I have been preparing and planning a new photographic project lately, one that involves a good deal of complications.

The project is going to be called something like “Woman, Movie Star, Icon”, or simply “Ten Women”. As the title suggests it is going to be about women, also that there will be ten women! Actually this is still an open ended idea in that I may see that I have twelve or twenty or thirty pieces worth showing, so it could end up, for all I know with the title “One Hundred Women”.

Anyway the idea is that each sitter will be photographed three times. The first a straight in your face head shot, mainly emphasising the eyes. The second will use classic three point lighting of the old Hollywood portraits.

The third is the most complex in that it would involve quite elaborate setting up. The “Icon” of the title is rather a loose ended base concept for a number of variations on presenting a portrait. These will be shot in close consultation with the individual sitter in order to create a character as the person sees themselves as well as my own impression of what they represent in iconic form.

For example let’s say one of the sitters has a self image or ideal image of themselves as a heroic figure, say Joan of Arc, then the idea would be to create that image in one form or another, without taking it too literally; although even a literal interpretation would not be totally ruled out.

The whole thing started when I did a very ad hoc set of nudes for a friend of mine, she wanted them to see herself through the eyes of a third person for personal reasons.

Doing this set reminded me of how beautiful nudes can be. And so I began thinking I would really like to shoot more. At the same time I had been thinking about doing a series of really hard core portraits, in the form more or less of mugshots. The third type came about because I was asked to do a set of pinups for another friend.

So in thinking about all these different forms it occurred to me that it would be a really cool project to combine all of them and make them into a single comprehensive multifaceted project, tying all these different threads into one.

I look forward to starting the ball rolling very soon. Watch this space.