn't attempt to correct that before posting.

The photograph this image came from is almost two years old--and features two of my favorite models--Becca and Stephanie--when they were just barely twelve. It was late in the afternoon, at the end of a shoot, and some of my photos were turning out skin tones that were almost completely lacking any pigment. In this shot, Stephanie in particular had such milky skin--and such haunting eyes, combined with her rounded cheeks and tiny chin--that she looked like she'd stepped right out of a Waterhouse painting. (I plan to do a themed shoot with her inspired by Waterhouse, at some point!)

Alas--I've never been able to fix the packground (plain grass) to my satisfaction...so my "Waterhouse" interpretation has never been realized...yet another reason that this final version represents "ghosts"! (My thanks to UKTara who confirmed my suspicions about other, color versions of this image, btw!)

For those of you who enjoy seeing "Before and After" images--here you go: [link]

(One nice thing about the B&A here--is that it allows me to show off my favorite color version of this image--so you can admire the beautiful skin tones--without my actually claiming it as a finished piece! )