The idea behind the shoot was to depict the struggle between good and evil, light and dark that a lot of people face on a day-to-day basis.
A lot of people measure themselves by the norms of what society has set in terms of how we should conduct ourselves.
When they don’t fit into that image, and the darker side comes to the surface, they blame themselves and think they are guilty of some sort of wrong, instead of rather evaluating whether the problem isn’t with society itself.
L: It also deals with the perceptions that we create about ourselves, based on what other people think. Sadly, for so many people, the way we dress, look and act is the complete opposite of what we actually are when we truly start looking into ourselves. That is where the idea of the nun’s habit with a sort of almost evil look came from, the whole contrast of how we dress, act and look versus who we actually are.
Who is the gorgeous, albeit eerily scary, model?
L:That’s Melanie Thompson. She was actually the first model that Fringe Photography officially worked with and has become a good friend of ours.
She’s a fantastic person to work with since she is very comfortable in front of the camera, is always up for any strange ideas we come up with and she always manages to grasp the exact concept we are trying to convey. She manages to bring that feeling into the shoot perfectly.
This made her the natural choice for the Mea Culpa shoot. And of course, as you mentioned, she is absolutely gorgeous!
Where was the shoot done and why did you choose that specific location?
B:We did the shoot at the Sammy Marks museum in Pretoria. They have these awesome derelict burnt out buildings on the property, as well you can book shoots there, ensuring you have the location to yourself for a couple of hours, without any interruptions. The feeling of the old buildings, the privacy and the solitary grave in the woods just made it the perfect location for us.
Your photography captures the beauty of things that most people would find strange. What draws you to the dark side?
The reality and honesty of it all. Whether society likes it or not, the alternative scene has always been here and will always be here. We love the fact that there are so many people out there who are not willing to just follow everything blindly and neatly pop into whatever box other people wants to force them into. These people that we get to work with are real, they are who they are, and they are not afraid to show it to the world. That is their reality, and that is the reality that we are trying to depict through our photographs.
How have you evolved as a photographer?
When we started off with photography, we tended to just snap away and hope something comes out afterwards. Now we both focus a lot more on the feeling of the image and what we are trying to say with it. Also, when we started working with models, it opened up an entirely new world for us. We can now use the same location, but with different models the whole look and feel of each shoot will come out differently.
Best piece of advice you ever received about photography?
“Just let it go”. It was something one of our instructors said in a course. Sometimes you need to forget about the rules around composition, lighting and all the other things, and just shoot what you feel.
Have your best shots come from planning or by accident?
We try to plan the location, props, makeup and those types of things down to the finest details. But when the time comes to do the actual shoot, we tend to rely a lot on what the model wants to do. We don’t like telling people stand there, sit like this or pull a face the whole time. We like it when the model gets into the shoot and starts doing their own thing. So I suppose you could it say it’s a bit of planning, a bit of accident and sometimes just pure luck!
Most challenging shoot you’ve ever done?
Definitely the World Goth Day party at Zeplins Rock Shack in Centurion. It was very dark in the club and we wanted to capture that feeling you get on the dance floor with the lights, the music and the way that the people move. So we couldn’t exactly walk around popping off our flashes in people’s faces. We spent most of our time sitting next to the dance floor trying to time our shots to coincide with the strobes and other lights on the dance floor. Between the two of us, we came back with about 3 000 shots, out of which about 300 were usable afterwards!
as outbuildings, and you can book shoots there. That ensures you have the location to yourself for a couple of hours without any interruptions.
The feeling of the old buildings, the privacy and the solitary grave in the woods just made it the perfect location for us.
Your photography captures the beauty of things most people would find strange. What draws you to the dark side?
L:The reality and honesty of it all. Whether society likes it or not, the alternative scene has always been here and will always be here. We love the fact that there are so many people out there who are not willing to just follow everything blindly and neatly pop into whatever box other people want to force them into.
These people that we get to work with are real, they are who they are, and they are not afraid to show it to the world. That is their reality, and that is the reality that we are trying to depict through our photographs.
How have you two evolved as photographers?
L: When we started off with photography, we tended to just snap away and hope something came out afterwards. Now we both focus a lot more on the feeling of the image and what we are trying to say with it. Also, when we started working with models, it opened up an entirely new world for us. We can now use the same location, but with different models the whole look and feel of each shoot will come out differently.
Best piece of advice you ever received about photography?
“Just let it go”. It was something one of our instructors said in a course. Sometimes you need to forget about the rules around composition, lighting and all the other things, and just shoot what you feel.
Have your best shots come from planning or by accident?
We try to plan the location, props, makeup and those types of things down to the finest details. But when the time comes to do the actual shoot, we tend to rely a lot on what the model wants to do. We don’t like telling people stand there, sit like this or pull a face the whole time. We like it when the model gets into the shoot and starts doing their own thing. So I suppose you could it say it’s a bit of planning, a bit of accident and sometimes just pure luck!
Most challenging shoot you’ve ever done?
Definitely the World Goth Day party at Zeplins Rock Shack in Centurion. It was very dark in the club and we wanted to capture that feeling you get on the dance floor with the lights, the music and the way that the people move. So we couldn’t exactly walk around popping off our flashes in people’s faces. We spent most of our time sitting next to the dance floor trying to time our shots to coincide with the strobes and other lights on the dance floor. Between the two of us, we came back with about 3 000 shots, out of which about 300 were usable afterwards!
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We love the fact that there are so many people out there who are not willing to just follow everything blindly . . .
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