Welcome, Graham!
I'm so pleased to see pictures from the Sinar 54LV but I'm especially interested in the raw unkempt style. In fact, did you do any edited out of defects? You didn't care to smooth the dry lines in her lips, keeping a gritty appearance. This adds to the "Truth" in this picture. We have had an interesting discussion on the so-called
"Truth in Photography" movement. Your work has that sense to it. But who knows? You might well be a driven retoucher who'll turn this photograph into a sultry vamp picture with glistening lips! Anyway, I like your series as is.
While this is obviously posed, you still have somehow maintained an aura of independence of this woman, albeit she's bare chested. We're almost asked to believe that she took a break to get away from someone or just have a smoke where perhaps smoking was not allowed. So part of the pictures interest, beyond some obvious partial nudity, is uniquely a subtle narrative. We are willing to work with this and explore possibilities since you have made no definite barrier to that.
I do have a question about "What might be important for this picture to work mechanistically" The answer might be not found in any of the color, rather diminished by it. I posit that in B&W, the shadows become more important and the picture can be written in a composition of tones. You have a wide latitude for creativity here, should this interest you, as you can assign colors to what you want or simply delete all the color information. Have you perhaps considered this alternative presentation?
Again, thanks for joining us! I hope you will look around and give your feedback on pictures that interest you or need help!
Asher
