This month has been very slow in terms of photos.  No events.  No shoots.  Just family over from England and very hot tempratures.  But I have been working on completing my long term shoe project and wanted to share with you. 

I should mention this is a rated 16 post, mild nudity ahead.

I have also been polishing up my website, rearranging things, and updating my about page.  The website, at the time of writing,  holds

Photos 130908     Videos 76    Galleries 977

The About page now links you to different areas of the site as well as organisations I have been invovled with at some point.

Event photos now have a section for Cyprus, and an archival section.  Have a look around.

The Shoe Project began in 2009. It originally came about from an interest in floor perspectives in photos.  I experimented a little with people on an evening photo course and came up with the idea that shoes where beautiful objects when taken from the floor.  The first photos in the collection where taken at a 21st Birthday Party in 2010 that I covered for an artist that I met the year before outside The Troxy in London on Halloween.  I was there with The Urban Voodoo Machine and it is actually that night that I took my first photos at an event organised by “The Last Tuesday Society”, and on the strength of those photos, got my first residency in London with them.   Laura was sitting outside smoking with two friends at a side door entrance.  There was some talk when they saw the camera and some banter about flashlights.  To prove a point I took this photo of them in match light.

Yes only lit by matches. All three girls are actually called Laura.  A ran into them quite often after that, and that is how I was asked to this little known club in Soho for a 21st Birthday Party.  Laura, the birthday girl, had a new pair of shoes and wanted a photo of them.  I took a few more shots of that type that night, and when I got home, I loved the results.  There seemed to be an inherent mystery to the view from the floor. The plum coloured shoe is the birthday girl, on a mosiac floor at the club entrance.  The other shots are on the interesting floor leading to the bar.

As a project, I found myself able to continue the project wherever I was, wether it be at a wedding, club night, photoshoot, private party, burlesque performance, catwalk show, dance workshop, cafe, gig, or exhibition.  So opportunity was there, which takes us to method.

With a lens hood on a 50m lens, the camera sits quite nicely on the floor.  I got the hang of focusing and then slightly readjusting the frame, and at least 50% of the time the subjects where not aware.  Other shots are obviously posed, which I don’t mind, and gave greater freedom to backgrounds.

The hit rate on these photos was quite small.  In the moment, working at an event, time for extended shoe experiments was not available.  I had to shoot quickly and have some reason to be at floor level.  Often I would pretend to be tying my shoe lace, or looking through my camera bag.  Amongst friends, it wasn’t unusual to see me drop to the floor.

Although I mentioned a 50mm lens, I did use other lenses at times.  With a lens hood on a 135mm F2 Lens wide open, I managed to capture this in Picadilly Circus of a performer smoking outside.  Being further away, she didn't notice me at all.  This became a fun thing to do whilst out, try to take pictures whithout people knowing, and you have to get quite close for that.  When i inevitably got caught, I would jump up with a friendly smile and show the photo.  Never had a problem.

Here is one i caught in a cafe, without their knowledge.

This is a very interesting issue for me.  Is it important in this series to hear the story behind each photo, or is it better to let the viewer use their imagination? 

I have been playing with the idea of having a list that you can look at if you want to, and to not present them with the photos.  Some of the stories about where the photos where taken and what was going on at the time can be interesting.  In the wider collection (around 200 photos) there is one photo of an actually famous person.  Or should i keep this information to reveal at exhibitions or artist talks?  A comment would be appreciated.

I don't mind posed shots in this series either.  In many cases the only way to get a short was to interact with the person, and often you get them to move to a more interesting background.

After doing many shots that felt very similar, I started to try to catch dancers.  Quite hard to show movement.

Some photos have overly interesting backgrounds, here are some nude painted people behind dancers.

Here is another of this type.

Finally there are what I am calling legscapes, like the second photo above.

Kiss Me Deadly presents House of Burlesque and Irreverent Dance, organised by Maz Spencer, Photos by Sin Bozkurt©

Here with a few other favorites

I have also been thinking about how many of these photos stand alone, and how many would benefit from being presented together.  Like this

Possible Arrangment

So I will be working on this in the coming months.  I would love some feedback.

You can view the whole album here or you can find it in Projects.

Thanks for reading.