Monday, 15 June 2009

'The Descendants' LATEST!

I must admit keeping all of my many personal projects going as well as the the day job (commercial photography) is a bit of a challenge right now.

Very recently I shot the latest set of images in 'The Descendants' series

It was a first for me as it included Helen Pankhurst, the direct descendant of Emeline Pankhurst, the founder of the Suffragettes movement.

Helen is the first woman in the series.

This is not ideal at all.

I want to feature MANY more women but they seem to be very difficult to find

If anyone has any suggestions I would be most grateful.

When a descendant walks into the room I always hold my breath, as you never know just how much of a resemblance there will be.

When I saw Helen, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

She looked very, very similar indeed.

As you can see.



I shot the image in a daylight studio without flash

1/15th sec at F4,120mm macro on my Phase One P45+

I try to use similar photographic techniques as in the original

It is real fun reflecting and blocking light with polyboards

Additive and subtractive fill

Opening and closing blinds so the light hits just the right parts of Helen and the set

Here is a short video of the shoot




Hope you find it interesting

I'm cramming my life in a bag right now, heading to Austria for a shoot which I will tell you about in a little while.....

Watch this space

21 comments:

edmond terakopian said...

I'm loving this project. You're so right; she's almost a double!

Diego Huerta said...

Really source of inspiration

Charles Verghese said...

Amazing resemblance. Showed my wife the two pictures without giving her the background of the series.

She said that the left hand picture was better. When I told her that they weren't the same...she couldn't believe it. Then I pointed out the differences. She too was amazed!!

Great going Drew...at least your efforts have great visual results. Love the attention detail.

Keep 'em coming!

Charles

Michael Hultström said...

Wonderful. At first (being lazy and just scrolling down to the pictures as I am wont to do) I thought it would be a story about restoring old pictures or something like that.

/Michael

JR said...

Nice one Drew-another excellent one for your series.
I was at Felix Dennis's garden of heroes last week where he has one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel with the chains from the Great Eastern. I thought of your brilliant photo of that-much better than his sculpture :-)

Paulo Rodrigues said...

Wow that's pretty incredible, its almost like that plot device from horror movies where someone is the spitting image of their ancestors portrait.

Unknown said...

Cheers Guys!

And thank you John

Lets do a beer and a curry soon?

Drew

JR said...

Sounds good to me :-)

Darien Chin said...

What a crazy freaky resemblance!!

Unknown said...

What an inspiring and wonderful project, thanks so much for sharing it with us.

Giles said...

I've got to say, Drew, I'm loving this project - so simple in concept, but so well executed because of it.

Helen sounds like a lovely lady and, rightly so, very proud of her heritage. She must have been delighted with the final result.

Hope you're keeping well :)

JKorn said...

This is such a cool project.

Hey, speaking of cool projects, it looks like Terry Richardson got some inspiration from one of yours:

http://models.com/feed/?p=2716

Unknown said...

Thanks Giles! Helen liked it

JKorn, I just clicked on the link you sent through...

Sigh.....

Just where do I go wrong?

Cheers

Drew

Unknown said...

Simply astounding. Great patience, great human rapport. This series should become an exhibit. Too bad I am in Canada...

--m said...

Excellent idea and execution.
Your photo is sharper but the original photographer didn't use a PhaseOne I guess :)

Kunz Family said...

Fantastic!!!!! I have to say in terms of photographic projects this is brilliant-it appeals to almost everybody. Whose interest would NOT be peaked by the concept!!??
Cheers,
Matt in Dubai

Unknown said...

Thank you Matt

I appreciate your comments

I'm trying to get a TV company interested in the project

It is proving quite difficult to convince them.....

Cheers

Drew

Mimi said...

I hope to see many many more of these. As a consummate genealogist I am fascinated with what we receive from our ancestors. Your project is AWESOME!!!!

Anonymous said...

The best one of these so far, I think!

Rachel Elizabeth Seed said...

Thought I would check out some of your work, Drew. I am so very impressed! What an incredible, vivid imagination you have. I love the Descendants series. Would look great in the Tate Modern, dontcha think?

Unknown said...

Hi Rachel,

Thank you for the compliments.I would love the series to be a major show.
I have attempted to put one on in the National Portrait Gallery in the UK but they have told me they are not interested
I find it baffling

Drew