084 – in these shoes?

28.3x43.4 cm giclée edition of 25 on A3+

Details of alternative sizes on request

pop goes the pixel | shoe box 2 | Gallery

This represented a significant step in my image development (November 2003). There are references to comic strips and triptychs; the caption replaces the praedella. The phrase "in these shoes?" comes from the late Kirsty McCall’s song of that title. The origins of the image as three 35mm black and white film negatives are apparent at least in the granular texture. It is clear that they were shot in a studio (circa 1969) in fairly quick succession. The computer technology shows in the remnants of the whole-frame scan border; the collage would have been a drawn out affair using traditional darkroom and graphics techniques. I intend that the difficulty of standing up straight in such shoes and feeling able to pose in them should show along with some tension between photographer and reluctant model. The computer has contributed to the model’s achievement but at the same time I have exaggerated the height of the heels and the rake of the instep. So she needs all the support she can get. In the technology of the day, to achieve the colourisation while obtaining an image not subject to metamerism, it had to be printed in two passes, first the colour layer then the monochrome.