HOME | DD

Description
My latest addition to my "Visions" project--an ongoing exploration of photography inspired by the Victorian classicism, the pre-Raphaelites, poems, fairy tales and folk tales--a portrait of "Bonnie Annie Laurie", of the old Scottish folk song:

Maxwelton's braes are bonnie,
Where early fa's the dew,
And it's there that Annie Laurie
Gave me her promise true.
Gave me her promise true,
Which ne'er forgot will be,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doon and dee.

Her brow is like the snawdrift,
Her throat is like the swan,
Her face it is the fairest,
That 'er the sun shone on.
That 'er the sun shone on.
And dark blue is her e'e,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doon and dee.

Like dew on the gowan lying,
Is the fa' o' her fairy feet,
And like winds in summer sighing,
Her voice is low and sweet.
Her voice is low and sweet,
And she's a' the world to me,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doon and dee.

This image features Ashley [link] , a young model I was recently fortunate enough to do a shoot with, wearing a fairy costume. I loved Ashley's sweet smile and while I was working on this image, I found the song "Annie Laurie" running through my mind. (I confess that I also had Annabel Lee/Virginia Poe in my head...as Ashley and Virginia are the same age...but that seemed a bit grim--so I went with the lighter interpretation. )

This image once again shows the influence of Julia Margaret Cameron in my work...as well as the direct influence of Haley Bryan [link] whose work played a key role in my finding a way to get from what I saw in my head, to what I wanted to show "on paper", when I first saw a couple of her photographs, several years ago.

Through a marvelous bit of serendipity, she discovered ME, on another site I'm on...and when I visited her sites, I realized that this was that same photographer, with a considerably larger body of work--work which leaves me breathless. This image was done a day after rediscovering her--with her images very much in my mind. (While it is in no way an attempt to copy her style--something about her artistic voice reminds me very much of my own...I just take a slightly different path to get to a similar place.)

Things like this thrill me to the very tips of my toes...and unbidden a favorite Robert Louis Stevenson quotation floats to the top of my head, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

Description
My latest addition to my "Visions" project--an ongoing exploration of photography inspired by the Victorian classicism, the pre-Raphaelites, poems, fairy tales and folk tales--a portrait of "Bonnie Annie Laurie", of the old Scottish folk song:

Maxwelton's braes are bonnie,
Where early fa's the dew,
And it's there that Annie Laurie
Gave me her promise true.
Gave me her promise true,
Which ne'er forgot will be,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doon and dee.

Her brow is like the snawdrift,
Her throat is like the swan,
Her face it is the fairest,
That 'er the sun shone on.
That 'er the sun shone on.
And dark blue is her e'e,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doon and dee.

Like dew on the gowan lying,
Is the fa' o' her fairy feet,
And like winds in summer sighing,
Her voice is low and sweet.
Her voice is low and sweet,
And she's a' the world to me,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doon and dee.

This image features Ashley [link] , a young model I was recently fortunate enough to do a shoot with, wearing a fairy costume. I loved Ashley's sweet smile and while I was working on this image, I found the song "Annie Laurie" running through my mind. (I confess that I also had Annabel Lee/Virginia Poe in my head...as Ashley and Virginia are the same age...but that seemed a bit grim--so I went with the lighter interpretation. )

This image once again shows the influence of Julia Margaret Cameron in my work...as well as the direct influence of Haley Bryan [link] whose work played a key role in my finding a way to get from what I saw in my head, to what I wanted to show "on paper", when I first saw a couple of her photographs, several years ago.

Through a marvelous bit of serendipity, she discovered ME, on another site I'm on...and when I visited her sites, I realized that this was that same photographer, with a considerably larger body of work--work which leaves me breathless. This image was done a day after rediscovering her--with her images very much in my mind. (While it is in no way an attempt to copy her style--something about her artistic voice reminds me very much of my own...I just take a slightly different path to get to a similar place.)

Things like this thrill me to the very tips of my toes...and unbidden a favorite Robert Louis Stevenson quotation floats to the top of my head, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."