HARLEY WEIR!
PEOPLE LOOK MORE INTERESTING NAKED!
Harley Weir is a genius from London. Nobody else deserved more to be on our Collection 01 than she did. The brilliance with which she captures the nude body is breathtaking, be it analog or digital, she is the one who masters the medium producing such strong images but of incredible sensitivity.
For her shooting and shooting nude people is a whole magical process and not only a photograph. But of course, she knows how to please the crowd and she is aware of her skills. We had an interview with her to find out more about this photography mastermind.
KALTBLUT: You shoot lots of different people. How do you decide who to shoot?
Harley: I see amazing faces everywhere but I like to shoot people that are around me, partly due to cowardice\laziness but mostly because you get a much more intimate photograph. The more relaxed the person is the more interesting it gets, I find. Personal images are always the most beautiful, unfortunately.
KALTBLUT: We’ve noticed you shoot a lot of nature elements, such as flowers, cactus, fruit, snakes, birds etc. Is it for the sheer beauty or do you see some symbolism in them?
Harley: Flowers are very sexy, they are designed to be, they’re reproductive organs. I can’t help but be attracted to them as metaphors in that way, I find them quite funny.
Birds are something else though, I have thousands of bird pictures stashed away… I enjoy the bird watching element, looking for the different breeds creeping up and trying to shoot them (with camera not gun) before they fly away, very satisfying.
KALTBLUT: How is it working with mixed media? You paint a lot on photographs and it gives them a special and unique quality. How did this begin?
Harley: I like to work on them in the same way a re-toucher would in photoshop… I don’t see why a photograph is so different to other artistic mediums. It doesn’t have to just be a file.
KALTBLUT: How do you work with light on skin in the studio or from natural sources?
Harley: I love working with natural light…. There’s nothing like afternoon sunlight but obviously I live in London so that’s not always a regular occurrence. I experiment with anything around, house lamps, flash, hmi, tungsten whatever I can get my hands on… no method there.
KALTBLUT: How has your work evolved over the years? Do you see it changing? Is it always basically the same? What is the backbone of it?
Harley: I think it changes all the time. I love experimenting and I’m introducing digital into my work at the moment, which everyone will hate to hear but one must embrace the future! I’m not very good at it yet but I’m finding ways to make it my own.
My work will always be changing but it will always be me taking the photo so I don’t think it will ever change that much.
KALTBLUT: How is it working with nudity? Are most people willing to play along? What advantages does it offer you?
Harley: Some people become very venerable but others are totally comfortable being nude, it creates a completely different atmosphere depending on the person and my relationship to them. Then there are the ethics involved when working with another, it’s quite an odd situation to put yourself into, the power you have over the model, their willingness to offer themselves to the camera and peoples odd obsession with looking at them. Thinking about who should have the rights over the image is enough to make me feel quite guilty. Especially when you’re not working with models. I try not to think about it too much though or I couldn’t do it, best to think of it flatly- I love to look at nudes as does everyone else. People look more interesting naked and it’s always gonna be a crowd pleaser, our main ambition is to s.e.x, so any reminder and you have an audience!
Interview by Amanda M. Jansson and Emma E. K. Jones
