Today I did some beauty shots and after the gal left, I started looking through the images, I realized the photos I liked the best aren't the posed typical beauty ones but the quiet moments such as quick jump on the bed or the simple twist of her back (that shot is so sexy to me) or the girl just laughing at a bad joke (yes, I tell corny jokes)
The jumping is one of my favorite thing to do with people. Jumping is such a free movement of joy. You can't help but let your true self through. I admit, I did not discover this without the help of Philippe Halsman's 1959 book called "Jump Book" which he gathered 178 celebrity jumpers from Monroe to Nixon to Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Yes, the image of Nixon jumping is burned in my brain :)
...when we look at somebody’s face, we don’t know what he thinks or feels. We don’t even know what he is like. Everybody wears an armor. Everybody hides behind a mask…. [But] in a jump the subject, in a sudden burst of energy, overcomes gravity. He cannot simultaneously control his expressions, his facial and his limb muscles. The mask falls. The real self becomes visible. One has only to snap it with the camera.
Hmmm...I think when I get home tonight from the office, I'll look through that "Jump Book" again. Perhaps in the future I should photograph myself jumping with the folks I'm photographing ? Could be interesting, yes ? !
Curious to find out more about Philippe Halsman and "jumpology" ? Read this article in Smithsonian magazine about it !
