The Affinity

I have recently embarked on a collaborative journey with my friend and mentor, photographer, Aoife Casey. I previously worked with Aoife as a model and find we always inspire and challenge each other. Aoife is from Dublin but currently resides in Seoul, South Korea. As we haven't worked together because of the obvious geographical boundaries we decided to collaborate through social media, both taking photographs of the same concept and uploading them to a project page.The current project is called 'The Affinity', both of us will receive a concept or theme and are given a deadline to create an image based on this.




I feel we both have different yet similar styles, both with a fine art feel yet will always come up with something completely different. Aoife has always been my mentor and my inspiration so having her as a partner is strange but also exciting!
Our first theme was 'Neolithic', drawn from a hat of words we each had picked from books, articles, poems etc. I began researching this theme and found that I kept veering towards images of tombs, burials and bones. I thought the way in which these people buried their dead in the foetal position was beautiful, soft and calming. I wanted to recreate this idea, this beautiful vulnerability.
With this in mind it was time to pick my location, this was easy as I knew straight away that I wanted to go to my childhood paradise, Hook Head, Co. Wexford. I spent endless hours exploring the rocks and pools there and still find something so peaceful yet energizing about this harsh landscape. The rocks are dark and flat, moulded by rough seas, covered in fossils and sun drenched pools of water. To me it is heaven and I rarely go a year without visiting it.

The first image I called 'Burial', originally taken in black and white I added subtle colours to make the model stand out against the beautiful dark rock. 




The second image, came as a bit of an after though. My poor model Clara was freezing in the cold March wind and as we were packing up our things I decided to try a few shots for fun. She threw on her leggings and a pair of heels she had brought and we wrapped a black chiffon sheet over her shoulders. The result blew me away, the landscape, her figure in silhouette and the glimmer of gold on her head just worked perfectly and I couldn't leave it out of the project. It turned out to be a beautiful contrast to 'Burial', a strong powerful image yet still beautiful and fitting of the theme. I called this one 'Rise', representing the rise of civilisation during the neolithic period, the birth in contrast to the burial.





This image was also taken in black and white, I decided to add some colour to the rocks and make use of the beautiful contrast. I am extremely happy with both images and have already began thinking about our next theme 'Essence', deadline for which is end of March.