A nice sunday afternoon… by Pierre Dal Corso
Following text and images by Pierre Dal Corso.
That was the second part of the day. The one I was waiting for.
Eva Jay. One of the few girls that stood out of the crowd. Nothing like the typical bird fallen from the nest. She was there.
First time I saw her was 6 years ago, she was walking in the middle of a lake. Literally. I was in the mud, next to her, trying to get the swans in the frame. I couldn’t get them all together at once. So Iris made me retouch the picture. I think that was the first picture I ever retouched. I had to duplicate swans. I had her face in front of me, on my screen for so many hours, I guess I felt like knowing her somehow. Like printed in my brain. Looking backwards, I did a pretty good shitty job there But bad gets into good sometimes.
This morning was boring. Not that boring of course, but not exciting. Not as it should be. Not the way I want to feel it. Everybody was there, working. I like workers. I respect that. I had to do this story for this magazine I had my first publication in. But wasn’t feeling totally right about it. Events would prove later me I was right.
I didn’t really follow her career. But saw her being on the cover of the most famous fashion magazines, being the first girl in the best shows, being shot by the most renowned photographers… and I was still feeling stuck in the mud somehow. She would always be strong, sensual, proud, playful and feminine… She was quite something! And I loved it.
I love my team as well. I trust them. I feel them being with me. I need them. I also want them to be proud of what we are doing. Doing shit is killing me. Even more when other people are involved. That’s still something I’m learning though. Not forgetting myself to please people but trying to stay true and find the right people to keep it like that.
I was ready. Ready to do what I love. She was there. She couldn’t stop moving. I couldn’t believe she was in front of me. She was playing. Playing naughty. Sending winks to Max behind his computer. Doing funny poses in front of Kamel to make him feel slightly uncomfortable. Exactly what I needed and wanted. She was perfect.
She was like a present to me, an opportunity. I was nobody and I got to shoot her. Her booker told me she needed some pictures because of a new haircut basically. I guess that’s how things are happening sometimes. It took me a few minutes to believe it. Still expecting everything to get cancelled last minute. It didn’t.
We got to shoot in this “about to be” studio. It would open 2 weeks later and the owner was kind enough to let us in for the day. Funny to find myself shooting in the middle of this organized mess. Workers had left their tools, cement bags and bricks lying around. Can’t remember if heating system was even on during the day and going to the toilets was a whole story… This surrounding brought something to the story I guess, the kind of twisted loose attitude I was looking for. It was nothing like a clean warm studio where you can easily have a coffee and a sofa to relax. This element brought us together somehow.
I had this idea of light, colour spots and flare. Something fresh, alive, innocent, almost abstract opposed to the very sensual explicit animal poses and attitudes. She was perfect to embody this character. She was very generous, sharing a lot, giving. I will always be thankful to her for that moment. Even more when doing post production. I discovered again our session. Going thru every pictures, one by one, remembering the atmosphere, the laughs and the music.
