As artist we sometimes feel like we hit a road block with our creativity. We struggle to want to create, we struggle with ideas and concepts, and sometimes it takes an unexpected situation to get the motivation you’ve been waiting for.
Justus contacted me via Instagram about collaborating together, which was at the perfect time because I was also contacted by a wardrobe stylist and I felt he would be perfect for the concept we were looking to create. Our original date we planned to shoot, we had to reschedule due to a conflict with the wardrobe stylists schedule. Sadly the same thing happened again, and me personally I’m not a fan of wasting peoples time because that is too valuable, especially when everyone has a hectic schedule. Rather than rescheduling again, since the studio was already booked, we decided to shoot without the stylist and to make due with what clothes Justus had. He told me he was down to create anything and that allowed my creativity to soar.
If you’ve seen some of my previous work, I love experimenting with long exposures and double exposures in camera so I decided to do some more exploring. You never really know what can come of it so I’m really trying to make this process as controlled as possible to where I know how the image is going to look before I click the shutter. The fun part about this shoot was I asked Justus to get free in front of the camera, and he did, and the images we created blew my mind and gave me that push I’ve been looking for within my work.
I also challenged myself because I never attempted long exposures on any other background color but black, so during this shoot I decided to push past the boundaries and limits I had initially put on myself. After creating these images I felt like I reached a breakthrough in my work and portraits and decided that I need to continue allowing my subjects to #GetFreeWithBee and that the best portraits will come of it.