Laura Affolter took PDNedu behind-the-scenes of a studio shoot inspired by Rembrandt’s “Bathsheba” painting, complete with a live snake named The Professor. Below she shares some of the final images from the shoot, and answers our questions about the inspiration for the shoot, how she staged the set, set up the lighting and edited the images.
All Photos © Laura Affolter
PDNedu: Tell us a little about yourself.
Laura Affolter: I am in my fourth year at Seattle University studying art history and photography. I was drawn to Seattle University (SU) because of its urban location in Capitol Hill and because of the relationship they have with The Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW), a photography institution with studios, two darkrooms and courses in photography. Although it is not affiliated with SU, photography students can take courses through PCNW and use the facilities at a discounted rate.
By the end of my freshman year, it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to attend SU anymore because of financial reasons. I really wanted to stay at SU so I started searching for ways to get financial support. I came across an arts scholarship provided by the McMillen Foundation, a local scholarship organization that supports emerging and established artists in their academic and artistic endeavors. I applied and got it. With this scholarship, I was able to continue to go to Seattle University and also attend a university for a semester in Berlin where I studied German postmodernism. This had a big influence on my own photography.
For the past eight months, I’ve been volunteering at PCNW as a darkroom assistant. I’ve been learning how to mix darkroom chemicals and maintain the darkroom. I’ve learned a lot about analog photography and have had access to developing and printing my own black and white film. I think I love shooting film over digital because of the unpredictability and tangible process it requires. There’s so much room for experimentation, plus there’s something magical about seeing images appear before your eyes in chemical baths. Though the process can be frustrating at times, I’ve learned to really enjoy it. Most recently, I’ve been teaching myself how to shoot on a twin-lens medium format camera that I was very generously loaned. I’m not great at it yet, but it’s a lot of fun to learn a new format. Next, I hope I can learn how to use a large format camera.
PDNedu: What inspired this shoot?
Affolter: My art history degree informs my photography practices. I am in my final seminar class for my art history degree and we’ve been talking about applying critical theory to art objects and movements. In the past few classes we’ve been looking at Rembrandt’s Bathsheba with a feminist and psychoanalytical approach. One of the topics we discussed was about how female models were often posed nude in historical or biblical scenes in order to be accepted in the art world, but the action of sitting nude for an artist often ruined the reputation of the model. Historically speaking, the nude/female form as a genre encourages objectification, and assumes a sort of passivity on behalf of the model/subject. Both the product of a nude painting and the process of painting a nude model is highly sexualized and constructed for the male gaze, however the nude’s (often female) own sexual agency and desires are considered taboo. This sort of hypocrisy is what inspired my shoot – that and Rembrandt’s seductive, “god-like” lighting. I often explore religious subject matter in my photography, along with sexual taboos and the erotic because I grew up in an extremely conservative, religious household.
PDNedu: How did you choose your models? (How did you find the snake?!)
Affolter: Most of my models are friends or friends of friends because they’re the ones who are willing to put up with the weird and unconventional poses I want in my photos. However, for this particular shoot, I posted on my Instagram story asking if anyone had a snake and would be open to modeling with the snake. A few people reached out to me, but nothing came out of it. Later, I saw Maddy post a video of her and her snake on Instagram and I reached out to her about potentially doing a photoshoot together.
PDNedu: What was the process for creating this set in a studio?
Affolter: Since I’m a broke college student, most of my sets are low-budget. For this set, I brought a few swaths of fabric I’ve collected. (I love using fabrics in my photoshoots to create textures.) I asked the model to bring any religious-y garb she might have. Luckily, she’s an ex-Catholic so she had quite a bit of religious paraphernalia. However, at the end of the set-making process, we only ended up using one of the dresses, a cross necklace and the snake. I didn’t want too many things distracting from the snake and the model since they’re the main focus of the images.
PDNedu: How did you work with the models during the shoot?
Affolter: I always start out a photoshoot by asking models what they are comfortable doing. I want my photoshoots to be fun for everyone involved, so it’s really important to me that my models feel comfortable and safe. Periodically throughout the shoot I check in with them to see how they’re feeling to make sure that everything feels comfortable and good. I tell them the theme of the shoot and what it is that I’m trying to go for, but I do leave a lot of decision making up to the model. The shoots that I do, including this recent one, are more like performances than staged photos. Sometimes the models really get into the role that they are performing, and that’s when the magic really happens.
PDNedu: How did you set up the lighting?
Affolter: At first, I was planning on using two strobe lights with large soft boxes to diffuse the lighting, but then I noticed that the last person who set up the studio didn’t put away the Tungsten lights they were using. I kept them up and did a couple test shots with the strobes and then some with the Tungsten lights. I ended up using a single Tungsten light shining from the left side of the set, which resulted in very dramatic, Rembrandt-style lighting. We also decided that strobe lights probably would stress out the snake, and we definitely didn’t want to do that.
PDNedu: How did you edit the images after the shoot?
Affolter: Though my digital photos aren’t heavily edited, I do try to keep a consistent workflow when I edit. I start out by importing all the digital files into Adobe Bridge, where I do an initial sorting of the images by putting the ones I immediately like into an “edit these” subfolder. I then go through those images and edit them in Photoshop. Since I shoot in raw, I’m able to do more fine-tuning, initial adjustments. For these images, I added blue because Tungsten lights lean towards a yellow/orange light spectrum. I then lowered the clarity to create a glow-y effect and lightened the overall exposure of the image. (I always underexpose my photos.) I also messed around with the curves tool in Photoshop to emphasize the Rembrandt-style lighting.
PDNedu: What is your favorite part of the final images?
Affolter: To be honest, I enjoy the process of making final images more than the final images themselves. I get bored with my final products and I’m always itching to make something new and different. If I had to pick my favorite part of the final images, it would be printing them and seeing them on paper rather than on a screen. I think that goes for both film and digital. However, most of my final images don’t make it to that stage because printing is expensive and time-consuming.
PDNedu: Did you learn anything valuable from this shoot?
Affolter: Snakes eat once every two weeks and The Professor, the reptilian model in my shoot, only likes to eat live mice.
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