I had only shot and met Stephanie once before, and knew she was very tall, long and lean, so I began connecting the spikes with a long strip of cardboard and matching and blending the paint of the spikes to match the strip. I envisioned the spikes stretching the full length of her spin, hoping that the first would be at the base of her neck and the last would be at her tailbone, but without her nearby to measure it, I just fell back on my knowledge of anatomy and my memory of what her body length was.
I connected some pieces of string, which I dyed with paint, and constructed this weird sea urchin-like thing that sat on my table until the day of the shoot.
When she finally arrived and stripped down, I began applying my odd little craft object to her, tying it around her middle and making up a series of knots so it could cling to her as snug as possible without cutting off circulation (thank you, Boy Scout training!).
As happens from time to time, I was incredibly lucky, with the spikes landing exactly where I hoped they would. The apparatus fit perfectly, as if I had measured her for it every step of the way. Unfortunately, when it came time to take the photos, I really didn't have that much of an idea, but I came away with a pair of images I really liked. I also decided to save the spikes, theorizing that I might reuse them someday, or maybe I just didn't want to part with them since I'd put so much work into their creation. Not bad for a project that cost me almost nothing in materials, using what I had around the house!
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