One of our UK favorite artists, Rebecca Litchfield, recently returned from a photography tour in Belgium. Why you may ask, because Belgium has some of the most amazing abandoned buildings in the word, and Rebecca has long relationship with old and decaying buildings. But while her previous big project – soviet ghosts – was focused on the buildings and their decay, this time she was accompanied by model Jen Brook and they produced some of the most melancholic and inspirational photos I’ve seen.
Armed with a full set of Elinchrom Quadras a Mamiya Leaf and an EL adapter (to make use of Elinchrom’s modifiers) Rebeca visited a few abandoned houses and churches and even a derelict spa. The results really show what a dedicated team of creatives can accomplish in a short amount of time if vision and preparation is there.
Being an abandoned buildings tour locations can’t be shared, but interestingly, at one location the team were not alone as another team had already started shooting in that location:
Our last stop was a derelict spa, we arrived early before the sun came up as we didn’t want to be seen entering the building, quietly we made our way to our target, this stunning entrance hall with ornate decoration throughout. We were surprised to find another group already doing a photo shoot with a model, so we went upstairs and set up in a small room out of the way and away from sight, we began with our shots upstairs.
I thought that another interesting aspect of this trip was packing. While the Quadras, Mamia and lenses fitted mostly in two bags (Lowepro Protactic 350 and Pro Roller 300 AW), bringing dresses for so many shoots has its toll:
Here are photos from that wonderful trip sprinkled with some BTS shots by Darren Smith
you can read more about Rebecca’s adventures as well as quench your thirst for lighting setups on Rebecca’s 2 part blog (#2).
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