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| © Uri Golman 2012 for NUDE Magazine Styling: Anna Neretto - Hair & makeup by Louise Bruun - Assisted by Ayoe Nissen - Digital Artwork Thomas Petersen - Photographic assistant: Lorenzo Roncaglione - Models: Marie Sander @ Unique Models - Location: Natural History Museum of Denmark |
The daydreaming never stopped…
Now today, many years later, I have photographed most of
them in the wild. I have been tracking polar bears on foot in the Arctic;
photographed lions up close and have hiked in the Tien Shan Mountains in
Kyrgyzstan searching for the elusive Snow leopard. It has been, and still is, a true adventure and I love the work.
So for the WILD Project is was only natural to start at the
beginning, where all my dreams had started. I called the Natural History Museum
and spoke with a good friend there and a few weeks later I had the permission
to shoot there. I got a wonderful team together and after a talk with NUDE Magazine
we were ready for a full day of shooting in the dioramas.
For the shoot I chose to use my Phase One 645DF camera with
an IQ180 back. I have used this fantastic camera for the past 6 months and it
never ceases to amaze me. The sharpness and details of the images and the 16
bit tonal range is a real plus when it comes to create creative imagery, so it
was perfect for the job.
One of the challenges to the job was that all the dioramas are covered by a very thick layer of glass and not only that. The glass is angled in an approximate 70 degrees to the floor and is kind of scratched by the thousands of hands that have visited the museum over the years since the dioramas were build. This extra piece of thick angled glass in front of the lens gives a kind of unsharp but dreamy look, that I actually like. Normally it would be hard to focus trough a glass like that but the precision focus feature of the 645DF made the work easy and I could work like I would have done in any studio. The only problem being that the models could not hear what I said, so we had to invent a simple sign language for that.
One of the challenges to the job was that all the dioramas are covered by a very thick layer of glass and not only that. The glass is angled in an approximate 70 degrees to the floor and is kind of scratched by the thousands of hands that have visited the museum over the years since the dioramas were build. This extra piece of thick angled glass in front of the lens gives a kind of unsharp but dreamy look, that I actually like. Normally it would be hard to focus trough a glass like that but the precision focus feature of the 645DF made the work easy and I could work like I would have done in any studio. The only problem being that the models could not hear what I said, so we had to invent a simple sign language for that.
The light was a whole different aspect. I was not able to
switch of the artificial light of the dioramas but needed flash to light the
scene. The dioramas are quite small and there would only be room for one light.
I used a Broncolor Verso battery pack with a Pulso G Lamp and a large softbox,
a beauty dish and a basic reflector. All the dioramas are behind glass and I
wanted to keep the atmosphere of the old exhibitions the way they were. But by
matching the camera with Broncolor RFS transmitter I had perfect control of the
light and everything went to plan.
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| © Uri Golman 2012 for NUDE Magazine Styling: Anna Neretto - Hair & makeup by Louise Bruun - Assisted by Ayoe Nissen - Digital Artwork Thomas Petersen - Photographic assistant: Lorenzo Roncaglione - Models: Nathalie @ Unique Models - Location: Natural History Museum of Denmark |
To be photographing amongst the dioramas that had inspired
me in my childhood was an incredible experience. When photographing the musk
oxen for example I could easily imagine the fresh air from the Arctic tundra
and feel the snow beneath my feet. The model posing behind the glass made the
whole scene kind of surreal but with the outfit and styling she fitted right
in. She looked like she belonged right there coexisting with the animals. Like
she had been there all of her life and knew the tundra and the animals. The
scene suddenly looked natural and I came to think that this is how it should
be. We have forgotten that we are actually a part of nature and should treat it
as such. Maybe you think that my view is a bit on the rosy side of things but
as I stood there I started to daydream about a different world. A world where
we are closer to nature. Where we can coexist side by side with the animals
that we share this world with. It is a dream – I know that. But then again,
where would we be without dreams?
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| © Uri Golman 2012 for NUDE Magazine Styling: Anna Neretto - Hair & makeup by Louise Bruun - Assisted by Ayoe Nissen - Digital Artwork Thomas Petersen - Photographic assistant: Lorenzo Roncaglione - Models: Marie Sander @ Unique Models - Location: Natural History Museum of Denmark |
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