Gena Rose & Graffiti

Gena approached me via a purpleport www.purpleport.com and expressed an interest in organising a shoot. Pre-shoot communications were excellent, and quickly established direction(s) she was looking to take her modelling.

She’d seen some recent shoots with Krystal and wanted to create something along similar lines. She had some locations in mind, including an abandoned police station. Despite genuine potential, further research and closer scrutiny demanded a rethink.

We eventually settled on Southend on Sea and combining beach, with more urban/alternative themes. Time, location and structure agreed, my second-shooter (Spare camera body for location work) decided to expire, without any warning. This was while doing some fetish themed work.

An expensive weekend, given my car had succumbed to a grumbling CV joint. One which had also formed a seemingly permanent union with the driveshaft. Meanting that too, needed replacing.

On Sunday, I switched to my CSC and 30mm prime lens. Great for street photography but not my first choice for photoshoots. Though attitudes are changing, models tend to be sceptical and perceive them as inferior to SLRs. Models, regardless of experience need to feel confident in a photographer’s abilities.

I was familiar with the area and had taken a drive down during the August bank holiday. Primarily to do some street photography, with a quick bit of location scouting for good measure.

Having met up, we weaved through the side streets, where it was theoretically quieter and warmed up with some headshots/portraits. In common with many town centres, street homelessness is widespread and very apparent.

Affording people dignity and respect goes a long way to averting potentially awkward/dangerous situations. However, hunger, substance misuse and poor mental health can prove a volatile mix.  

We attracted the attentions of passers-by but most people were extremely considerate. Nonetheless, although all publicity is good…We didn’t want an audience and after twenty minutes, headed to the beach.

With the tide long gone and unlikely to return for seven hours, we were forced to abandon our concept of her emerging from the water. Holiday season done, we made good use of an essentially empty beach. Gena stands 5’2 and I often shoot shorter models, while lying down, which suggests they are much taller.   

Ninety minutes in, reserves were flagging, which is not great for creativity. So, we found a suitably clean café’. Conversation flowed easily as we refuelled, relaxed and reviewed the .

Bill settled, we headed out to Westcliff-roughly a mile away, stopping at various points to shoot. This beautifully restored VW fired our imaginations, particularly Gena’s (She’d studied car mechanics).

Wanting to avoid introspection and potential confrontation, we sauntered along the side streets and to some distressed warehouse doors. The dilapidated remains of a car dealership were our last backdrop of the day but won’t be our last collaboration...