There’s a second photoshoot with Iris Mae Spoonemore tucked away in this box. Iris changes outfits and there’s some more defined make-up. She’s equally more at easy and manages a smile at times. She changed the locket to a strand of pearls.
Joel, using different filmstock, starts out at the same Magnolias and then ventures out over campus. I can’t be absolutely sure that all this photography didn’t happen the same day, but it feels two days to me, hence the split.
It should be obvious that Joel has been fighting the backlighting in all the above images. except the last one where he used a flashbulb. The face is insufficiently lit to stand out in the vast majority of the images. One can correct this in printing, but dodging and burning was not Joel’s forte.
The rest of the images are all with flash, and the difference is day and night. We call this technique of flashing during daytime “fill-flash”, and this deals perfectly well with dark shadows in the face.
I do like the low perspective, andIris’s relaxed stance, in the image above. Definitely worth of print.
Iris switches into a different skirt and the photoshoot continues.
The next series with the book is a good exercise in composition, and shows how Joel tries to explore angles and poses to come up with a pleasing end result.
I like how Joel worked the material till he got a strong image, it’s a nice portrait with a commercial feel, very worthy to print.
There are 14 more images from this box to show, similar subject, different women, with a hint how Joel is expanding his horizon.
Cheers !
Finding Joel Pahl Dardis 